Report: Expanding the Playoff could generate hundreds of millions of dollars in extra revenue
By Adam Spencer
Published:
The College Football Playoff is a lucrative tournament, generating hundreds of millions of dollars.
However, it could be even bigger and more lucrative if the tournament was expanded, according to an article written by AJ Maestas at MercuryNews.com.
Maestas estimated that expanding to 8 teams could generate an additional $420 million, while a 16-team tournament would generate even more:
Based on the average payout by ESPN on a per-TV-viewer basis, we estimate that an expansion to eight teams would bring in at least another $420 million per year, and expansion to 16 teams would add another $560 million annually.
That’s tens of millions of dollars in additional revenue for the conferences — and millions for the individual schools.
Combine that with the current payout for the four-team event, $467 million per year from ESPN, and the total for eight teams would be $887 million per year.
A 16-team event would generate up to $1.45 billion per year.
Obviously, that makes sense. More games should equal more money. But, would the conferences actually consider this?
Expansion has been a hot discussion lately, so we’ll see if it does eventually get expanded to 8 teams.
Adam is a daily fantasy sports (DFS) and sports betting expert. A 2012 graduate of the University of Missouri, Adam now covers all 16 SEC football teams. He is the director of DFS, evergreen and newsletter content across all Saturday Football brands.
