CFP reaches compromise over revenue distribution for SMU

With a College Football Playoff meeting wrapping up in Dallas, the hometown SMU Mustangs are a topic of conversation.

Right before the national championship game in January, Yahoo’s Ross Dellenger reported SMU may be withheld the revenue distribution of $6 million from the CFP once joining the ACC this summer. Instead, they would still receive the amount as a Group of Five program, coming to around $1 million.

Things have now changed, with there being a compromised number for the Mustangs. CFP chair Bill Hancock did not reveal the exact amount SMU would receive in the future but they will earn more than if they were still members of the AAC.

“Commissioners have wrapped up their CFP meeting here in Dallas: Bill Hancock says they have reached a compromise on SMU’s P5 revenue distribution,” Dellenger said via X. “Commissioners made a recommendation to the board for SMU to receive some sort of distribution but not the full P5 amount.”

SMU is one of three programs joining the ACC, beginning with the 2024 football season. Cal and Stanford will be leaving the Pac-12, a fellow Power Five conference, for the East Coast. Based on their previous affiliation, the two California-based schools are expected to receive the full distribution.

The same was thought to be true for SMU when the school was negotiating with the ACC. Especially after four Group of Five programs made the jump into the Big 12 this past offseason.

“During negotiations to join the ACC, the school committed to the conference under the impression that it would receive the full CFP funds, according to comments made by SMU officials in August,” Dellenger said in his report back in January. “There was recent precedent of such a guarantee. In 2022, the CFP voted to distribute full Power Five payouts to new Big 12 schools UCF, Cincinnati, Houston and BYU — all of them elevating from G5 to P5.”

In addition, the ACC will not be paying out television revenue to SMU for their first nine years in the conference– making the CFP distribution all the more important for the Mustangs.

Expansion to the College Football Playoff is coming, with the 12-team format being introduced this upcoming postseason. Currently, the format will be 6+6, with six conference champions receiving automatic qualification. But with the Pac-12 fading away due to conference realignment, the current expectation is for the number to shrink to five AQs.