Report: ESPN to extend College Football Playoff sublicense deal with TNT Sports, include semifinal games

ESPN is finalizing a deal with TNT Sports to extend the sublicense agreement for the College Football Playoff, Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger reported. It would give TNT the broadcast rights for CFP semifinal games in 2026, 2027 and 2028.

Last year was the first under ESPN and TNT Sports’ five-year sublicense agreement, which meant TNT carried first-round games in the newly expanded 12-team College Football Playoff. ESPN then broadcast the rest of the bracket, including the national championship.

Under the original agreement, TNT was set to broadcast two first-round games during the 2024 and 2025 seasons. The network was then preparing to add quarterfinal matchups from 2026-2028. Now, TNT will also get semifinal games during that time, according to Yahoo Sports’ report.

TNT presented two of the three College Football Playoff games on Dec. 21, 2024. Penn State’s win over SMU was the first game on the docket and averaged 6.6 million viewers, followed by Texas’ victory against Clemson, which averaged 8.9 million. Those were the two least-watched games of the first round, though it’s worth noting they went up against NFL games that same day.

Following the first-round games, ESPN exclusively carried the next three rounds of last year’s CFP. That includes the national championship, which averaged 22.1 million viewers – a decrease from the previous season’s title game under the four-team model.

ESPN handled the production of the TNT games, including the announcers in the booth. TNT still had a logo on the scorebug and the ability to broadcast on platforms such as Max.

The College Football Playoff is undergoing a major change after last season’s inaugural 12-team bracket. It will now feature a straight-seeding model with the four highest-seeded teams receiving byes to the quarterfinals. That’s a shift from last year when the four highest-ranked conference champions got first-round byes.

News of the extended deal comes amid talks of expanding the College Football Playoff. Conversations are ongoing about the future of the bracket and how many teams will make the cut in the future.

One proposal that appears to be gaining steam is a 5-plus-11 model, which features the five highest-ranked conference champions and 11 at-large teams. The SEC is indicating it has growing support for the change, while Big Ten leaders reportedly could be looking to support such a change if the SEC goes to a nine-game conference schedule. No format changes will come until 2026 at the earliest.