Expanded College Football Playoff adopts 5+7 format

The College Football Playoff on Tuesday checked off one important box on its to-do list by formally approving the structure for the expanded 12-team tournament for the next two seasons.

Now comes the hard part — beginning with a 10-hour scheduled meeting Wednesday in Dallas — as stakeholders roll up their sleeves and engage in the heavy lifting on more contentious issues.

The stage is set for a potentially pivotal and dramatic day that will reveal just how unified the College Football Playoff’s Management Committee members — 10 FBS commissioners and Notre Dame Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick — are amid a time of unprecedented industry disruption and heightened urgency surrounding moving toward ratifying a lucrative media rights deal with ESPN.

The new element of urgency comes on the heels of last week’s report in The Athletic that ESPN and the College Football Playoff have agreed on terms for a six-year, $7.8 billion extension to broadcast the 12-team tournament. But before the deal is ratified, the College Football Playoff needs to reach resolution on a handful of outstanding issues, including a tournament format (done) and revenue distribution model (far from done).

As Puck’s John Ourand first reported, ESPN may become impatient while the College Football Playoff tries to get its house in order. 

While the hardest work remains, Tuesday was a swift step in the right direction. As expected, a 5+7 format will be in place for the final two years of the existing contract with ESPN. That means the five highest-ranked conference champions will join the seven highest-ranked at-large teams in the bracket.

Tuesday’s unanimous vote, held during a virtual meeting by the CFP Board of Managers – presidents and chancellors from 10 FBS conferences plus Notre Dame – represented necessary, perhaps belated progress.

Now comes a sizable challenge to solve: Who gets how many dollars?

Revenue distribution model still uncertain for CFP

In its current 12-year contract, which expires after the 2025 season, ESPN has paid the CFP an average of $470 million annually. That payout increases to at least $600 million per year because of separate contracts the network has to broadcast the Rose, Sugar and Orange bowls. 

Power Five conferences have received 80% of the distribution, with Group of Five leagues receiving 20%.

But because of a confluence of factors, nailing down a revenue distribution model for the expanded tournament is no easy task.

First, more dollars are in play. The reported six-year extension entails ESPN paying some $1.3 billion annually for the rights to the 11 games each season, with an option to sublicense some inventory. 

This year, the Big Ten expands to 18 schools and the SEC expands to 16. Because they are also likely to earn the most tournament berths, how should that be accounted for in the financial model? The two super conferences possess enormous leverage, enough leverage to throw their weight around, if they so choose, and float that a Power Two breakaway is at least a possibility.

Just how much leverage the Power Two will exert is one of the biggest questions that could be answered Wednesday. Will we see a move to create further separation between the Power Two and the Big 12/ACC?

How much revenue should Group of Five leagues receive? How strident will retiring American Athletic Conference Commissioner Mike Aresco — who loathes the industry’s use of G5 and P5 terms — be in trying to ensure his league receives a palatable share?

And, perhaps most thorny, how do you handle what remains of the Pac-12, which consists of just two schools? What voting rights should do they possess? Should they be considered a viable FBS conference?

As for the tournament’s format, a change to 5+7 looked like an inevitability for months. 

The College Football Playoff had originally agreed on a 6+6 structure, but that was before the Pac-12 as we knew it imploded. In a world without a robust Pac-12, stakeholders moved to adjust the format. They wanted the format to align with a Power Four conference world while still giving a Group of Five champions an automatic berth.

That task is done. Now, with a lucrative rights deal on the table, Wednesday will determine just how much more heavy lifting needs to be done on more complex issues.