Conferences, Notre Dame agree to new CFP deal

All 10 FBS conferences and Notre Dame have agreed to the next College Football Playoff contract, which will begin in 2026 and bring the sport’s postseason much closer to an expected 14-team field with guarantees for conference champions, sources told ESPN on Friday.

The memorandum of understanding guarantees that the field will have at least 12 teams in 2026 and beyond, but sources indicate there is a strong preference for a 14-team field that includes the five highest-ranked conference champions and the next nine highest-ranked teams. Sources caution that the exact format is not finalized yet, and the Big Ten and SEC will have the bulk of control over that, but others will be protected by parameters that have been put in place that can’t be altered.

The commissioners and Notre Dame agreed that the conference champions from the ACC, Big Ten, SEC and Big 12 and the highest-ranked Group of 5 champion would earn playoff berths, and Notre Dame will have protections that will survive regardless of the ultimate format. With those ironclad guarantees, the other commissioners and Notre Dame leadership surrendered the bulk of the control over the format to the SEC and Big Ten as “part of the give-and-take,” according to a source.

The new CFP contract goes hand-in-hand with its expected new TV contract with ESPN. The details on that won’t be finalized until later Friday. Starting in 2026, ESPN is poised to spend an average of nearly $1.3 billion on the playoff for six seasons. The deal would include the final two years on the current CFP contract, plus a new six-year agreement for the next iteration of the playoff, sources told ESPN.

Starting in 2026, the new six-year agreement will codify the further financial separation of the expanded Big Ten and SEC from everyone else in college athletics. The Group of 5 commissioners were in a difficult position without any negotiating power but faced the alternative of being excluded from the CFP.

“It’s like the Godfather’s offer you can’t refuse,” one Group of 5 athletic director told ESPN on Thursday.

The financial distribution for the expected 14-team playoff will look radically different than its playoff predecessor. On an annual basis, for example, Big Ten and SEC schools will each be making more than $21 million, up from the nearly $5.5 million that schools in Power 5 conferences are currently being paid.

In the ACC, the schools will get more than $13 million annually, and Big 12 schools will get more than $12 million each. Notre Dame is expected to get more than $12 million as well, and sources tell ESPN there will be a financial incentive for any independent team that reaches the CFP. (There will no longer be a participation bonus for any of the other leagues — a detail that was frustrating to some leaders in the Group of 5.)

The Group of 5 schools’ annual payments will increase to just under $1.8 million from the current $1.5 million. According to multiple sources, American Athletic Conference commissioner Mike Aresco was the most outspoken critic of the plan but wasn’t able to garner enough support from other commissioners to fight it.

Sources caution that the numbers are tricky to compare, as there’s uncertainty about the fine points of expenses and distribution in the next iteration. But these figures for the annual distributions will be approximately correct.

These numbers are indicative of the changing landscape, where the money from the historic bowl relationship is now repositioned through the CFP.

That’s a different scenario for Notre Dame, which did not have a traditional bowl payout. Notre Dame leadership remains steadfast in its independent status, and believes it is well-positioned financially and with its access to the playoff now and in the future, according to sources.

Because the Big Ten and SEC have a combined 34 teams and the most CFP representatives, they have also had the most leverage in the discussions. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, who met with the conference presidents and chancellors this week, has said his conference has delivered 40% of the teams in the playoff.

That’s also the reason for the ACC’s slight edge in revenue over the Big 12, as the ACC has had eight CFP semifinalists (counting Notre Dame’s appearance in 2020 as a league member), while TCU is the only Big 12 team who will be in the Big 12 next season and has reached a CFP semifinal. Big 12 member Cincinnati earned a CFP berth in the 2020 season when it was a member of the American Athletic Conference. Oklahoma (CFP appearances in 2015, 2017-19) and Texas (2023) are joining the SEC in the upcoming season.

The vast disparity in revenue between the top and bottom has already elicited discontent and pushback from schools outside of the Big Ten and SEC. To help alleviate some of those concerns, sources said a “look-in” clause for 2028 has been added to give the commissioners and Notre Dame leadership a chance to reevaluate the contractual agreements based on how every league has performed to that point. There’s also a clause that permits that timeline to be accelerated if there is “material realignment” again.

The CFP will unveil a 12-team format for the 2024 and 2025 seasons. The format for the next two years will be five automatic qualifiers from the five highest-ranked conference champions and seven at-large bids. There’s expected to be ongoing discussion about the format for what’s expected to be a 14-team playoff.

The timeline of those crucial decisions is undetermined, as it’s not known whether college sports leaders will let one edition of the 12-team playoff play out or decide in the upcoming months.

This week’s internal Friday deadline was an unusual path forward for an organization that has historically relied on unanimity to proceed with any major changes to the CFP — not only from the 10 FBS commissioners, but also their respective presidents and chancellors who represent them on the CFP board of managers. Because there will be a new contract in 2026, though, the decisions made Friday were based on whether their desire to participate in it outweighed any perceived unfairness in the process or format.