Sources: CFP closer to expected 14-team field

• Heather Dinich Close Heather Dinich ESPN Senior Citizen Author College football press reporter Joined ESPN.com in 2007 Graduate of Indiana

• University Pete Thamel Mar 14
• , 2024, 04:17 PM ET The College Football Playoff is on the verge of moving one important

• step better

to an expected 14-team playoff that would begin in 2026, as the 10 FBS conferences and Notre Dame are pushing to satisfy a Friday due date to accept the next agreement and notify the CFP whether they will take part in the playoff in 2026 and beyond.Multiple sources informed ESPN on Thursday that each league and Notre Dame are expected to sign a

legal arrangement by midday Friday. Beginning in 2026, the brand-new contract will codify the more financial separation of the broadened Huge 10 and SEC from everybody else in college sports. The Group of 5 commissioners have remained in a hard position without any negotiating power, however sources indicate they will not pick being omitted from the CFP.”It resembles the Godfather’s offer you can’t decline, “one Group of 5 athletic director told ESPN on Thursday.Editor’s Picks 2 Associated The financial circulation

for the anticipated 14-team playoff will look significantly different from that of its playoff predecessor.

On an annual basis, for

example, the Big Ten and SEC will be making more than$21 million per school, a number that’s up from the almost $5.5 million the Power 5 leagues are currently being paid.In the ACC, the schools will get more than $13 million every year, and the Huge 12 will get more than $12 million per school. Notre Dame is expected to get more than

$12 million as well, and sources inform ESPN there will be a monetary incentive for any independent group that reaches the CFP. (There will no longer be a participation reward for any of the other leagues– a detail that was frustrating to some leaders in the Group of 5. )The Group of 5 schools( the American, Conference USA, MAC, Mountain West and Sun Belt )revenue will increase to simply under$1.8 million from the current

$1.5 million. According to several sources, AAC commissioner Mike Aresco has been the most outspoken critic of the strategy however hasn’t been able to garner enough assistance from other commissioners to combat it.Sources caution that the numbers are tricky to compare, as there’s uncertainty about the great points of costs and distribution in the next version. But in the general ballpark, those will be

the annual distributions.It’s important to remember that these numbers are indicative of the changing landscape, where the cash from the historical bowl relationships is now rearranged through the CFP. That’s a different circumstance for Notre Dame, which did not

have a conventional bowl payout.Because the Big Ten and SEC have a combined 34 groups and the most CFP representatives, they have likewise had one of the most take advantage of in the conversations. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, who met the conference presidents and chancellors

today, has said his conference has delivered 40 %of the groups in the playoff.That’s likewise the factor for the ACC’s minor edge in revenue over the Huge 12, as the ACC has actually had 8 CFP semifinalists(counting Notre Dame’s look in 2020 as a league member), while TCU is the only Big 12 group to reach a CFP semifinal that will be

in the Big 12 next season. Huge 12 member Cincinnati made a CFP berth in the 2020 season when it was a member of the American Athletic Conference.The large disparity in revenue from leading to bottom has actually already elicited discontent and pushback from schools beyond the Big 10 and SEC. To assist ease some of those issues, sources said a”look-in”stipulation for 2028 has been added to provide the commissioners and Notre Dame management a possibility to reassess the contractual agreements based on how every league has actually performed to that point. There’s likewise a provision that permits that timeline to be sped up if there is”material adjustment “again.If the 10 FBS conferences and Notre Dame consent to progress together as anticipated, the next action will be for them to complete the long-awaited TV deal with ESPN. Beginning in 2026, ESPN is poised to invest an average of almost$1.3 billion on the playoff for 6 seasons. The offer would include the last two years on the present CFP agreement, plus a brand-new six-year contract for the next iteration of the playoff, sources informed ESPN.The CFP will reveal a 12-team format for the 2024 and 2025 seasons. The details of what’s anticipated to be a 14-team field will not be identified till after the TV deal is done.The format of how that field will shape up is still to be figured out. The format for the next 2 years will be 5 automatic qualifiers from the 5 highest-ranked conference champs and seven at-large quotes. There’s anticipated to be ongoing conversation about the format for what’s anticipated to be a 14-team playoff.The timeline of those essential decisions is undetermined, as it’s not understood whether college sports leaders will let one edition of the 12-team playoff play out or choose in the upcoming months.This week’s internal deadline was an unusual course forward for an organization that has historically counted on unanimity to proceed forward with any significant changes to the CFP– from not just the 10 FBS commissioners but also their particular presidents and chancellors who represent them on the CFP board of supervisors. Because there will be a brand-new agreement in 2026, however, choices that are being made now for the future are based upon whether their desire to participate in it exceeds

any viewed unfairness while doing so or format.