ESPN and the College Football Playoff have reached a 6-year, $7.8 Billion media rights extension for the expanded playoffs

[huskymedic]

Assisted access <<

-> Over the course of the contract, ESPN will have the ability to sublicense games, meaning another network or digital player could air Playoff games, but it would be at Disney-owned ESPN’s discretion.

The deal would give ESPN control over nearly all Division I college sports championships, outside of the men’s basketball tournament, which is televised by CBS, TNT and their sister networks and platforms through 2032. In early January, ESPN and the NCAA announced a new eight-year, $920 million contract that gives the network the rights to 40 championships, including the women’s basketball tournament. That extension begins in September.

The CFP’s current contract with ESPN is set to run through the 2025-26 season, and any major changes to its terms require unanimous support.<-

 

[Purple Stein]

Maybe this is a stupid question, but what/who exactly is the CFP? I see that their management committee has a member of each conference+Notre Dame at the table (which means the only teams not represented in their conversations are UConn and UMass), but I don't get WHO they are. Are they subordinate to the NCAA? Or are they their own entity distinct from the NCAA but operating in concert with the NCAA?

Regardless, it sure seems like the SEC is ready to transform the thing shortly:

"The CFP management committee, which is made up of all 10 FBS commissioners and Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick, has recommended the 5(conference champions)+7(at large) model, but the board of managers has not yet approved it.

“Well, we’ve got two more years on a 12-year cycle and then an important conversation about the future,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey told The Athletic last week. “We look at that independently. That’s not part of what we announced with the advisory group (with the Big Ten). We’re certainly interested in continuing the playoff, but there’s work to do.'"

 

[huskymedic]

Maybe this is a stupid question, but what/who exactly is the CFP? I see that their management committee has a member of each conference+Notre Dame at the table (which means the only teams not represented in their conversations are UConn and UMass), but I don't get WHO they are. Are they subordinate to the NCAA? Or are they their own entity distinct from the NCAA but operating in concert with the NCAA?

“So, who exactly is the CFP? The CFP is a Texas-based limited liability company known as CFP Administration LLC, owned by the ten Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) conferences (American Athletic, Atlantic Coast, Big Ten, Big 12, Conference USA, Mid-American, Mountain West, Pac-12, Southeastern, and Sun Belt), as well as the University of Notre Dame.[5] In essence, the CFP is a consortium of conferences that have united to oversee and control the college football playoffs.”

 

[uconntailgater]

I was hoping Fox, CBS, and NBC would have put bids in for the college football playoff.

 

[giddyup]

This whole thing is a major antitrust problem. It’s fundamentally controlling the market with zero accountability.

 

[How Sway?!]

This whole thing is a major antitrust problem. It’s fundamentally controlling the market with zero accountability.

How? It went to the open market and this was the best offer they got

 

[giddyup]

How? It went to the open market and this was the best offer they got

The schools operating together under an agreement that controls the market (ie team eligibility to compete) with no oversight. It’s anticompetitive and harms consumers.

 

[huskymedic]

 

[MilliniumPrince]

...people keep telling me ESPN is dead..,

 

[Patman]

This whole thing is a major antitrust problem. It’s fundamentally controlling the market with zero accountability.

Aren't people free to put on an alternative football championship?

 

[How Sway?!]

Yeah it's been confirmed it went to open market and this was the best bid they got.

 

[Patman]

The schools operating together under an agreement that controls the market (ie team eligibility to compete) with no oversight. It’s anticompetitive and harms consumers.

The schools freely gave their rights over.

The consumer isn't you and me. It never has been. The consumer is ESPN or other broadcasters. Weird but that's what it is. They are consuming the temporal rights of this organization called CFP. If it weren't it'd be called something else like NCAA. If the school are upset they can sue their member conferences. Either way, you are not the consumer of this product unless you feel you personally were denied a right to bid on it. If so, by all means.

 

[giddyup]

The schools freely gave their rights over.

The consumer isn't you and me. It never has been. The consumer is ESPN or other broadcasters. Weird but that's what it is. They are consuming the temporal rights of this organization called CFP. If it weren't it'd be called something else like NCAA. If the school are upset they can sue their member conferences. Either way, you are not the consumer of this product unless you feel you personally were denied a right to bid on it. If so, by all means.

No. That’s not how antitrust works. There are consumers called ticket holders. Any association that operates to whether intended or not to constrain competition by excepting market power en masse is an antitrust violation. College conferences and associations enjoy an antitrust exemption. The exemption exists precisely because it is violative of free market principles under the guise of an educational nonprofit endeavor. That assumption is tenuous at best.

 

[Patman]

No. That’s not how antitrust works. There are consumers called ticket holders. Any association that operates to whether intended or not to constrain competition by excepting market power en masse is an antitrust violation. College conferences and associations enjoy an antitrust exemption. The exemption exists precisely because it is violative of free market principles under the guise of an educational nonprofit endeavor. That assumption is tenuous at best.

Yeah. That's not how any of this works. Ticket holders only get the right to be there in person unless you think you have an action against the entity for diluting the value of your ticket on resale.

Edit: that you think you personally have any rights in this is hilarious. You personally do not

 

[Palatine]

Men's and women's basketball tournaments for 8 years, $920 million dollars. Over 1,000 games.

Football tournament for 6 years $7.8 billion dollars. 72 games.

One of these is not like the other. Am I getting through to you Mr Beale?

 

[CTFAN4LIFE]

Men's and women's basketball tournaments for 8 years, $920 million dollars. Over 1,000 games.

Football tournament for 6 years $7.8 billion dollars. 72 games.

One of these is not like the other. Am I getting through to you Mr Beale?

Isn't March Madness around a billion per year so for 8 years it'd be around 8 billion?

 

[How Sway?!]

Men's and women's basketball tournaments for 8 years, $920 million dollars. Over 1,000 games.

Football tournament for 6 years $7.8 billion dollars. 72 games.

Including the total for football and not basketball is disingenuous at best