Questions are beginning to be answered about the particulars of ESPN’s impending College Football Playoff deal that will see the event expand from 12 teams to 24 next season.
One of the more pressing questions involves sublicensing. ESPN, under the terms of the 12-team deal, had sublicensed five games to TNT Sports through the next three seasons: two first-round games, two quarterfinal games, and one semifinal game. It was unclear what the fate of that deal would be with the new 24-team format set to be implemented next year.
Now, we’re getting a bit of clarity on the matter.
According to a report by Ross Dellenger in On3, ESPN will have the right to sublicense up to six of the additional 12 games created from the expanded format to another broadcaster. This batch of games includes the eight games that comprise the new first round, where teams seeded ninth through 24th will play each other, and the four new second-round games where teams seeded fifth through eighth will play winners from the first-round games.
Per the terms of ESPN’s new agreement, it can only sublicense these additional games to a single broadcaster. So the network can’t, for instance, sell three games to Fox and three games to NBC. ESPN will also have the option of expanding TNT Sports’ sublicensing agreement with some or all of the six games it is authorized to carve out.
Left unclear is how exactly the current TNT Sports sublicense agreement will shake out. Presumably, the network will retain the five games it currently has, with its pair of first-round games in the 12-team playoff “converting” into second-round games in the 24-team playoff. In essence, that would provide TNT Sports the same exact inventory it receives under the current agreement. Then the network will have an opportunity to expand into the new first round if it, and ESPN, desires. However, these details are not laid out in Dellenger’s report.
Dellenger does say there’s a “decent chance” ESPN will look to exercise its right to sublicense some of these games, characterizing the new inventory as not “particularly glamorous.”
There’s a high likelihood that some of these games are played on weekdays in the late afternoon and evening in order to fit everything into relatively separate television windows. In the first round, there’s a possibility that the CFP will even schedule a game against the NFL’s Thursday Night Football. In the second round, NFL conflict is inevitable as the league can schedule Saturday games beginning in the third weekend of December. Obviously, any inventory that conflicts with the NFL is less desirable, and thus a strong candidate to be sublicensed by ESPN.
Which networks could be interested in a sublicense are anyone’s guess. Fox would seemingly be interested considering Fox Sports CEO Eric Shanks’ public comments supporting a 24-team playoff, but Dellenger’s industry sources are skeptical that Fox would even be interested in the lesser inventory, especially if it conflicted with the NFL. By that logic, you could probably put CBS and NBC in the same boat. That leaves the streamers, who typically only want premium inventory, and TNT Sports as the remaining options.
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