‘No One Believes This,’ ‘They Are Ruining Everything’ — CFB Fans React to Report That ESPN Opposed 24-Team CFP Expansion Before $1.7B Broadcast Deal
· Yahoo Sports
ESPN reportedly wanted no part of a 24-team College Football Playoff. Now it owns the broadcast rights. Good luck selling that sequence of events to college football fans already tired of hearing about television contracts.
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A report detailing the network’s initial resistance to expansion sparked plenty of skepticism, some sarcasm, and a competing claim from a college football media member.
Fans Question ESPN’s Reported Opposition to CFP Expansion
“ESPN was reportedly against 24-team College Football Playoff,”Awful Announcing posted, sharing its coverage of reporting by The Athletic’s Chris Vannini and Ralph D. Russo.
According to that line of reporting, ESPN had concerns about losing valuable conference championship broadcasts and potentially allowing competing networks into the playoff package. Once the conferences supported expansion, retaining the rights and preserving those business relationships became priorities.
That explanation landed with a thud among several commenters.
“No one believes this,”one fan wrote.
Another went straight to the price tag. “Yes, I’m sure they unwillingly signed a $1.7 billion broadcasting agreement,”the fan replied.
The24-team expansion agreement begins with the 2027 season. ESPN’s additional payments reportedly average approximately $345 million annually over five years, totaling roughly $1.7 billion beyond its existing agreement. That is a substantial investment for a format the network reportedly had reservations about.
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Cleveland sports host Matt Fontana questioned how the sport arrived at this point. “If they didn’t want it and the majority of fans didn’t, who did…?”Fontana wrote. “Yea, they are just ruining everything,” he added.
Fontana’s question gets at the frustration surrounding the announcement. Fans are being asked to embrace another major postseason overhaul while the discussion revolves around rights fees, negotiations, and television inventory. Somewhere in that sales pitch, somebody still has to explain why the viewing experience gets better.
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Stephen Moore Challenges the Report About ESPN
Stephen Moore, a Greenville Sports Media contributor and co-host of the Kenan Corner Radio Show, directly disputed the report.
“Per multiple sources at ESPN, both current and former, this report by [Awful Announcing] is false,”Moore wrote.
Moore did not identify those sources in his post, though his claim challenges the account circulated by Awful Announcing, which attributed its reporting on ESPN’s initial opposition to Vannini and Russo.
Other reactions took the debate in different directions. “The Big12/G6 conspiracy theorists are in shambles,”one user wrote.
Another directed frustration at conference leadership. “Unbelievable, man. Crazy how 2 conference commissioners single-handedly destroyed college football as we know it,”the fan wrote.
ESPN’s announcement confirms that its expanded agreement runs through the 2031-32 season and covers a playoff growing from 11 games to 23. This season’s field remains at 12 teams.
This article originally appeared on Pro Football Network.