College football’s playoff era is about to swallow up another old tradition.
Starting next year, the ACC championship game and the rest of the Power Four title games are set to disappear as part of a new five-year, $1.7 billion media rights agreement with ESPN that also expands the College Football Playoff to 24 teams, according to multiple media reports. ESPN will remain the exclusive broadcast partner of the CFP under the deal.
The financial tradeoff is a big one. The network will be able to recover $140 million in annual broadcast rights costs by eliminating the Power Four conference championship games, while also taking on an additional $345 million on average each year for the larger playoff.
CFP executive director Rich Clark addressed the move in a statement, saying, “The promotion, storytelling and innovation ESPN brings to the CFP, college football fans and the sport in general, is second to none. We know that level of excellence will continue as we embark on this journey to a 24-team format,” CFP executive director Rich Clark said in a statement. “Like the CFP, ESPN celebrates everything that makes the sport of college football so great.”
The new setup gives FBS football a playoff structure that now mirrors FCS, with 24 teams in the bracket. The first two rounds will be hosted on-site, and the quarterfinals will shift to neutral-site New Year’s Six bowl locations.
It’s a sharp break from how the sport operated for most of its history. For decades, FBS football had no conference championship games at all.
Those title games only arrived in the 1990s or later for the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 and ACC. The SEC led the way in 1992, while the ACC didn’t add its championship game until 2005. Florida State won the first one, beating Virginia Tech 27-22, and the Seminoles have won five of their six appearances since then.
Not everyone is going to welcome the change. Critics have long worried that more playoff expansion makes the regular season feel less meaningful.
What used to be a single loss that could wreck a national title chase now looks very different, with teams carrying four losses apparently still in the mix. And with the conference title games going away, winning a league may no longer carry the same standalone weight, even if a team falls short in the CFP.
In Other News...
Florida States Final ACC Home Game Just Got More Intriguing
Florida States homecoming date with NC State already had plenty of built-in significance, and now it carries even more weight. The Seminoles will host the Wolfpack at 3:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, Nov. 21 at Doak Campbell Stadium in a game that will air on ACC Network, marking Florida States final ACC regular-season matchup in a week that also includes the universitys Seminole Heritage game and 175th anniversary celebration.
It is also a meeting of two programs in transition, with both sides led by interim head coaches after recent firings. And while Florida State is trying to close out its league slate with some stability, NC States coaching situation has taken on another layer of intrigue, with the school reportedly finalizing a deal with Philip Rivers as its next head coach. [Read more 🡒]
FSU Turns To A Familiar Name For A High-Stakes AD Hire
Florida State is expected to officially turn to a familiar face for one of the biggest decisions on campus, with Jeff Purinton set to become the Seminoles next athletic director. An FSU alumnus who once worked on the schools staff, Purinton brings a rsum that also includes time at Alabama, a stint running Arkansas States athletic department and most recently a role as executive vice president of Learfield Sports Properties.
The hire comes with real weight for a program trying to steady its leadership after Michael Alford was fired in September. Purintons background gives Florida State a candidate who knows the university from the inside while also bringing outside administrative experience, and his arrival figures to shape how the Seminoles navigate the next phase of their athletics department. [Read more 🡒]
Florida State Just Handed Its Coaching Search To A New AD
Florida States next football coach search now belongs to Jeff Purinton, the schools newly hired athletic director and a Seminole alum with experience running Arkansas States athletics department. His arrival gives the program a fresh voice at a pivotal moment, with the department also looking beyond the immediate coaching vacancy to the broader direction of the entire athletic operation.
Purintons background includes a recent role at Learfield, where he worked on SEC partnerships, a detail that could matter as Florida State continues to position itself in the middle of college football realignment talk. The hire gives the Seminoles a leader who knows the school from the inside and also brings a business-side perspective that may prove useful as the program weighs both its next coach and its place in the sports shifting landscape. [Read more 🡒]