Financial terms were not announced Tuesday, but as previously reported the new six-year agreement will pay the CFP and participating conferences $1.3 billion annually. An agreement in principle between the CFP and ESPN was reached weeks ago, but first the college conferences that participate in the playoff had to sign a deal to continue their partnership for another six years. That agreement and a new revenue-sharing plan was finalized last week.
ESPN says the culprit is lopsided games that weren’t played on New Year’s Day. The best television ratings for the College Football Playoff came in the first year, when Florida State and Oregon played in the Rose Bowl and Alabama and Ohio State played in the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1, 2015, and both games were competitive into the second half.
Ohio State’s 42-20 victory over Oregon on Monday averaged nearly 33.4 million viewers on ESPN with an 18.2 rating . The network said Tuesday that’s up 31% from the almost 25.6 million for Florida State’s win over Auburn last year in the final title game of the BCS era.
Ford will use the first-ever College Football Playoff to launch the advertising campaign for the redesigned F-150, but viewers won’t hear a word about how the truck’s lighter aluminum body helps improve fuel efficiency.
