$470 million College Football Playoff media rights has new contender in FOX Sports as ESPN remains dominant

The College Football Playoff may have a new bidder for its media rights.

The College Football Playoff currently airs on ESPN and has done massive business for the company. The Michigan-Alabama game brought in 27.2 million viewers, while the Texas-Washington semifinal averaged 18.4 million viewers. And after all was said and done, ESPN drew its most-watched CFP Semifinals in six years, with 22.6 million average viewers.

With the playoffs being a massive success on TV, Michael McCarthy of Front Office Sports has claimed FOX Sports is now preparing to make a massive bid for the rights of the same.

"I’m hearing that Fox Sports is weighing a “massive” bid to snatch all or parts of the College Football Playoff away from ESPN. The strategy would make sense for Fox. The network’s Big Noon Kickoff pregame show has closed the TV ratings gap against ESPN’s iconic College GameDay.

"And Fox’s gambit to place its top games in the noon Saturday window, rather than in primetime, has proven to be a brilliant programming stroke by the company’s head of strategy and analytics, Mike Mulvihill."

According to the report, FOX, along with other networks, will bid for TV rights as the CFP expands to 12 teams in 2024. In 2026, the rights to the entire package, including for the CFP National Championship, will be up for bid, which FOX will be after.

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FOX's coverage of college football

FOX has Big Noon Kickoff

FOX Sports has been a big part of college football for quite some time now.

FOX launched Big Noon Kickoff in 2019, which serves as the pre-game show for Fox College Football.

As for its TV rights, FOX primarily airs coverage of the Big Ten, Big 12, and Pac-12, and holds rights to the Big Ten and Pac-12 championship games. The broadcaster also holds rights to the Holiday Bowl.

This past season, FOX aired the likes of Colorado vs. TCU, Nebraska vs. Colorado, Penn State vs. Ohio State, Kansas State vs. Texas, Michigan vs. Penn State, and Michigan vs. Ohio State among other games.

On paper, FOX getting the rights to some college football playoff games makes a ton of sense with expansion looming. But it also appears that the broadcast company is interested in getting the National Championship.