r/CFB Jacksonville State Gamecocks 1d ago

Opinion ESPN shouldn’t have exclusive rights to the CFP.

Pretty self explanatory, they have a super monopoly on the sport having most of the games and the entirety of CFP. They’ve started to outsource games to TNT. But still controlled by ESPN. It basically forces you to have cable just to watch. I think they’ve also gotten stale as they don’t have competition to deal with for these games. I believe we need to see a rotating schedule for the CFP. I don’t mind the lesser games being thrown on TNT, as they should. But ABC/ESPN needs to not be the only ones producing it. We need to see a rotating cast from NBC, CBS, Fox, The CW. I think that would help with broadcasts and their quality.

907 Upvotes

262 comments sorted by

663

u/cougfan12345 Washington State Cougars 1d ago

ESPN was the highest bidder. If the CFP wanted to split the package up they could have and sold it to multiple media companies.

214

u/Rodgers4 Nebraska Cornhuskers 1d ago

How soon we forget when Fox handled the championship and title game. Yeesh it was bland. Was never so happy for ESPN to return.

114

u/AldermanAl Tennessee Volunteers 1d ago

The BCS games on Fox royally sucked.

54

u/Ugaalive1991 NC State Wolfpack • Georgia Bulldogs 1d ago

Only game I remember from the Fox era was Boise State-OU

7

u/HighlyRegard3D /r/CFB 1d ago

07 Sugar bowl was pretty sweet 🙂

1

u/AngelofLotuses Colorado State • William & Mary 1d ago

A better time

1

u/YoSurgeDude Oklahoma State Cowboys 4h ago

A better king. 

0

u/Separate_Plane_2967 LSU Tigers 21h ago

2007-2008 Natty was even better :)

1

u/vanillavick07 6h ago

2005-2006 season was the best there ever was

1

u/Separate_Plane_2967 LSU Tigers 6h ago

That’s a weird way to spell 2019 season

1

u/quadsimodo Michigan State Spartans 19h ago

Greatest football game of all-time

48

u/DafoeFoSho Illinois Fighting Illini • Team Meteor 1d ago

Who can forget Thom Brennaman's "If you spend 15 minutes with Tim Tebow, you'll be a better... and a drive into deep left field by Castellanos... person."

10

u/Trynaliveforjesus Washington State • Olympic JC 1d ago

I’m pretty sure he called some ACC games this year 😂

14

u/botulizard Boston College • Michigan 1d ago

He did. Among others, he called a BC game featuring Thomas Castellanos and acknowledged the meme.

15

u/Phantom1100 Alabama Crimson Tide • Team Chaos 1d ago

Both Thom and Tebow exemplify what it means to be a man of faith.

3

u/tigernike1 Illinois Fighting Illini • Citrus Bowl 1d ago

He somehow got a radio show in Cincinnati recently.

9

u/MightyKittenEmpire2 1d ago

Somehow got a show in Cincy? He and his dad are local boys who broadcast Red's games for decades. He's been a popular broadcast locally and nationally.

1

u/tigernike1 Illinois Fighting Illini • Citrus Bowl 1d ago

I know that. He also used to broadcast the Cubs briefly. He’s absolutely competent, I’m just surprised he got a job in Cincinnati where he was fired.

3

u/Rodgers4 Nebraska Cornhuskers 1d ago

It’s hard to find good broadcasters. I’m honestly surprised he’s not back in the big leagues yet despite everything.

1

u/tigernike1 Illinois Fighting Illini • Citrus Bowl 1d ago

Big time sports is broadcast by a small group of companies. Fox is out because he already worked there. Would Disney take a risk? Comcast/NBC doesn’t have enough inventory for football, same with CBS. Unfortunately that’s it for CFB, outside of CW where he works now.

3

u/Rodgers4 Nebraska Cornhuskers 1d ago

I would argue what Marv Albert did made him far more unhireable & he got back in the game at a high level. It’s hard to find competent broadcasters and Thom still probably beats most networks 3rd guy.

But I also see your point with limited slots.

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u/MrVociferous Michigan Wolverines 1d ago

Regular season games on Fox, also continue to suck.

There’s a lot of hate on ESPN for, but they do big games better than anyone else covering CFB.

2

u/mistergrime Penn State Nittany Lions 7h ago

It feels like despite the annoying things about ESPN, on a baseline level they understand and appreciate the things that make the sport fun and great. They understand the spectacle of it. Fox….clearly doesn’t. They show that they don’t over and over again.

College football feels like a property that Fox has spent a lot of money to broadcast, but there’s a more soulful element to the way that ESPN presents a game, or College Gameday. Even if it’s gotten harder to see over the years, it still exists in a way that it never will with Fox.

48

u/sebsasour Notre Dame • New Mexico 1d ago

I honestly think ESPN's top 2 crews of Fowler-Herbie and Pasch-McElroy (Greg has surprisingly turned into one of my favorite color guys in sports) stacks up pretty well to the other networks broadcasting the sport.

I have a lot of issues with their studio shows, web coverage, and I think Gameday has dropped off (Herbie is much better in the booth than on Gameday IMO), but I never mind their actual in game coverage.

There's one major caveat though, and that's the fucking 720p feeds.

21

u/shadowwingnut Paper Bag • UCLA Bruins 1d ago

Thank you for that last part. Everything about the game broadcasts is fantastic except the picture quality.

15

u/tigernike1 Illinois Fighting Illini • Citrus Bowl 1d ago

Well, the shitting on small conferences and the B1G during a game is not ideal.

9

u/Rock_man_bears_fan Miami (OH) • Nebraska 1d ago

Midweek MACtion exists because ESPN needed more time to plug the CFP

13

u/No_Firefighter8253 1d ago

Gameday stared spiraling down when they add the 2nd biggest A$$Klown @ espn…McAfee. That’s saying a lot when you already have the biggest POS mouthpiece in sports commentary AKA Stephen Assklown Smith.

1

u/Rodgers4 Nebraska Cornhuskers 1d ago

Not a fan of McAfee, but the LANK clip with him and Rece is as good of comedy as they’ve had ever.

3

u/J4ckiebrown Penn State Nittany Lions • Rose Bowl 1d ago

I thought McElroy was with Sean McDonough last year?

2

u/garciaman /r/CFB 1d ago

He was.

1

u/Cobretti86 1d ago

+1 on McElroy

1

u/AchillesShort Notre Dame Fighting Irish 1d ago

McElroy was awesome last season with all the ND playoff games. Him and McDonough were great.

7

u/UCanDoNEthing4_30sec Rutgers • Ohio State 1d ago

I honestly I can’t recall it….but I know it’s been done by FOX. ESPN has been so dominate in the zeitgeist of the CFB and CFP space they have erased my memory of when other networks had the title game.

5

u/OneUglyDude123 ETSU Buccaneers 1d ago

And nowadays I doubt ESPN could properly cover anything. They’ve had the worst NCAA tourney coverage I’ve ever watched

7

u/Rodgers4 Nebraska Cornhuskers 1d ago

That’s intentional. They don’t want to hype up and send viewers to a rival network. They’ve been that way a while. Hockey coverage used to be nothing and now they’re giving attention to pro wrestling.

1

u/burt_macklin5 Florida Gators 16h ago

Ah the Florida Gators era

19

u/J4ckiebrown Penn State Nittany Lions • Rose Bowl 1d ago

Honestly I think it was easier for the conferences to just sign off on something that was already neatly wrapped in a little bow and presented for them, not to mention letting it go to market draws out the process.

I think the rights were only on the open market between January 2024 when the exclusive negotiation window with ESPN ended and March 2024 when the new deal was announced, and by then ESPN had a leg up on the negotiating.

7

u/UNC_Samurai ECU Pirates • North Carolina Tar Heels 1d ago

It’s a shame it can’t rotate among the various networks like the Super Bowl.

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166

u/harp9r Auburn Tigers 1d ago

Well, they paid nearly $8 billion with a B for the rights through 2032, so I don’t think it’s going anywhere else anytime soon

60

u/advancedmatt California Golden Bears • UCLA Bruins 1d ago

Right, so anyone who wants to complain about it should direct their complaints at the other networks who could have outbid ESPN but chose not to.

Bidding could easily have gone higher — ESPN is paying about as much per year for the CFP as CBS and Warner are paying for March Madness, and the CFP is more valuable to TV.

63

u/LongTimesGoodTimes Iowa State Cyclones • Hateful 8 1d ago

I was only willing to go to 7.8 billion. Sorry guys

21

u/_Begin Auburn Tigers 1d ago

Cheapskate

15

u/kmurp1300 Iowa Hawkeyes 1d ago

This attitude is a perfect example of why ISU isn’t in the national championship game every year!

34

u/Tarmacked USC Trojans • Alabama Crimson Tide 1d ago edited 1d ago

The CFP is not more valuable than March madness. There still isn’t enough volume to compete

The first two rounds of March Madness are basically full blown control of the national tv market for four days and a massive amount of social media discussion in that time as well

It’s also just generally much more competitive during the initial first and second rounds with bigger headlines and national discussion points like Loyola Chicago

4

u/advancedmatt California Golden Bears • UCLA Bruins 1d ago

Look at the ratings, the numbers of TV viewers. The CFP has much larger audiences.

28

u/Solo_Wing__Pixy Ohio State • Notre Dame 1d ago

The CFP averaged 15.6 million viewers per game for 11 total games in 2025 (source: Nielsen/AP News)

March Madness averaged ~9 million viewers per game for just the first two rounds in 2025.

The CFP may get more viewers per game than March Madness, sure, but when comparing the two as total TV packages, March Madness draws significantly more total viewers due to the sheer volume of games in the tournament (67 if you’re curious with play-ins included).

That being said, I’m sure there are other considerations that go into the TV valuation of the two postseasons, even if total viewership is the most important. But I don’t think “the CFP has larger audiences” is necessarily true.

11

u/AllLinesAreStraight WashU Bears • Missouri Tigers 1d ago

sheer volume of games in the tournament (67 if you’re curious with play-ins included).

Remember, if its a single elimination tourney, the number of games is (total teams) -1. Every game eliminates 1 team and you have to eliminate all but 1.

12

u/advancedmatt California Golden Bears • UCLA Bruins 1d ago

It is not 9 million viewers per game for the first two rounds of March Madness. It is 9 million viewers per “window”, meaning that you get a total of 9 million if you add up all the viewers for the 4 games being aired simultaneously on CBS, TBS, TNT, and truTV.

CBS will get a big audience tonight because Duke basketball games in the NCAA tournament are ratings gold.

3

u/acekingoffsuit Minnesota Golden Gophers 1d ago

The CFP may get more viewers per game than March Madness, sure, but when comparing the two as total TV packages, March Madness draws significantly more total viewers due to the sheer volume of games in the tournament (67 if you’re curious with play-ins included).

Those per-game averages aren't unique viewers for each game. I would imagine there's a large chunk of the audience who watched the 3pm TruTV game on the opening Thursday watched one of the early tip offs first.

3

u/AllLinesAreStraight WashU Bears • Missouri Tigers 1d ago

To that point, i just had a 4 game multiview on all thursday amd friday. Does that count me as a viewer of each game? Cuz it very well might

1

u/sonheungwin California Golden Bears • The Axe 11h ago

Yes, it's windows and not games. But his point still stands.

1

u/acekingoffsuit Minnesota Golden Gophers 10h ago

Their point was

I don’t think “the CFP has larger audiences” is necessarily true.

A March Madness audience of 9.6 million per game across four simultaneous games supports that theory. A March Madness audience of 9.6 million for the entire window does not.

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3

u/Humble-End-2535 Clemson Tigers 1d ago

And two years of the expanded playoff earned the schools absolutely no more money. Sixteen free games for ESPN over two years and then they made money off of the subrights deal. Should have waited to expand.

1

u/mlorusso4 Ohio State • Baltimore 15h ago

I think you’re going after the wrong people. Don’t complain to the networks. From what I’ve seen they made competitive offers, but espn just barely beat them out. Complain to your AD, President, and board of regents. Figure out how to get the boosters behind you. Make the arguments that for the good of the sport, and your school especially if you’re not the sec, the rights need to be broken up

0

u/J4ckiebrown Penn State Nittany Lions • Rose Bowl 1d ago

The price could have been bidded up higher if they went with a multi partner media rights deal for the postseason like the NFL does with FOX/CBS/NBC/ESPN.

10

u/advancedmatt California Golden Bears • UCLA Bruins 1d ago

CBS and Warner (TBS) joined together to outbid ESPN for March Madness. Any two networks could have done the same for the CFP.

4

u/J4ckiebrown Penn State Nittany Lions • Rose Bowl 1d ago edited 1d ago

I think the problem is CBS is not as engaged in college football as it used to be like it still is with college basketball. WBD is slowly getting back into college football after going years of being absent since Turner dropped their TBS deals with the Big 12 and the PAC, still a long way to go. NBC is still relatively new to the scene after only being involved with ND for the last 30 years.The CW is only willing to take football rights left in the bargain bin.

That only really leaves FOX who was involved with the old BCS. In the end I think there is a better shot the ESPN vids the rights and subleases to FOX/CBS/NBC like they do now with WBD (that doesn’t eliminate the chance of a joint bid down the road).

174

u/Remote-Molasses6192 Colorado Buffaloes 1d ago edited 1d ago

The CW and “quality” in the same sentence 💔😭😂

31

u/TheNextBattalion Oklahoma Sooners • Kansas Jayhawks 1d ago

if they do Gilmore Girls themed broadcasts, I'm in!

2

u/paddiction 11h ago

It's time for Buffy the Sports Announcer

1

u/TheNextBattalion Oklahoma Sooners • Kansas Jayhawks 1h ago

Buffy the Umpire Slayer

18

u/Squirrel_Q_Esquire Ole Miss Rebels • Billable Hours 1d ago

The Ole Miss vs Wake Forest game on CW had a worse production quality than Ole Miss’ baseball streaming in 2008.

32

u/buff_001 Texas Longhorns • SEC 1d ago

there's a reason why it's always given away for free on services named like Furvee and MeeooTV on my samsung

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2

u/oh_io_94 Ohio State • College Football Playoff 1d ago

*quality

5

u/BrotherPancake Team Meteor • Vanderbilt Commodores 1d ago

*CWality

1

u/OG_Felwinter Michigan State Spartans 15h ago

Pac-2 broadcasts weren’t bad from what I saw…

-4

u/Dry-Membership3867 Jacksonville State Gamecocks 1d ago

Their NASCAR coverage has been top notch. People actually want NASCAR to put Cup on there

28

u/DillyDillySzn Arizona State Sun Devils • WashU Bears 1d ago

That happens because Fox doesn’t give 2 shits about NASCAR

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u/BeaverEnjoyer 1d ago

CW's NASCAR coverage is produced by NASCAR themselves. CW just airs it much like ESPN and F1.

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141

u/TheMetalMallard Oregon Ducks • Paper Bag 1d ago

The CW?!? 🤣🤣

74

u/r0botdevil Oregon State Beavers 1d ago

As someone whose team is pretty much exclusively broadcast on the CW, I can definitely say that you do not want your team to be broadcast on the CW...

42

u/therealwillhepburn Florida Gators • West Florida Argonauts 1d ago

Come for the Oregon State football. Stay for the Dawson’s Creek marathon. Win win.

18

u/r0botdevil Oregon State Beavers 1d ago

And if you've been searching for a way to buy boner pills the CW has you covered there, because you will see about 37 ads for Blue Chew each game!

2

u/Phantom1100 Alabama Crimson Tide • Team Chaos 1d ago

It’s convienient because I don’t have to change channels for watching reruns of the shitty later seasons of the Arrowverse

4

u/TPCC159 1d ago

Why? I like their ACC broadcasts

4

u/Doctor_McKay USF Bulls • Florida Gators 1d ago

I don't really care what it takes if we get more shots like this.

5

u/Beneficial_Present29 Arizona State • Tennessee 1d ago

NC State is probably the only team that loves the CW for the magical voodoo powers

1

u/ClaudeLemieux Michigan Wolverines • NC State Wolfpack 15h ago

It’s free, the quality is solid, and we generally win. Yeah I like the CW very much lol

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u/nerdyykidd Arizona State • Ohio State 1d ago

I think they’ve also gotten stale as they don’t have competition to deal with for these games.

They have no competition because they outbid their competition

7

u/Helicopsycheborealis Alabama Crimson Tide 23h ago

I'm not entirely sure OP knows what the fuck he's talking about. I think he's just bitching while not knowing what the fuck he's talking about.

21

u/TheNextBattalion Oklahoma Sooners • Kansas Jayhawks 1d ago

It basically forces you to have cable just to watch.

That's always been the business model with cable. You wanna watch the cool thing, you gotta pay for the channel. And since the channel comes with cable, you gotta get cable. ESPN is one of the dwindling number of (families of) channels that people will still shell out for a cable subscription just to get.

Once ESPN calculates that it would make more money from streaming directly than from going through cable, it will shift its broadcasts to streaming, and you'll only have to get that.

17

u/Magnus77 Nebraska • Concordia (NE) 1d ago

Streaming is basically new cable, but arguably worse. Every media company has their own streaming service with exclusive content, and while they're all significantly cheaper than cable, when you add them up its about the same.

They even have ads on paid streaming services now, which is exactly cable all over again.

3

u/mlorusso4 Ohio State • Baltimore 14h ago

I’d argue no matter what, streaming sports is inferior to watching on cable/broadcast. Even more of a delay, buffering, and above all, having to switch apps to watch a different game instead of just hitting last on the remote

The only benefit is there’s no limit on the amount of games that get coverage. Before espn+ (or the old days of espn3), you’d never be able to watch an FCS patriot league game in California

1

u/TheNextBattalion Oklahoma Sooners • Kansas Jayhawks 11h ago

I disagree, because I get more of what I want and less of what I don't. For instance, my house is blissfully cable-news free.

6

u/wjackson42 Georgia Bulldogs 1d ago edited 1d ago

Also to caveat this we are still in the old 2014 contract for one more year, so based on 2014 numbers, putting all the games on cable made sense. But now with cord cutters, they’re going to put more games on ABC after next year.

Also, after next year, every CFP game should be on either Max or ESPN+.

3

u/jyanc_314 Pittsburgh • Florida State 1d ago

Why on Max? The TNT games?

2

u/wjackson42 Georgia Bulldogs 1d ago

Yes

1

u/jyanc_314 Pittsburgh • Florida State 1d ago

ESPN is starting a real streaming service soon I think, wouldn't be surprised if they put the CFP on there.

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u/Asleep-Wave-2893 1d ago

Start a tv network and outbid them.

1

u/Helicopsycheborealis Alabama Crimson Tide 23h ago

No joke. Good grief, some on this board are dumb as shit.

53

u/AlmostSunnyinSeattle Michigan Wolverines 1d ago

Jfc I'm so sick of these Reddit hot takes that are bascially "Guyssss, what about Me?!?"

Bro, life ain't fair.

11

u/cooterdick Tennessee • North Carolina 1d ago

Also when they don’t actually understand the how and why of what they’re complaining about.

3

u/bamachine Alabama • Jacksonville State 1d ago

"Guyssss, what about Me?!?"

Are you Anthony Jeselnik?

9

u/RedDirtSport_ Oklahoma • Red River Shootout 1d ago

The other networks didn't want to beat ESPN. That's on the other networks

6

u/reb601 Ole Miss Rebels • Egg Bowl 1d ago

Yeah well I hate Mondays.

4

u/ItBeLikeThat19 South Carolina • Duke's Mayo Bowl 1d ago

You've needed cable for years just to watch college football. Why is this now a problem?

5

u/bradlap Michigan State Spartans 1d ago edited 1d ago

The CFP/NCAA is always going to sell its rights to the highest bidder. The only reason March Madness is on CBS is because Turner doesn’t have the programming space for four games at once (or the other way around).

ESPN is always going to pay for CFB if it can. CFB is so synonymous with the network that EA paid ESPN a ton of money for an annual license from 2006-2013. I’m even surprised that ESPN didn’t get a chunk of the Big Ten’s media rights deal.

Sure the NCAA could rotate years like the Super Bowl but ESPN is probably paying more for a near-exclusive deal. The only reason TNT is involved now is the additional early round games.

9

u/Rad-Ham 1d ago

The final game belongs on SATURDAY!!!!!!!!!!!

3

u/Admirable_Air7185 1d ago

The "other networks" would rather spend their money on pro sports and nascar.

3

u/Wonderful_Turn_3311 23h ago

And ESPN is going bankrupt right now and is in financial trouble.

3

u/OG_Felwinter Michigan State Spartans 15h ago

It basically forces you to have cable just to watch

News and live sports are basically propping up the entire cable industry right now, which is also why these media deals have gotten so large. ESPN having less of the games wouldn’t change that piece of it though.

3

u/Wise-Ebb-7514 14h ago

If you are bitching about this, wait till Amazon, Netflix, Apple TV and Peacock all bid the price up and you have to have some assortment of subscriptions to them to watch the CFP, or a majority of regular season CF and NFL. It’s coming.

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u/Mountie_in_Command 1d ago

We love the free market until we don't.

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u/HawkeyeNation Iowa Hawkeyes 1d ago

I don’t really mind. I use an OTA for gamedays. Plenty of games showing on ABC.

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u/EnwardGamerz Notre Dame • Regis (CO) 20h ago

Sports belong on OTA networks. All local colleges and universities should be on an OTA station, and all professional programs should be broadcasted on your local OTA as well.

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u/manmythmustache Verified Media 1d ago

One thing I could conceivably see a pathway for a state house to inevitable take as more games are put behind a paywall and off OTA channels, in a similar vein to the Modell Law, is requiring any stadium that's received public funding to have a percentage (if not 100%) of their games accessible OTA as an alternative option to residents in the city/county/state the stadium received the public funding from.

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u/Mottaman Rutgers Scarlet Knights 14h ago

this is how sports broadcasting works....... The NFL is the only real outlier here

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u/marcanthony2800 Buffalo Bulls 14h ago

🍅🍅🍅

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u/mixerslow Ohio State Buckeyes 1d ago

Yeah it’s a massive conflict of interest since they carry the SEC. But to be fair they have the best production and they let us have night games

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u/Ok-Soil-5133 Notre Dame Fighting Irish 1d ago

I mean if FOX, CBS, or NBC had it you could say it's a conflict of interest because they air the Big Ten

Literally every potential bidder carries regular season games because every major network carries games

4

u/BrotherPancake Team Meteor • Vanderbilt Commodores 1d ago

In what way does carrying the SEC create a conflict of interest?

1

u/AZBuckeyes12977 Ohio State Buckeyes • Arizona Wildcats 1d ago edited 1d ago

I don't think you can say that about ESPN. They still broadcast is archaic 720p resolution. Why are they still using 2001 technology?? Pretty much every Fox game is in 1080p HDR upscaled to 4k. ABC/ESPN is 720p SDR.

4

u/Dry-Membership3867 Jacksonville State Gamecocks 1d ago

That’s better than my local ABC affiliate broadcasting at 480p

2

u/AZBuckeyes12977 Ohio State Buckeyes • Arizona Wildcats 1d ago

That shouldn't even be legal in 2025. It shouldn't have been legal in 2005!!!

1

u/Dry-Membership3867 Jacksonville State Gamecocks 1d ago

Yep, it’s because of the fact it’s a subchannel of the MyNetworkTv affiliate. Not joking either

2

u/piddydb Hateful 8 • Team Chaos 1d ago

When people say “the colleges only care about the money,” my biggest rebuff is that they aren’t even making great money decisions. This is an example. The NFL smartly gets and keeps all networks involved in their playoff process. It might mean less money in a current contract, but more money for the sport in the long term because networks in the future don’t just write off the sport. Plus, they make sure to try to keep all their playoff games on free tv to keep fan engagement as high as possible. The college administrators in general do not have this much business background to think beyond today’s dollar figure, and so just take today’s highest bid, limiting their ability to grow on that in the future.

3

u/AgreeablePosition596 1d ago

It blows my mind that the NFL can demonstrate how important being on network television is for decades, and yet every other league continues to sell their soul to cable tv packages.

And yes, I know the NFL has a few games not on network television now, but the vast majority of their games are still on network channels.

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u/Squirrel_Q_Esquire Ole Miss Rebels • Billable Hours 1d ago

Because colleges don’t want regional broadcasts, they’re trying to get national audiences. Sure “the NFL” is on broadcast, but you’re only getting 1 out of 3-6 during that time slot, and the NFL is fine with that because that’s largely how the fanbases split up.

But if the NFL was trying to get every game available everywhere, they’d have to put a bunch of games on cable channels, and would have ratings plummet since the eyeballs would be split across 6-7 channels rather than 3.

2

u/SwampChomp_ Florida Gators 1d ago

Ya but the games on networks are region locked 

1

u/sebsasour Notre Dame • New Mexico 1d ago

At the same time as a fan who lives thousands of miles from his favorite team, The NFL TV situation can kinda blow.

I live in the Cowboys footprint, and I'll never forget about a dozen years ago having my Packers play a must win Week 17 game against The Bears in Fox's National Joe Buck-Troy Aikman game of the week.

BUt I didn't get that game on my Fox Affiliate. I got a dead rubber game between a Cowboys team that was already eliminated, and a Eagles team who had already clinched the east

2

u/Phantom1100 Alabama Crimson Tide • Team Chaos 1d ago

Yeah it’s annoying as hell I have to use a vpn I setup on my parent’s router (they live in region) to watch NFL games.

1

u/jparkhill 1d ago

Oddly I think the CFB does multiple games right. Instead of windows all games are national. And if there is a blow out on ESPN.... ABC is there.

NFL needs more Sunday afternoon game access.

3

u/dawgfan19881 Georgia Bulldogs 1d ago

Imagine thinking that’s how it works.

5

u/OddSatisfaction5989 Auburn Tigers • Texas Longhorns 1d ago

lol whos not using youtube tv or another streaming service at this point. Nobody under 40 actually watches cable.

18

u/Luka-Step-Back 1d ago

YouTubeTV is effectively cable with a different delivery system.

1

u/_Begin Auburn Tigers 1d ago

You get way more features and flexibility with YoutubeTV

1

u/Luka-Step-Back 1d ago

Sure, but it’s just better cable.

1

u/Phantom1100 Alabama Crimson Tide • Team Chaos 1d ago

Yeah I mean hell the cheapest way to use Xfinity and Spectrum if you pay for it is using their smart tv app anyway. Actual cable boxes and paying motnhly leases are kinda dumb when you can get an Apple TV or Nvidia Shield.

1

u/Dry-Membership3867 Jacksonville State Gamecocks 1d ago

This, Spectrum has a plan that’s basically YouTube TV, but without locals. It’s $40 a month instead of $82

1

u/Phantom1100 Alabama Crimson Tide • Team Chaos 1d ago

Yeah and you can probably bundle it with Internet if they are the ISP in your area.

1

u/Dry-Membership3867 Jacksonville State Gamecocks 1d ago

They are the monopoly in my area

1

u/EnwardGamerz Notre Dame • Regis (CO) 20h ago

Under 40 and still have cable. Granted, I use my antenna and my "watch anywhere" cable features way more than I actually use my cable subscription.

2

u/e2heity Notre Dame Fighting Irish • Temple Owls 1d ago

I do find it kinda cool that ND had a home game not on NBC though

2

u/Cyborg_hawking Penn State • Notre Dame 1d ago

CW and college football makes absolutely no sense. FOX is also just not good when it comes to broadcasting sports. They are the second biggest, but they can't hold a candle to ESPN

1

u/EnwardGamerz Notre Dame • Regis (CO) 20h ago

CW and college football makes absolutely no sense.

Counterpoint, sports absolutely make sense on OTA channels. With The CW being OTA, football on The CW makes sense

2

u/Diesel07012012 Penn State • Syracuse 1d ago

As is the case related to all media. If you don’t like it, don’t engage.

2

u/jafgators /r/CFB 1d ago

Could you imagine if a single network held the rights to all of March madness games over the last 20 years??

Oh wait they do and it's been just fine.

2

u/sebsasour Notre Dame • New Mexico 1d ago edited 1d ago

CBS and Turner actually split the rights FWIW. CBS stopped having exclusive rights about 15 years ago.

It sucked when it was exclusive to CBS, because you couldn't watch every game

2

u/TheBimpo Eastern Michigan • Michigan 1d ago

What, you want to have pay for more networks and streaming services to watch games? The NFL seems to be going this way, how many different networks are they on now, seven or eight?

2

u/FlickerOfBean Oklahoma Sooners 1d ago

Welcome to capitalism. Things cost money.

1

u/toomuchfrosting Cincinnati • Ohio State 1d ago

Desperately need FOX in the mix, they should have exclusive rights to the BIG

1

u/CuriousLabrador25 1d ago

It would be nice to just have the rotation of the traditional broadcast networks ABC, CBS, and NBC have the rotation of coverage or at least have each network cover one portion of games on the bracket, and then rotate who broadcasts the National Championship game. Fox’s coverage of college football is nowhere near as good as its NFL coverage.

As for radio, Westwood One for the national broadcast and then the teams radio network with all their affiliates airing their team’s broadcast and not forced to air the national broadcast.

1

u/No_Firefighter8253 1d ago

Yeah, hand over college football to the sec network….LOL

1

u/Old-butt-new USC Trojans • ECU Pirates 1d ago

ESPN sucks. Disney also sucks. Best you can do is 🏴‍☠️ to not support them. They are about to ruin the NFL as well unfortunately.

1

u/Jeff_72 1d ago

720P has enters the chat

1

u/Dry-Membership3867 Jacksonville State Gamecocks 1d ago

In my case, 480p

1

u/Sky-Flyer Alabama • North Alabama 1d ago

to be completely honest, i know people can have fair complaints about espn and cfb, but i don’t think a network provider does big games better then espn, fox makes stuff like The Game feel bland in its hype up compared to how espn makes a random SEC game in october feel imo

1

u/Double_Accountant190 1d ago

CW = Quality???

1

u/Dry-Membership3867 Jacksonville State Gamecocks 1d ago

When they have to compete, they can actually pump out good quality shit

1

u/LewManChew Syracuse Orange • NBC 1d ago

ABC won’t be producing all of turners going forward. This year the studio show was turner but espn produced games. I forget when but next year or the year after turner will produce their own games.

Source work for turner and worked the studio show at Penn state this year.

1

u/f0gax Florida Gators • /r/CFB Poll Veteran 1d ago

The natty on the CW would be amazing.

1

u/thank_burdell Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 1d ago

ESPN is the source of everything that’s wrong in modern sports broadcasting.

1

u/shimisi213 Kentucky Wildcats 1d ago

You most definitely don't need to have cable. 🦜

1

u/HowardBunnyColvin Virginia Tech Hokies 1d ago

ESPN is desperate for an audience. They are suffering huge blows due to cord cutting.

1

u/CFB-RoundUp North Iowa Area CC • AAST 1d ago

We talked about this at the end of one of our episodes. It’s better promoting the sport on more networks, it’s contrasting styles and covering the sport, the presentation is different, the narratives that get floated may be different. It’s a whole second season’s worth of games exclusively on ESPN. I’m not saying they don’t do a good job, I’m saying the job is bigger than them. And just because they footed the biggest bill doesn’t mean it was the best outcome.

This is the most watched, most covered, biggest implication part of the season. Let’s divvy up the presentation. All season you get different flavors of games. The postseason shouldn’t be JUST one flavor.

At 1h 10min mark we talk ESPN exclusively having the postseason

1

u/Alone_Advantage_961 Maryland • Notre Dame 1d ago

Give everyone their A crew like the NFL Playoff and it'll work out.

That said its cringy how little analysts know about the sport now.

1

u/Nuclear_Testicle Notre Dame Fighting Irish • Big Ten 1d ago

How the hell is the SEC going to get in then?

1

u/Dry-Membership3867 Jacksonville State Gamecocks 1d ago

They’ll be in, the ACC is the conference that shouldn’t

1

u/Nuclear_Testicle Notre Dame Fighting Irish • Big Ten 1d ago

Ah yes, the home of Clempson

1

u/Top_Sherbet_8524 Michigan • New Hampshire 1d ago

That’s capitalism, baby!

1

u/nuger93 Montana • Carroll (MT) 1d ago

They bought the rights. Welcome to what us FCS fans deal with too. They have the exclusive rights to the FCS postseason (prior to ESPN buying the rights, the local stations that aired the games during the season from each team aired the games until the Semifinals and Championship, where ESPN would then take over). There was a whole to-do around 2011 in Montana when ESPN got the rights, as they originally planned to air the Montana and Montana State games exclusively on ESPN3 (the predecessor to ESPN+), in a state where like 85% of the population had internet with a sustained speed of 1mbps or less (at the time, and many areas had dial up as the primary source of reliable internet).

There was actually a group of us that had gotten lawyers in Vegas (which had a large group of Montana and Montana State l, as well as other FCS alumni, willing to take on a legal case against ESPN pro bono, and they started putting an initial filing together. When ESPN got wind of that filing, along with Montana Highway Patrol holding up the ESPN trucks at the border weigh stations finding every flaw with the trucks, and ESPN at least agreed to put it on Pay Per View (GamePlan at the time), which people were willing to pay for to begin with.

1

u/thedealerkuo 16h ago

Why do you think the push the sec so biasedly. The paid an insane amount for the tv rights and have a massive financial motive to see as many sec teams in the playoffs as possible.

ESPN is ruthless about not promoting sports they don’t have the rights for. They basically blacked out the nhl when they stopped covering back in the day and their contract just blew up with baseball because they weren’t able to work out a renewal and it was almost up.

1

u/Threesrwild Texas A&M Aggies 16h ago

To watch the NCAA basketball tournament I had to go to HBO, Amazon Prime and ESPN.

1

u/Existing-Teaching-34 15h ago

Monopoly? You must not be a Big Ten fan.

1

u/LNMagic SMU Mustangs • Texas Longhorns 13h ago

I joined ESPN+ so I could watch SMU.

I can't watch SMU on ESPN+.

1

u/Dry-Membership3867 Jacksonville State Gamecocks 13h ago

Yes, I know. You have to have Sling or YTTV to watch them

1

u/vanillavick07 6h ago

The CW? Are you fucking high lmao

1

u/Dry-Membership3867 Jacksonville State Gamecocks 6h ago

Nope, they have good NASCAR coverage

1

u/TheHarbrosMagic Michigan Wolverines 1d ago

I firmly believe when the rights open up again, Fox will probably be a major player as their coverage has improved every single year now for like 4 or 5 seasons. Also, it's absolutely ridiculous ESPN doesn't air CFP games in 4k. I can understand the opening round, but there's no excuse at all (other than being cheap) for ESPN not to air the major bowl game venues in 4k

5

u/SparkMaster360 Washington Huskies 1d ago

And yet their scorebug has gotten worse every year

2

u/dsota2 Colgate Raiders • Syracuse Orange 1d ago

Just hope Fox doesn't use their college basketball scorebug for football.

2

u/StevvieV Seton Hall • Penn State 1d ago

"If we just make the score bug bigger more people will like it" -Fox

3

u/back_that_ Penn State Nittany Lions 1d ago

How many people are watching in 4k?

1

u/CoffeeBoy80 Lake Forest Foresters • Chicago Maroons 1d ago

\the voice of an ESPN executive you can't see because he's behind a big ol' pile of money**

lol no

1

u/fri9875 ECU Pirates • Oregon Ducks 1d ago

I sure do love the ECU pirates

1

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Dry-Membership3867 Jacksonville State Gamecocks 1d ago

Coming from NASCAR, the CW is actually pretty good. But I can understand why people don’t want it

1

u/Admirable_Air7185 1d ago

No other network bid on the contract starting in 26.

1

u/ANotSoFreshFeeling Mississippi State • Millsaps 1d ago

That’s not how it works. ESPN has the resources to nearly always be the highest bidder so this is what we will continue to have. It’s all about the money now and really has been for a long time now.

1

u/ArtisticDegree3915 Alabama Crimson Tide 1d ago

I haven't really watched football in about 3 to 4 years. It's not really because I don't want to. I work on Saturdays now. So I just listen to the Bama game radio broadcast on an app.

Anyway, that's an option. If you hate them. If you feel like you have to get cable just to watch them. Just listen to the games you want on the radio over the internet.

5

u/drjjoyner Alabama • Jacksonville State 1d ago

Baseball is a great radio sport. I’m not sure football is.

3

u/ArtisticDegree3915 Alabama Crimson Tide 1d ago

Well, when Eli was at the helm. But I like Chris. He is a good successor.

I've listened to some other college games with other play by play guys. They aren't as good. I think we've been lucky at Alabama at least since 1988 with good people calling the games.

Nice flair. I'm sure there's a lot of people who have ties to both schools. All three of my parents graduated from Jack State (mom, dad, stepmom).

1

u/drjjoyner Alabama • Jacksonville State 1d ago

I do enjoy Eli’s calls but almost always just listened to the TV broadcast because it was synced to the video. So mostly got Eli replays for the big plays. I hated the way he got forced out but he wasn’t physically up for the grind.

1

u/wowthisislong Texas A&M Aggies 1d ago

Preaching to the choir buddy

1

u/Ticklish_Buttcheeks Oregon Ducks 1d ago

The networks don’t seem to agree with you

1

u/Eccentric755 1d ago

It's a contract. The schools are OK with it.

1

u/HowyousayDoofus Ohio State • South Dakota S… 1d ago

I don’t want noon games with FOX.

1

u/Unicorn4_5Venom 14h ago

No sport ever needs to touch FOX, bland as jail food

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u/wjackson42 Georgia Bulldogs 1d ago

CUSA flair talking about needing cable to watch the CFP. Brother, you need cable to watch any of your games on linear TV. They’re not putting CUSA on ABC or CBS.

0

u/Dry-Membership3867 Jacksonville State Gamecocks 1d ago

No they’re not. I have radio for that