Sources: CFP ‘on target’ to sort out revenue split
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Heather Dinich, ESPN Senior Writer
College Football Playoff leaders are “on target” to come to a resolution by the end of the week on a proposed revenue distribution and governance structure in the next contract, sources told ESPN, but some important conversations remain before they agree to sign a lucrative TV deal with ESPN.
Commissioners of the Mountain West Conference, Sun Belt, Mid-American Conference, Conference USA and American Athletic Conference aren’t keen on the proposed revenue distribution, which sources said would limit the Group of 5 conferences from making any substantial increase in revenue in the next contract, which would begin in 2026. One source described it a “slight uptick; nominal.”
The question is if there is enough pushback to delay or derail the progress — or if those leagues are simply in a tough spot and have to acquiesce or risk being excluded from the CFP. Sources have leaned toward the latter.
The CFP’s management committee was expected to have a conversation about it on Tuesday evening, and one source said the Group of 5 commissioners held their own separate call to address the issue.
Starting in 2026, ESPN is poised to spend an average of nearly $1.3 billion on the playoff for six seasons. The deal would include the final two years on the current CFP contract, plus a new six-year agreement for the next iteration of the playoff, sources told ESPN. ESPN is the sole rights-holder in the current, 12-year contract, which expires following the 2025 season. The CFP will expand from four to 12 teams this fall.
The Big Ten and SEC have made it clear the next contract will be more financially favorable than the current one, where 80% of the money is split evenly among the Power 5 leagues. Four power conferences remain following sweeping realignment, and the Big Ten and SEC have a combined 34 teams.
Sources told ESPN last month that discussions have centered around the SEC and Big Ten earning somewhere between 25% and 30% of the CFP revenue. The ACC and Big 12 would be next, and they’d earn somewhere between 15% and 20%. That leaves a smaller chunk — somewhere around 6% to 10% for the other leagues and nearly 1% for Notre Dame.
The math isn’t clean, sources caution, as some money needs to go to expenses and to places like current independent UConn and potentially Oregon State and Washington State, if they don’t join a conference in 2026. But those are the general financial ballparks being discussed. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey has made it clear that the SEC has delivered 40% of the teams in the playoff and he has been one of the primary drivers behind a new revenue model.
The 10 FBS commissioners are using Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss the details with their athletic directors, presidents and chancellors and gather feedback. One source said that “in a perfect world” they could come to an agreement on the revenue and TV deal as early as Thursday. Regardless of when there is a resolution, multiple sources have said the details of a format in 2026 and beyond — from the number of teams to how they qualify — won’t be settled until after the TV deal is done.
One clause that has been introduced and agreed upon according to sources is a “look-in” in 2028 to give the commissioners a chance to reevaluate the contractual agreements based on how the field and performance has unfolded to that point. There’s also a clause that permits that timeline to be accelerated if there is “material realignment” again.
LOS ANGELES — Shohei Ohtani hit two homers in an 11-5 win over the San Francisco Giants on Saturday night, emphatically ending the three-time MVP’s longest homer drought since joining the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Ohtani led off the bottom of the first with his 24th homer, hammering Landen Roupp‘s fourth pitch 419 feet deep into the right-field bleachers with an exit velocity of 110.3 mph.
The slugger had been in a 10-game homer drought since June 2, going 10-for-40 in that stretch with no RBIs, although he still had an eight-game hitting streak during his power outage.
Ohtani led off the sixth with his 25th homer, sending Tristan Beck‘s breaking ball outside the strike zone into the bleachers in right. He also moved one homer behind the Yankees’ Aaron Judge and Seattle’s Cal Raleigh for the overall major league lead.
Dodgers fans brought him home with a standing ovation as Ohtani produced his third multihomer game of the season and the 22nd of his career.
Ohtani reached base four times and scored three runs in his first four at-bats, drawing two walks to go with his two homers.
Ohtani hadn’t played in 10 straight games without hitting a homer since 2023 in the final 10 games of his six-year tenure with the Los Angeles Angels.
Ohtani had slowed down a bit over the past two weeks after he was named the NL Player of the Month for May with a formidable performance, racking up 15 homers and 28 RBIs.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
BOSTON — Hunter Dobbins had quite the week.
First, he said last weekend that he would rather retire than pitch for the Yankees because his father was drafted by New York twice before being traded.
Then, he went out and beat the Yankees.
A few days after his comments about never wanting to pitch for New York, he had to defend his dad’s story about being drafted by the Yankees in response to a New York Post article that cited multiple official databases and the Yankees’ own records that couldn’t confirm Lance Dobbins ever played with the organization.
On Saturday night, Dobbins (4-1) followed up by going six shutout innings in Boston’s 4-3 victory over New York, his second win over the Yankees in less than a week.
“It’s a lot of fun,” he said. “I’m more worried about just the win column, whether it’s against them or anybody. My job is to try and help this team win as many ballgames as we can, and pitch in meaningful playoff baseball games. That’s what I’m more focused on.”
But he realizes what it means to the fan base in this longtime rivalry, with the Red Sox fans heard chanting about the Yankees outside the park before he spoke in an interview room.
“Yeah, I love being able to perform and get those wins for the fans here,” he said. “They deserve it. It’s a great city, passionate fan base, so being able to get those wins — especially twice in one week — means a lot and looking forward to trying to build on that going forward.”
In his victory over New York last Sunday, Dobbins held the Yankees to three runs over five innings, two on a first-inning homer by Aaron Judge.
On Saturday night, Judge went 0-for-3 against him, striking out twice on curveballs.
“It was just kind of scouting,” Dobbins said of his game plan against New York’s slugger after Garrett Crochet struck him out three times in the series opener Friday.
“Crochet has an electric fastball. I can throw it hard, but the shape isn’t quite as elite,” he said. “So we knew we had better weapons to go at him with, so I felt like we did a good job of kind of keeping a balanced attack throughout the order.”
Dobbins struck out five and gave up only two singles Saturday.
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