New 12-team format debuts December 20-21 with four First Round games
ATLANTA – The College Football Playoff (CFP) has announced dates, kick times and broadcast information for the 2024-25 playoff, the first year of the expanded 12-team format.
The exclusive home of the CFP since its inception in 2015, ESPN has expanded its current package through the 2025-26 season, adding all four games of the new CFP First Round each year to ESPN’s existing New Year’s Six games (now Playoff Quarterfinals and Playoff Semifinals) and the CFP National Championship. In May, ESPN announced a five-year agreement with TNT Sports to sublicense select College Football Playoff (CFP) games beginning with the upcoming college football season.
The inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff will begin with the first CFP First Round game on Friday, December 20 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC and ESPN. First round action will continue on Saturday, December 21, as TNT Sports will present games at noon and 4 p.m., while ABC and ESPN will broadcast the third-game of Saturday’s triple-header at 8 p.m. Each of the four first round games will be played on campuses to be announced on Selection Day, December 8.
ESPN will present each of the four Playoff Quarterfinals, the two Playoff Semifinals and the 2025 CFP National Championship, slated for Monday, January 20 at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium. This marks the first time the CFP National Championship has returned to a city for a second game, after Atlanta hosted the title contest in 2018.
The CFP has contributed to the most-watched days in ESPN’s nearly 45-year history, led by the first Playoff Semifinals in 2014-15 boosting ESPN to 11.6 million average viewers for New Year’s Day. The Playoff Semifinals in 2018, 2022 and 2024 anchored ESPN in rounding out the top four complete-day audiences in network history. College football on ESPN accounts for the top 15 and more than 50 of the top 100 most-watched cable programs on record (since 1987), with eight of the top 10 directly from Playoff Semifinals or national championship games.
In 2023-24, ESPN’s expansive coverage of the 10th CFP delivered a record year. The three-game CFP scored its most-watched matchups in six years (since Year 4) and third-best of the CFP era with 23.6 million viewers and 15 percent year-over-year audience growth across the trio of games. The CFP National Championship and New Year’s Six averaged 15.1 million viewers, the best audience in five years and fifth-highest in the 10-year history of the CFP, up double digits year-over-year.
