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The College Football Playoff offers more than $100 million to FBS conferences in prize payouts based on how their teams fare in the postseason. But because the money is sent to conferences, the conferences distribute the money to schools—and each has different policies for how they do so.
Among the power conferences, the ACC stands alone as the only conference that distributes 100% of prize payouts from the CFP to the schools that earned them. Schools in the Big Ten and Big 12 share the distributions earned equally, Front Office Sports has confirmed. The SEC has a hybrid model.
Here’s how the CFP distributions work: The CFP distributes $4 million for each school that earned a bid and another $4 million for participating in a quarterfinal (the top four ranked conference champions were each guaranteed $8 million regardless of whether they won their first-round game). The CFP distributes $6 million for every school that makes the semifinal and every team that makes the national championship. In addition, schools will get $3 million for each game they participate in to cover travel expenses.
As of the 2024–25 season, the ACC offers all prize payouts and all travel expenses to the school that earned them. Miami will keep the entire $14 million it earned from the CFP so far, FOS previously reported; Clemson kept its $4 million last year, a Clemson spokesperson also confirmed. SMU also got all $4 million.
Meanwhile, the Big Ten and Big 12 add the money to a pool that is distributed equally to each program (though schools receive requisite travel expenses).
The SEC, however, appears to have a hybrid approach. Participating SEC teams in first-round games receive $3 million, with a visiting team getting a travel allowance “determined by the SEC Executive Committee,” according to league bylaws. Schools receive $3.5 million for participating in the quarterfinals, $3.75 million for participating in the semifinals, and $4 million for participating in the national championship. The money left over is added to the conference’s pool and distributed equally in shares for each SEC program and the conference office.
Meanwhile, in the Group of 6, the American Conference has taken an approach similar to that of the ACC. The conference has implemented a performance incentive program of its own, which mandates that Tulane receive $6.1 million of the $8 million the Green Wave earned for appearing in the CFP this year, a spokesperson tells FOS. The remaining $1.9 million will go to the conference-wide performance pool. Including extra money for travel expenses, the Green Wave will get $8.1 million.
