College Football Playoff Teams Paid $27M for Non-Conference Schedules

One of the biggest talking points surrounding teams that did (and didn’t) make the first 12-team College Football Playoff field was their respective strength of schedules. 

After Alabama was left out in favor of SMU, Crimson Tide AD Greg Byrne posted on X that he “will need to assess” how many Power 4 non-conference games “make sense in the future to put us in the best position to participate in the CFP.” 

Alabama finished the regular season 9–3, but all of its losses came against SEC opponents. The Crimson Tide played at Wisconsin but also paid a total of $2.9 million for home games against Group of 5 programs USF and Western Kentucky, as well as Mercer, an FCS school. 

That payout for non-conference games is higher than all but four teams that did make the CFP. The SEC and ACC play eight conference games and four non-conference matchups annually, while the Big Ten and Big 12 each play nine and three, respectively.

In total, this year’s 12 Playoff teams paid at least $26.9 million for matchups with Group of 5 and FCS teams, according to Front Office Sports research:

• Texas: $4.9 million
• Ohio State: $4 million
• Tennessee: $3.5 million
• Penn State: $3.1 million
• Notre Dame: $2.65 million
• Georgia: $2.45 million
• Oregon: $1.95 million
• Indiana: $1.75 million
• Clemson: $1.73 million
• SMU: $450,000
• Boise State: $425,000
• Arizona State: $0

By the Numbers

Notre Dame was the lone CFP team to lose a game in which it paid its opponent—a 16–14 shocker at home against Northern Illinois, which received $1.4 million to hand the Fighting Irish their only loss of the season. As an independent school, Notre Dame doesn’t have a conference schedule but does have a partnership with the ACC and traditional matchups like those against Stanford and USC.

SMU’s tally accounts for a $450,000 payment the Mustangs made to Nevada—for a road game in a unique twist—but any potential payment made to Houston Christian is unavailable, as it is private, like SMU. Houston Christian received a $350,000 payment to play at UTSA this season.

While Texas paid the most for its non-conference games, which also included a trip to Michigan, the Longhorns only earned the No. 5 CFP seed after losing to Georgia in the SEC championship game. Arizona State, which didn’t pay anything for its non-conference schedule, won the Big 12 and was awarded the No. 4 seed (and a bye). The Sun Devils did host Wyoming (Mountain West) to open the season, but FOS did not find any record of a payment.