The College Football Playoff is one of the most talked-about events in sports, creating massive amounts of debate and division about who should be part of the current four-team format, and how the future 12-team structure will be built. It has also solidified its status in the last year as the biggest event in all of U.S. sports outside of the NFL, at least in terms of TV audiences. 

Against the CFP’s backdrop of disruption and uncertainty, last year’s championship game ranked 78th among the top 100 U.S. TV broadcasts of 2023, with an average audience of 17.2 million. That game, won by Georgia, was one of just seven entries on the top 100 list that weren’t NFL offerings, and college football was the only other sport on that list. Four games in the current college football season have performed even better, suggesting a monster TV rating to come for Monday’s title tilt between Michigan and Washington:

• 19.1 million for the Ohio State-Michigan game on Thanksgiving weekend (61st on the 2023 top 100 list)
• 17.5 million for the SEC title game on Dec. 2 between Alabama and Georgia (74th)
• 27.2 million for the CFP semifinal between Michigan and Alabama on Jan. 1, representing one of the 10 most-watched cable TV telecasts of all time
• 18.4 million for the other CFP semifinal on Jan. 1, played between Washington and Texas

These audiences outdistance the current TV draws for other major pro and college sports events, such as the NBA Finals, World Series, Final Four, Kentucky Derby, and the Masters. It’s also why a wide range of TV networks and streamers are coveting the rights to the expanded CFP. ESPN currently holds the rights to the quarterfinals, semifinals, and title game through 2026. 

But talks are underway for the rights to first-round games the next two seasons, and the full CFP package starting in 2026. The growing size of the CFP—both in the number of games and the overall stature of the event—could lead to an NFL-like split of the rights among several media partners.

When ESPN’s MegaCast approach to college football’s national championship game began in January 2014, the sports media landscape was vastly different. Most of today’s streaming services had not yet launched, nor had cable channels like the ACC and SEC networks.

Now a staple of the College Football Playoff (Monday’s game will have 11 different presentations, from Pat McAfee on the field to the Skycam view from above), ESPN’s MegaCast paved the way for today’s booming trend of multiple broadcasts covering a single sporting event.

Of course, the ManningCast of Monday Night Football has gained significant praise, but other successful efforts extend into sports betting and advanced stats, even reaching younger audiences with cartoon animations of popular movies and TV shows. Next month, the Super Bowl will have its first-ever alternate telecast on Nickelodeon, featuring SpongeBob SquarePants and Dora the Explorer, among other characters.

“Sports fans are not a homogeneous group that can be well-served by a single, vanilla telecast,” sports media expert Ed Desser, a former exec with the NBA, tells Front Office Sports. Not only do alternate feeds help sports broadcasters reach new and different types of audiences, Desser points out, but they also bring in the potential for new ad revenue.

You may remember some of the most notable alt-casts to date:

• ManningCast (debuted in 2021)
• NFL Nickmas (2022)
• Nickelodeon’s Super Wild Card Game (2022)
• Toy Story Funday Football (2023)
• NHL Big City Greens Classic (2023)
• The Bird & Taurasi Show (part of the 2022 women’s Final Four MegaCast)
• NBA Hoopervision (2022)
• TNF in The Shop (2022)

From Disney’s Toy Story-themed NFL broadcast to Amazon’s weekly Prime Vision With Next Stats feed alongside Thursday Night Football to an array of team-focused options, like what the Los Angeles Clippers offer through their streaming service, choosing a telecast other than the main feed can be daunting. But will every big sporting event eventually yield a MegaCast?

“For any one game, there is a natural limit,” Desser says, “because you get to a world of diminishing returns. But I think what’s likely to happen is that there will be more events that have multicasts, even if the number of individual feeds doesn’t continue to grow astronomically.”

On Monday night, at least, CFP viewers will have their pick, and then some.

Long existing outside of the bluebloods of college football, Washington is now leveling up to the elite of the sport.

The Huskies, of course, are playing in Monday’s College Football Playoff title game against Michigan, and have enjoyed plenty of success over the years, including three conference titles in the last eight seasons and a shared national championship in 1991. Twenty-three of their former players are now on NFL rosters. But the program has historically existed far outside of the limelight enjoyed by traditional powers, including their CFP championship opponent. 

All that, however, is changing. Among the other recent signs of rising prominence:

• A forthcoming move to the Big Ten, where Washington will be conference foes with the likes of Michigan, Ohio State, and former Pac-12 rivals UCLA and USC.
• A sellout of Washington’s 20,000-ticket allotment for the CFP championship game in Houston, less than 24 hours after the team’s Jan. 1 seminal win over Texas. The sellout was a marked turnaround from a more protracted sales pace for that Longhorns game, which typified the difficulties for many Washington fans in traveling from Seattle.
• Heightened merchandise sales now involving buyers from all 50 states, signifying the Huskies’ growing national presence.
• Quarterback Michael Penix Jr. having one of the largest profiles for name, image, and likeness rights, with a valuation of $1.3 million.
• Huskies coach Kalen DeBoer winning AP Coach of the Year, marking the first Washington coach to receive the honor.

Significant challenges remain, however, as the Washington athletics department  posted a $5.8 million loss for its fiscal 2023, a figure expected to grow to $7.8 million for the current year. That figure, amplified somewhat by severance payments to former Washington football coach Jimmy Lake, helped prompt the school’s departure from the Pac-12. Washington also remains below the Big Ten’s elite in numerous metrics, such as ticket sales and donations, and the school is entering its new conference with a half-share of annual media rights. UW won’t earn full shares until 2030.

Michigan’s first appearance in a college football national championship game (yes, you read that correctly) is generating record demand on the secondary ticket market. Neither the Wolverines nor their opponents from Washington have played in a national title matchup during the College Football Playoff or BCS eras. Excitement for the contest has it trending toward being the most expensive CFP final on record, according to TickPick data shared with Front Office Sports. 

With the majority of purchases coming from Michigan’s side, the “get-in” price was as high as $1,200 last week before dipping, which is expected to continue until kickoff Monday night but still end up at a record high. No other national championship game has had a “get-in” price above $800. Many “get-in” prices for recent CFP championships have fallen below $200.

What Could Have Been

During halftime of Washington’s playoff semifinal win over Texas, the game was tied 21-21, and Longhorn fans—who travel well to begin with—were apparently getting ahead of themselves, with the potential for playing for a national championship in their home state on the table. 

TickPick says the “get-in” price for Monday night’s title game in Houston got as high as $2,885 midway through that semifinal, and a Texas victory would have made the CFP title game far and away the most expensive matchup ever. Alas … .

Heading into the weekend, the average purchase price on TickPick was $2,201, which would also be a record for the CFP title game.