College Football Playoff’s proposed expansion would hand ESPN a huge bill on top of what they already pay to broadcast it.ESPN’s College Football Insider Pete Thamel reported that the College Football Playoff (CFP) was nearing a deal to expand to 24 teams.The College Football Playoff is nearing a deal to expand from 12 teams to 24GettyUnder the proposed plan, the Nos. 1-8 would earn a first-round bye and would then play their first game at their home field.The No.1 seed would face the winner of the No. 16 vs No. 17 and the second seed would play the winner of No. 15 vs No. 18.“The new format will start in 2027 and is expected to come together in the near future, pending final approvals,” Thamel added.The change would come just two seasons after the field tripled from four to 12 teams.ESPN holds the sole media rights to the College Football Playoff, signing a six-year, $7.8 billion contract in March 2024 after the initial expansion.The CFP and ESPN have now been negotiating a new deal, as additional games mean more broadcasts and a greater need of resources.“The average additional payment that ESPN will pay for the expanded college football playoff is $345 million annually the next five years,” Thamel added.“It will be in addition to the average of $1.3 billion annually over that time ESPN is already paying.“Of that new $345 million, ESPN will only essentially be paying $205 million.“They are getting back $140 million annually from the cancellation of the three power conference championship games.”The Nos. 1 – 8 teams will each receive a bye and play their first game at homeGettyIt’s a move that would cost ESPN $345 million on top of the $1.3bn they already frontGettyESPN’s Josh Pate sounds off on CFP expansionAs demonstrated by College Football in recent years, or with the NFL and its increasing international slate, financial decisions often superseded what’s best for the sport. That is the verdict of ESPN’s Josh Pate, who expressed his dismay at the expansion while speaking at the Front Office Sports conference in New York.“When you went from BCS to four-team, there was supermajority public support behind it,” Pate said. “When you went from four to 12, there was supermajority public support behind it. “One of the most disingenuous things, maybe even just one of the flat-out most ignorant approaches that I’ve seen over the past year is — I hesitate to call them leaders, but the movers in college football even going so far as to acknowledge publicly, ‘Well, we know that fan sentiment is against this.’“It’s almost like, ‘Well, you’ll watch anyway. You’ll take what we give you anyway. View Tweet: https://x.com/SpectrumBiz?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw“But in the aggregate, we’ve really screwed this up nine ways from Sunday. We need a bailout. We’ve gotta create revenue somewhere, so we’re gonna call it an expanded playoff. “Really, what it is is it’s an ATM to bail out very bad decision-making from, and I use this term loosely, leadership in college football.”Join talkSPORT’s dedicated US Sports YouTube channel The S* Word every Tuesday and Thursday for our brand new NFL shows.On Tuesdays, Will Gavin and US senior reporter Brian T. Smith will debate the biggest talking points from the NFL weekend, while on Thursdays Efe Obada joins the crew to talk to players past and present and break down what to look for across the league.