New Conference Alignments, Expanded Playoffs Mark Changes for Upcoming College Football Season

As college football kicks off its first full weekend of regular-season play, several major conferences will have new teams and new television outlets distributing their games. Also on deck is an expanded College Football Playoff organizers hope will create greater fan interest and viewership.

ESPN Saturday will launch its new 10-year deal with the SEC with the highly anticipated Clemson-Georgia matchup on ABC. The deal for 15 additional SEC college football games will run concurrently with a separate 20-year agreement between ESPN and the SEC that also runs through 2033-34.

TNT Sports will offer a slate of live Mountain West Conference games on truTV under a multiyear agreement announced this past July. TruTV and sister streaming service Max will offer 14 Mountain West games, TNT Sports said.

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In addition, The CW and Fox will air games from the diminished Pac-12 conference that now has just two teams, Oregon State and Washington State, as part of a one-year deal reached earlier this year. The deal comes amid the defection of 10 of the conference’s 12 teams after last season, including Washington, UCLA, USC and Oregon (Big Ten), Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah (Big 12), Cal and Stanford (ACC).

Other high-profile schools changing conferences for the 2024-25 season include Oklahoma and Texas to the SEC from the Big 12 and SMU to the ACC from the American Athletic Conference.

Despite the changing landscape of college football, TV sports analyst Lee Berke said the sport should remain popular with fans who will see more marquee regular-season matchups.

“I do think you’re going to have many more interesting matchups, with fans being treated to more pure, tier-one matches between ranked teams,” Berke said.

The expansion of the College Football Playoff lineup to 12 teams from the previous four-team slate will provide more high-profile games for ESPN as well as for TNT. The drama network will distribute two Saturday-afternoon playoff games on December 21 as part of a five-year sublicensing deal struck with ESPN this past May.

While the playoff games for TNT are limited — ESPN will handle production and ad sales of the two games — and both will compete against late-season NFL telecasts, Berke said TNT's games will attract its fair share of viewers.