ESPN has agreed “to pay an average of $80 million a year for the Rose Bowl,” which could “push the price tag for the playoffs media rights as high as $600 million for an all-in package that includes a championship game, two semifinals and four major bowls each season,” according to sources cited by Smith & Ourand of SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL. ESPN’s deal with the Rose Bowl “runs from 2015 through 2026, making it concurrent with the new playoff structure.” The Rose Bowl’s new $80M annual rights fee “represents a 167 percent jump from the $30 million the network currently pays.” ESPN, the current BCS partner, will get “first crack at the championship game and semifinals this fall during a 30-day negotiating window.” If a deal “can’t be struck, the package would then go to the open market where Fox Sports and other networks will be waiting.” Smith & Ourand note the new Champions and Orange bowls "will have signed their own separate TV contracts.” The SEC and Big 12 will “jointly negotiate the Champions bowl deal," which means those bowls "would not be included in the overall playoff package.” Sources said that the Champions is “expected to generate an annual rights fee similar to the Rose Bowl, while the Orange Bowl value is expected to be less.” It is “hard to put a value on the Orange Bowl now because the ACC does not have a permanent opponent in place for the game.” The hodgepodge of “what eventually will be four separate contracts -- one for each of the three bowls, plus the playoffs -- illustrates how convoluted the financial side of the new playoff structure remains” (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 7/16 issue).
