The College Football Playoff released kick times, dates, and broadcast information for the 2024-25 playoff, the first under the new 12-team model.
ESPN, the CFP home since 2015, has added to its package through 2026, adding the four First Round games in addition to the Quarterfinals, Semifinals, and CFP National Championship. ESPN announced last month that TNT will sublicense select games in the CFP beginning this fall.
The Road to Atlanta will begin with the first of four First Round games on Friday, December 20 at 7 p.m. on ABC/ESPN. The first round continues Saturday, December 21 with TNT Sports presenting games at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. while ABC and ESPN will broadcast the third game of Saturday’s slate at 7 p.m. The first-round games will be played at campus sites.
ESPN will broadcast the four Playoff Quarterfinals, both Playoff Semifinals and the 2025 CFP National Championship from Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Monday, January 20. Atlanta will be the first city to host multiple CFP title games (2018).
The CFP has helped deliver some of the highest ratings in ESPN’s nearly 45-year history, including the first CFP in 2014, which averaged 11.6 million viewers for New Year’s Day. The Playoff Semifinals in 2018, 2022, and 2024 rounded out the four best full-day audiences in network history. College football on ESPN has accounted for more than 50 of the top 100 most-watched programs on record, with eight of the top 10 from Playoff Semifinals or national championship games.
This past season, ESPN’s coverage of the 10th CFP set new records. The Playoff scored its most-watched matchups in six years and third-best of the CFP era with 23.6 million viewers and an audience growth of 15%. The National Championship and New Year’s Six bowl games averaged 15.1 million viewers, the best audience in five years.