College Football Playoff payouts, explained: Who gets paid and how much

Typically if you follow the paper trail, you’ll see which college football teams are the most successful, but when it comes to the College Football Playoff, that isn’t necessarily true. Aside from the ACC and teams named Notre Dame, the money made in the CFP by participating conferences usually gets distributed to all the conference teams regardless of how their season went. 

The SEC uses a hybrid model, but the Big Ten, every team gets their fair share. The ACC is the only Power 4 conference that gives the participating schools all the money they earned by being one of the top 12 teams in the country. It’s a model some of the others might adopt as well if the top schools put pressure on them. That said, how exactly do the payouts work, how much money does each conference get and how much more do the schools that played in the CFP get over the teams that missed? Here’s a deep dive into how the money is paid out.

How much does each team get for making the College Football Playoff?

• Each CFP participant earns $4 million
• Every team in the CFP quarterfinal gets an addition $4 million
• Every semifinal team receives $6 million
• Both national title teams receive $6 million

How far each team advances determines how much they get. Just for making the CFP, all 12 teams receive $4 million each. You get an additional $4 million for reaching the quarterfinals. That means Indiana, Texas Tech, Ohio State and Georgia each received $8 million before playing a game. 

The teams that reach the semifinals each get an additional $6 million and another $6 million for playing in the national championship game. Here’s what the current payouts are for the semifinals round.

*All dollar amounts reflect up to the CFP semifinals round

For reaching the national championship game, the most you can receive is $20 million. Teams like Notre Dame collect that whole pot thanks to being independent teams and not affiliated with a conference. The ACC adopts the same model However, the Big 12, SEC and Big Ten split that money across the conference teams. 

So Oregon, Indiana or Ole Miss won’t receive the whole $20 million for reaching the title game. In addition, every team gets a $3 million travel stipend each round they advance to.

Who actually receives the College Football Playoff payouts

When the CFP pays out the teams that reach the 12-team playoff, it actually doesn’t go directly to the teams. Instead, it goes to the conference to distribute to its teams based on their policies. In cases like Notre Dame, which is an independent team and not affiliated to a conference, the money would then go to the school’s athletic department. 

How each power conference distributes the CFP money received

• The SEC has a hybrid model where a chunk of the money goes to participating teams with money left over going to the other conference teams
• The Big Ten and Big 12 distribute the money evenly across the conference teams
• The ACC gives the CFP teams all the money, with none going to other conference teams

The irony of the payout model is that the ACC, which was the weakest of the CFP participating conferences, gets the most money of the power conferences. The Big Ten and Big 12 teams get the fewest amount with the money getting evenly distributed to the teams. The SEC’s model is the most complex and the most interesting. 

For SEC teams, the CFP teams get a portion of the money with leftover money getting sent to the other conference teams. According to a story on Front Office Sports, here are the payouts based on this year’s field: 

• The teams that played in the first round each received $3 million with a “travel allowance, determined by the SEC executive committee”
• Quarterfinal teams receive $3.5 million
• Semifinals teams receive $3.75 million
• $4 million for playing in the CFP national championship game

Essentially if the pot is $20 million per team for reaching the title game, SEC teams that play get roughly $14.25 million. In this case, the remaining $5.75 million would get distributed to the rest of the conference. 

For the American conference, they have a similar model with the teams that participate in the CFP, getting a bigger cut. This year, Tulane received more than 75 percent of the money given for getting into the CFP with the rest going to the conference. 

Why the ACC’s CFP payout model is different than every other conference

The reason the ACC started giving the CFP teams all the money was due to a lawsuit by both Clemson and Florida State against the conference because they “were trapped in deteriorating media rights deals”, according to The Miami Hurricane, while also being handicapped by lucrative buyouts to leave the ACC. 

The ACC has the lowest media rights deal compared to the SEC and Big Ten, sitting at $4.8 billion, the SEC is at $7.1 billion and the Big Ten at $8 billion. This was the conference’s way to bridge the gap between the media rights disparity, The Miami Hurricane added. So while it feels like it’s a bump up from the other conferences, it actually still puts ACC teams behind the two biggest power conferences as they still get significantly less from their media rights deals.  

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