TNT Sports is set for a massive college season, securing better TV deals than its competitors.
TNT is now the only network to have a stake in the College Football Playoff and March Madness.
TNT Sports will broadcast College Football Playoff games this season[/caption]
TNT Sports is the only network with CFP and March Madness games[/caption]
TNT Sports, which consists of TNT, TBS, truTV, and Max, won the rights to multiple College Football Playoff games this season.
They also struck deals with the Mountain West and Big East for college basketball coverage.
Many of the biggest sports networks like Fox and ESPN have been dying for control of the college sports market, but it appears that TNT has gotten the upper hand.
“The NCAA, and college sports in general, has always been a priority for us,” Raphael Poplock, TNT Sports SVP of acquisitions told Front Office Sports.
Warner Bros. Discover and CBS had a preexisting deal for TNT to show important college basketball games including Final Four matchups in March Madness.
With the College Football Playoff expanding to 12 teams this year, WBD saw an opportunity to pounce on the market.
WBD also attempted to work their way into the broadcasting rights for the College Football Playoff last year, but ESPN eventually won out.
A multi-network deal was a possibility, but ESPN’s $7.8 billion offer was too lucrative.
Instead, TNT took advantage of the ability to sublicense games from ESPN, adding some of the earlier games of the playoff.
A deal was announced in May that TNT would broadcast two first-round CFP games in each of the next two seasons and two quarterfinals starting in 2026.
“A property like the CFP sits on its own. It’s as compelling as any property in the U.S. when it comes to sports fandom,” Poplock continued.
“That was, frankly, something that was missing from our portfolio.”
To ensure TNT had coverage of college football over the entire season, the network entered into a sublicensing deal with the Mountain West as well.
These deals are a huge boost to TNT after they lost out in the battle to renew NBA broadcasting rights.
They did have deals in place for college basketball ahead of that loss though, signing on with the Big East for more than 50 men’s regular season games and 15 women’s games.
College football top 25 rankings
BELOW are the top 25 rankings of college football’s best programs after Week 5
- Texas (5-0)
- Ohio State (5-0)
- Oregon (5-0)
- Penn State (5-0)
- Georgia (4-1)
- Miami (6-0)
- Alabama (4-1)
- Tennessee (4-1)
- Ole Miss (5-1)
- Clemson (4-1)
- Iowa State (5-0)
- Notre Dame (4-1)
- LSU (4-1)
- BYU (5-0)
- Texas A&M (5-1)
- Utah (4-1)
- Boise State (4-1)
- Kansas State (4-1)
- Indiana (6-0)
- Oklahoma (4-1)
- Missouri (4-1)
- Pittsburgh (5-0)
- Illinois (4-1)
- Michigan (4-2)
- SMU (5-1)
“I think we’re all big fans of the conference,” Poplock said.
TNT is also trying new things with their NBA rights on the way out, broadcasting a fall non-conference tournament called the Players Era Festival.
“I think you have to embrace the chaos,” Poplock said.
“We’re not going to be shy about… continuing to explore other opportunities that could bring more meat on the bones.”
TNT has the rights to NBA games for this upcoming season, then the contract officially ends.
TNT signed a deal with ESPN to broadcast the CFP games[/caption]
