College football fans fume as ESPN announces major changes to 2026 TV schedule

Broadcasting of the College Football Playoff (CFP) will look a lot different for ESPN next season.

The major network, who is entering the first year of its new expanded package worth $7.8 billion through the 2031-32 season, announced its full broadcasting lineup for the 2026-27 college football postseason on June 1.

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What is immediately evident is that more games will now be airing on ABC, while ESPN2, who aired the Xbox Bowl last year, will no longer be broadcasting any bowl games.

ABC have been confirmed to air six non-CFP bowl games next season – one more than last year – while is will air bowl game tripleheaders on both December 26 and January 2.

Furthermore, the network will now air more CFP games, including that of one quarterfinal, one semifinal, and for the very first time, the national championship game.

The other CFP semifinal is slated to be broadcast on TNT Sports, who are sub-licensing five total matchups.

The CFP have also announced that no game will take place on New Year’s Eve due to the NFL‘s primetime Thursday Night Football broadcast.

Instead, the Texas Bowl will fill ESPN’s vacant spot on that night.

There has also been a slight shift to the schedule dates, with the 2026-27 playoff beginning two days later than last year, with the first bowl game of the season slated to be the Salute to Veterans Bowl on December 18.

This will take place three days after the Army-Navy matchup on December 15.

However, with the 2026-27 campaign being the second year of the expanded CFP, the national title game in Las Vegas, Nevada, won’t take place until over a month later on January 25.

Fans heavily criticize the schedule

To say it has left football fans football would be a severe understatement.

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“This is a terrible schedule. ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE!” one fan expressed on social media.

“11 days between first round and first quarterfinal game (two more days for the other 3 games). Two weeks between quarterfinal and semifinal games. 10 days between semifinals and championship game. Ridiculous,” a second highlighted.

“A month between QF and Final. Just kills all momentum/interest,” a third commented as a fourth added, “Can we fix this s***? We don’t need nearly 6 weeks for a 12 team playoff with 13 days in-between games.”

“Absolutely abhorrent. An abomination. Y’all are ridiculous. More time in between games is stupid. Interrupts the flow. …The @NFL can play every 6-7 days- y’all can too! ,” a fifth called out.

Some fans even directed their anger toward ESPN – a trend that continues from last season.

“This is ridiculous that this schedule is dragged out so long. Then ESPN wanted control of everything and now pushing fans off on another network. The marketing is terrible by ESPN. Why don’t they ask fans what they want?” one user wrote.

The fact that the National Championship is slated for a Monday night has also been a particular topic of discussion, while the timings of some of the regular season games have also drawn huge criticism, especially from teams in the SEC.

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