College football fans are pushing back hard on ESPN’s Evan Cohen after he floated an NFL takeover of their sport.

Cohen said it three days after ESPN locked up the rights to a much bigger postseason, a five-year agreement with the College Football Playoff that grows the field to 24 teams starting in 2027.

Fans Dismiss Evan Cohen’s Idea of an NFL Takeover

Cohen made the suggestion on “First Take” on Thursday: “The NFL should probably just swoop in and just buy it. Buy college football. Just run all of it. I’m actually being serious.”

Awful Announcing posted the clip of Cohen’s remark on Thursday, and fans responded the same day. One fan dismissed the proposal in a single line: “This [is] the worst idea I’ve heard about it.”

Another fan tied the proposal to the network that aired it, writing, “Brain dead idea. Per the usual from ESPN.”

A third fan went straight at the messenger, writing, “Imagine getting paid to make your viewers dumber.”

One more fan reacted with a single question: “Where do they find these people?”

Some Fans Aim Their Criticism at ESPN’s Role in the Sport

For some fans, the problem ran deeper than one segment. One of them took aim at the network’s programming as a whole: “This is all slanted from the ESPN/ABC perspective. It’s why I don’t watch these shows on ESPN. It’s all narrative driven baloney with very little true analysis of sports! ESPN ceased to do a good job of covering sports for a long time now. This is just another example.”

A different fan pointed to the network’s business ties to the sport, writing that “the network he works for already owns it and has ruined it.”

Another fan added, “You’re out of your [expletive] minds over there at ESPN. Please stop destroying sports.”

ESPN doesn’t own the playoffs, though, and it didn’t set the new format. The move to 24 teams was the call of the CFP’s management committee, the 10 FBS commissioners plus Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua, and that vote was unanimous.

What ESPN holds is the event’s media rights. A six-year, $7.8 billion contract reached in March 2024 had already made ESPN the CFP’s sole media rights holder through the 2031 season, and the new five-year agreement leaves that in place, with ESPN free to sublicense six of the 12 added games to approved partners.

ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro laid out the network’s view of the partnership in a statement when the deal was announced: “ESPN and the College Football Playoff have worked collaboratively for more than a decade to make the CFP one of the marquee events in all of sports, and we remain firmly committed to elevating it in its new, expanded 24-team format.”

“We value the trust that the CFP has placed in us as its exclusive media partner, and our continued presentation of this premier championship further solidifies ESPN as the home of college football and the destination for college sports for years to come,” Pitaro added.

Keeping the bigger playoff will cost ESPN an extra $345 million per year, on average, over the next five years, sources told ESPN’s Pete Thamel.

Sources told ESPN that eliminating the SEC, Big 12, and ACC championship games would return about $140 million annually to the network. ESPN already averages about $1.3 billion a year for the playoffs under its existing contract, and the $345 million sits on top of that.