ESPN Launches College Football Bracket Challenge
AT&T-sponsored contest offers $50,000 in prizes
BRISTOL, Conn.—Now that the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff lineup is set, ESPN Fantasy is launching the College Football Playoff Bracket Challenge Presented by AT&T, which allows fan to compete with each other by filling out bracket winners for the expanded playoff.
Fans can complete and enter up to two brackets each until shortly before the first-ever CFP first-round game—No. 10 Indiana at No. 7 Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind.—on Friday, Dec. 20, at 8 p.m. ET, on ABC and ESPN.
ESPN said a $25,000 grand prize will be awarded to the fan who accumulates the most total points throughout the playoff. The runner-up prize is $15,000 and third place will be awarded $10,000.
The College Football Playoff Bracket Challenge is built on the same technology that powers ESPN’s Tournament Challenge, the network’s popular NCAA basketball tournament bracket game.
In addition to the first ever CFP Bracket Challenge, ESPN also announced that it is bringing back Capital One Bowl Mania. ESPN’s classic bowl-season pick ’em game allows fans to select the winner of every FBS bowl game, plus the FCS Celebration Bowl.
Capital One Bowl Mania includes three contest modes: Standard, the original pick ’em game that awards 10 points for every correct pick; Spread, which requires fans to make their picks against the point spread for each game; and Confidence, where fans rank their picks and earn more points according to their level of confidence in each selection, ESPN reported.
Fans with the most points in any of the three contest modes can win $20,000 in prizes, and any fan who finishes with a perfect entry—picking all 47 bowl games correctly—can win up to $1 million.
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Like all ESPN Fantasy games, the College Football Playoff Bracket Challenge Presented by AT&T and Capital One Bowl Mania are free to play on ESPN.com, the ESPN App, and the ESPN Fantasy App.
George Winslow is the senior content producer for TV Tech. He has written about the television, media and technology industries for nearly 30 years for such publications as Broadcasting & Cable, Multichannel News and TV Tech. Over the years, he has edited a number of magazines, including Multichannel News International and World Screen, and moderated panels at such major industry events as NAB and MIP TV. He has published two books and dozens of encyclopedia articles on such subjects as the media, New York City history and economics.