ESPN revamps College Football Playoff design for expanded format

Six months of planning and development and thousands of hours of rendering went into solving a fundamental challenge: how to help viewers navigate the reimagined and expanded College Football Playoff era.

This season, the tournament format triples the field to 12 teams, creating a complex bracket system that is transforming the postseason college football landscape.

ESPN’s response emerged through an extensive collaboration between its creative teams and external partners, resulting in a new visual system that will unify broadcasts across ESPN and TNT Sports.

The redesigned graphics package departs from ESPN’s current college football aesthetic and past CFP branding package. It mixes bright motifs, premium textures, and glass elements to elevate the championship’s presentation while educating viewers on the new format.

Planning for the new College Football Playoff era

ESPN built its College Football Playoff coverage around the campaign theme “there’s never been a playoff like this,” reflecting both the expanded tournament format and the network’s approach to presenting it.

The network began planning the visual refresh in early summer, implementing a collaborative process across multiple departments to align marketing, programming and live production needs under this unified message.

“We have a whole new 12-team bracket experience. It’s a completely new fan experience,” said Marissa Dempsey, senior manager, creative strategy and integration, ESPN Creative Studio. “Part of the strategy is really understanding what that means, what the education strategy is for the fan as it relates to the overall creative strategy for the brand.”

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The development timeline allowed ESPN to create educational elements explaining the new bracket structure during summer programming, ahead of the actual playoff coverage. This gave viewers time to understand the expanded format before the games began and to built excitement for the new format.

The ESPN Creative Studio team oversaw the creative development process, working to establish a cohesive messaging plan and creative vision across all platforms.

“Within that creative strategy process, we partner with all teams across the business. That’s our marketing team, programming, content, digital, et cetera,” said Dempsey. “We capture all the brand goals and work together to ensure a cohesive messaging plan.”

“Throughout this creative strategy process… it really allows us to sort of have those opportunities to ideate around new ways of thinking, creative innovations, and even creative work streams in the team,” said Dempsey.

The living gridiron 

The package centers on the concept of  “living gridiron,” incorporating interactive field lines and dynamic motion derived from actual gameplay. These elements combine with premium textures and glass effects to create depth and movement throughout the package.

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“We’re trying to balance the intensity, the tension, the excitement of playoff football, but also, this is essentially its season finale,” said Brian Girardin, art director, ESPN Creative Studio. “So, we wanted to bring in the premium texturing… very sleek, polished look.”

The design team opted for a brighter aesthetic than previous college football packages, which featured darker elements with team accents providing the primary source of color. The new approach maintains football-specific visual language while elevating the presentation for the playoffs. 

“Last time, it was dark, and you had those pops of team color. We have a lot of packages at ESPN that are darker, cinematic, a bit moody,” said Girardin. “How do we not go down that road even though we do love it? How do we make this one bright and a celebration? But it also has to read football.”

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For branding, a comprehensive new logo system was created to accommodate the expanded playoff format and multi-network broadcast requirements. The system needed to support various shows, title sequences and marketing materials across both ESPN and TNT platforms.

“The CFP has its own brand identity, and we worked with them to create a logo system structured around how we need to use it,” said Girardin. “There’s a million shows and different titlings that need to be accomplished in the logo system.”

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The approach represents a shift from previous years. While maintaining the shield lockup as an emblem for playoff branding, the team created a more flexible system for varied applications across different media.

“Our logo system previous to that was everything kind of in that shield and that was the only place that existed,” said Girardin. “This time around, we wanted to have a broader approach that could more easily communicate the titles and all the brand language in multiple spots, whether it’s on promotional elements, in-game, web banners.”

The College Football Playoffs icon serves as a central design element, with the team developing multiple ways to represent it throughout the package. This includes 3D versions of the football that transform into various graphic elements.

“The football comes up, cascades out, and sort of reveals the scoreboard. The shapes and the way things are laid out are a reflection of that football icon, which is universal to both networks and signature to CFP alone,” said Girardin.

“The motion and the splits are orchestrated like field lines and how the action can change those,” said Girardin. “Some of that motion is defined by piping through actual play motion to get that partially chaotic but orchestrated motion naturally into some 3D animation.”

“So those field lines — making those move and making those interactive — energetic,” said Girardin, noting the fluted glass elements react in a similar way.

The glass elements appear not only in the CFP logo but also as a 3D football that can slice into layers for another dynamic background.

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The package utilizes two main typefaces: Nordt from Typesketchbook for primary branding and titles and the Shapiro font family from OGJ Type Design for informational text. These typography choices aim to maintain readability while fitting the premium aesthetic.

ESPN partnered with Tendril, who previously worked on the network’s college football graphics, to develop the overall brand film. Two Fresh worked on the edit toolkit elements and marketing assets.

The graphics package was created using Cinema 4D’s Redshift and Octane rendering engines. The extensive use of glass textures and layered elements creates visual depth throughout the package, though Girardin noted the trophy animations presented the biggest render challenges.

The package will be used across both ESPN and TNT broadcasts, marking a coordinated visual approach between the networks. 

“It’s one cohesive look across the board from both networks,” said Girardin, who noted both networks will maintain their own pre- and post-game coverage with ESPN handling game production. 

Score bug and insert graphics

A new score bug for the package was created featuring animation that ties into the overall design language. The display incorporates the CFP football icon in its reveal animation, with cascading elements that mirror the broader package aesthetic.

The insert graphics system includes distinct designs for different playoff rounds. Early-round games utilize a silver-based design, while semifinal and championship games transition to gold-themed elements, creating visual differentiation as the tournament progresses.

“For the first two rounds, you’ll see the insert look will be a little more silver-based, and then our semifinal national championship games will shift to a gold version of the same insert package,” said Girardin.

The redesigned package continues ESPN’s broader refresh of college football coverage. In 2025, the network plans to debut additional elements for the regular season and “College GameDay.”