Chief Brand Marketing and Communications Officer
The College Football Playoff - Bringing America together through one of the most competitive and exciting sporting events of the year.
The College Football Playoff (CFP) is the premier postseason event in college football, determining the national champion of the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). Established in 2014, the CFP revolutionized the college football landscape by replacing the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) with a four-team playoff. In 2024, the CFP expanded to a 12-team format, dramatically increasing access, competitiveness, and excitement across the sport. Built on partnerships with ESPN, NCAA athletic conferences, universities, sponsors, and host cities, the CFP has become one of the most visible and valuable properties in American sports. The CFP manages a series of quarterfinal and semifinal bowl games, rotating among prestigious New Year’s Six bowls, including the Rose, Sugar, Orange, Cotton, Fiesta, and Peach Bowls. The event culminates in the CFP National Championship Game, which brings together fans, student-athletes, and communities for a world-class celebration of college football. The National Championship Game consistently ranks among the most-watched annual sporting events in the United States.
The College Football Playoff Organization
The College Football Playoff organization is responsible for governing and managing this landmark event. Based in Irving, Texas, the CFP operates to deliver both the competition and its associated fan, media, and community initiatives. Oversight of the organization is provided by the Board of Managers, composed of 11 university presidents and chancellors from all 10 FBS conferences and Notre Dame. The Management Committee, made up of 10 conference commissioners and the Notre Dame athletics director, works very closely with the CFP, led by Rich Clark, Executive Director, to carry out the day-to-day operations of the College Football Playoff events.
In addition, a 13-member Selection Committee, composed of respected leaders including former coaches, student-athletes, administrators, journalists, and sitting athletics directors, ranks the nation’s top 25 teams, assigns schools to the 12-team bracket, and determines quarterfinal and semifinal bowl placements. Together, this governance structure ensures that the CFP is run with integrity, transparency, and a commitment to both competitive excellence and the advancement of college football.
Purpose of the Position
The College Football Playoff (CFP) is entering a transformative era. With the historic expansion to a 12-team playoff format beginning in 2024, the CFP is poised for unprecedented growth in scale, visibility, and cultural impact. This shift fundamentally increases the number of schools, fan bases, and communities directly engaged with the playoff, creating new opportunities for storytelling, marketing innovation, and commercial partnerships.
Today, the CFP remains one of the most visible and valuable sports properties in the United States, and the stakes have never been higher to ensure that the CFP brand is not only preserved, but elevated as it enters this new chapter.
At this time in the CFP organization’s evolution, there is a desire to have a Chief Brand Marketing and Communications Officer to develop and manage the brand promise and activation, as well as design and execute breakthrough storytelling and fan engagement opportunities for the organization, the CFP event, and all stakeholders.
The Role
The Chief Brand Marketing & Communications Officer (CBMCO) will serve as a senior leader responsible for elevating the College Football Playoff (CFP) brand, developing impactful communications strategies, maximizing sponsor and media value, and driving fan engagement. This role will oversee integrated brand marketing, strategic communications, and fan engagement initiatives, partnering closely with national stakeholders, including conferences, higher education institutions, and corporate, media, and bowl partners. The CBMCO will bring proven expertise in brand building, performance marketing, effective integrated communications (inter-intra and external), business intelligence, and partner and agency management to advance CFP’s growth trajectory and position it as one of the most iconic sporting events globally.
The Chief Brand Marketing & Communications Officer will play a pivotal role in shaping and amplifying CFP’s brand and reputation. With more games, more fan bases, and more stakeholders involved than ever before, the CFP requires a visionary leader to:
Serve as the primary brand marketing and communications leader to all internal and external stakeholders and constituents.
Modernize and fortify departmental policies, procedures, and organizational and operational effectiveness to streamline and maximize the use of personnel, budgets, tools, and external agencies.
Assess and define the CFP brand to unify and celebrate football student-athletes, conferences, universities, media, corporate and bowl partners, and fans under the iconic CFP moniker.
Grow and protect the CFP’s brand and reputation at a time when collegiate athletics is undergoing rapid change, from governance, legal, legislative, realignment, and student-athlete revenue-sharing developments.
Develop and implement integrated communications playbooks to proactively and positively narrate and mitigate risk for the CFP and its partners, publicly positioning them for success today and tomorrow.
Strengthen and build tactical partnerships across conferences, universities, media and corporate, and bowl partners, reinforcing the CFP’s standing as one of the most powerful properties in sports.
Maximize revenue opportunities by enhancing sponsorship ROI, supporting future media rights negotiations, and driving fan engagement.
Innovate fan experience, ensuring that the CFP keeps pace with evolving fan behavior and sets the standard for how live sporting events capture cultural relevance.
Key Responsibilities
C-suite Leadership
Set the vision and strategy for brand marketing and integrated strategic communications for the CFP enterprise, collaborating with boards, C-suites, and partner leadership to strengthen the brand, safeguard reputation, and drive growth.
Build the departmental operating system for efficiency and growth. Stand up a Program Management Office (PMO) and an integrated planning calendar. Define workflows, roles, and Service Level Agreements (SLAs) with CFP staff, conferences, bowls, broadcasters, and agencies.
Own revenue and budget performance for brand marketing and communications. Set the annual Profit & Loss (P&L) and multi-year plan. Alongside the CFO, track incoming revenue from sponsorships, licensing, and media value.
Manage outgoing spend across media, creative, research, technology, and events. Approve investments and contracts. Reallocate funds to hit growth and efficiency targets.
Coach and mentor team members and drive succession planning.
Brand Marketing
Lead overall integrated brand marketing strategies to grow value, visibility, and engagement of the CFP across internal and external audiences, including but not limited to football student-athletes, conferences, universities, media, corporate and bowl partners, and fans.
Define and steward the CFP brand architecture, voice, and visual system across the expanded playoff. Publish standards and partner toolkits that align conferences, universities, media and corporate partners at every touchpoint.
Lead integrated, data-driven marketing that grows reach, attendance, tune-in and affinity. Launch year-round campaigns with partners across digital, social, broadcast, and live experiences that celebrate student-athletes, the CFP Foundation, the championship game, and all ancillary events.
Protect and elevate the brand amid rapid change in college athletics. Use clear narratives, reputation tracking, and quick optimization to keep the CFP trusted by stakeholders and fans.
Integrated Communications
Lead the development and execution of integrated communications strategies that shape, protect, and advance the CFP’s business goals, its brand, reputation, process, and protocols.
Proactively develop and manage the earned and owned narratives about the CFP, including sensitive issues such as playoff format changes, team selection rationale, and other high-profile announcements.
Serve as a respected and timely voice to media, stakeholders, and fans by delivering clear, consistent, and transparent messaging that reinforces trust in the CFP and its leadership and committees.
Develop multiple crisis communications plans that accurately and timely mitigate risk for the CFP and its stakeholders and constituents.
Partnerships & Stakeholder Engagement
Strengthen and manage partnerships with conferences, universities, media, corporate and bowl partners, and their respective leadership teams to maximize revenue opportunities and fan engagement.
Serve as the senior brand leader representing the CFP across national conversations with key partners and stakeholders.
Revenue & Media Activation
Support sponsorship and media negotiations through insights-driven storytelling and data-backed strategies.
Collaborate with the leadership team to develop and execute revenue-supporting marketing and communications initiatives.
Run RFPs and manage master services agreements and statements of work. Set and enforce KPIs for personnel and agencies with dashboards and monthly and quarterly reviews.
Public Events & Fan Engagement
Oversee the planning, promotion, and execution of CFP public events, ensuring they serve as powerful extensions of the brand and enhance the overall fan experience.
Partner with conferences, host cities, and bowl committees to deliver innovative, high-impact events that elevate the student-athlete experience and engage fans, sponsors, and media.
Ensure all events align with the CFP’s brand identity, communications strategy, and community impact objectives.
Consumer & Market Insights
Leverage business intelligence, market research, fan engagement data, and media trend analysis to inform brand positioning, owned and earned communications strategies, campaign designs, and sponsorship value propositions.
Anticipate emerging trends in sports media, technology, and fan behavior to ensure the CFP remains at the forefront of innovation.
Year One Critical Success Factors
Leading and developing the CFP Brand Marketing and Communications Team; aligning and empowering team members, establishing transparent operational and organizational processes and accountability; and creating a collaborative, high-performing culture that delivers measurable impact across brand marketing, communications, media, and corporate partner initiatives.
Engaging CFP stakeholders—including the Management Committee, conferences, universities, media, corporate and bowl partners, and other key constituents— by building clear and consistent communication channels, proactively shaping the narrative around CFP decisions, and achieving stakeholder alignment on key initiatives such as playoff format, media strategy, and public positioning.
Designing brand architecture and delivering brand impact through integrated communications and promotional campaigns that drive fan engagement growth (digital, broadcast, and live events), increase brand visibility across national media, and establish CFP as one of the most relevant and talked-about properties in sports.
Producing memorable public events that attract record fan participation, deliver sponsor value, and enhance national visibility, ensuring that each event aligns with CFP’s brand identity and contributes to long-term brand equity.
Building and sustaining strategic partnerships by deepening engagement with bowl committees, sponsors, and media executives; creating measurable increases in sponsorship ROI; and laying groundwork for future media rights negotiations.
Develop a four-year plan to unlock revenue opportunities through market intelligence and sizing to identify new growth areas, coupled with data-driven marketing and communications strategies that support sponsorship sales, increase fan-driven revenue streams, and maximize the value of CFP’s media and commercial partnerships.