• by Wayne Friedman , December 31, 2021

As five college football bowls are being shelved due to rising pandemic issues, Disney Advertising Sales has announced 13 sponsors for its College Football Playoff series and other postseason bowl games.

AT&T will return as the presenting sponsor of the College Football Playoff National Championship Game on ESPN.

Also, Allstate, Capital One, Capital One Venture X, Chick-fil-A, Goodyear and PlayStation will get title sponsorship for all six New Year’s bowl games. Additional major sponsors for ESPN bowl games include Cheez-It, Dr Pepper, Gatorade, Mercedes-Benz, Modelo, RAM Truck and Taco Bell.

ESPN will air 21 college football bowl games this year and ABC will air one -- the “Vrbo Citrus Bowl” on New Year’s Day.

National TV advertising revenues for regular season college football -- September 1 through December 6 -- totaled $532.5 million, according to iSpot.tv.

Bloomberg Intelligence projected that another $400 million has been planned to be spent on all ESPN postseason, college bowl games.

Five bowl games have been canceled so far due to rising pandemic issues -- including the Barstool Sports Arizona Bowl (Dec. 31); the San Diego County Credit Union Holiday Bowl (Dec. 28); the EasyPost Hawai’i Bowl (Dec. 24), the Military Bowl (Dec. 27), and Wasabi Fenway Bowl (Dec. 29).

Currently, two semifinal college football playoff games -- the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic and the Capital One Orange Bowl -- will air on Friday, December 31.

The next day -- New Year’s Day -- two other college football playoff games will be broadcast: “The Rose Bowl Game presented by Capital One Venture X” at 5 p.m. ET and the “Allstate Sugar Bowl” at 8:45 p.m Two other New Year’s Day games will also be on ESPN: the “Outback Bowl” and the “PlayStation Fiesta Bowl.”

The “College Football Playoff National Championship Presented by AT&T” will air at 8 p.m on ESPN on January 10.

Disney Ad Sales says the games will feature custom branded content developed by Disney CreativeWorks, the company’s creative content studio and agency. There will also be onsite activations and televised feature integrations.