Big Ten media rights: Conference’s TV deal is richest in college sports history
The Big Ten on Thursday announced their much-anticipated media rights deal, the most lucrative TV deal in college sports history. The conference will reportedly receive between $7 billion and $8 billion over the next seven years.
In addition to continuing to air on Fox, Fox Sports 1 and Big Ten Network, the conference will now add CBS, NBC and NBCUniversal’s Peacock to a record-breaking seven-year deal that runs from 2023 to the 2029-30 season.
It will also result in the Big Ten ending their 40-year relationship with ESPN. The network has dominated the college football landscape in terms of media rights and opinion for much of the 21st century. That the conference would leave the network reflects the depth of the new deal, as well as ESPN’s looser stranglehold on esports.
The Big Ten’s deal will, of course, result in significant payout increases for the conference’s member institutions, which by 2024 will include USC and UCLA. With their addition, the Big Ten’s media foothold will include the nation’s three largest television markets in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.
MORE: Big Ten should take responsibility for expanding 16-team College Football Playoffs
“The Big Ten conference media rights deals are more than dollars and deals,” Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren said in a statement to uncertain times in college sports.
“We are extremely grateful to our world-class media partners for recognizing the power of the Big Ten Conference brand and for providing the incredible resources we need to enable our student-athletes to compete at the highest level and achieve their academic and athletic goals.”
With that, The Sporting News delves into the new media deal, including its value, details of television coverage and what it means for continued college football expansion.
How much is the Big Ten TV deal worth?
According to Action Network, the media rights deal is valued at between $7 billion and $8 billion over the course of its seven-year deal: over $1 billion in payouts on an annual basis. The deal also includes an escalation clause that could increase the value of the deal to a total of $10 billion based on changing markets and inflation.
The Athletic reports that CBS and NBC, new Big Ten partners, are paying $350 million annually for their media rights package.
However, the deal has been pushed back as CBS’ current deal with the SEC runs through the 2023 college football season. Because of this, the network will have a limited number of games it can broadcast before increasing coverage in 2024.
According to Action Network, Big Ten schools will get the same distribution in 2023-24 as this year, about $60 million per school. The payout will increase slightly in the second year of the deal, before increasing to about $100 million per school annually beginning in 2025. This is based solely on the media deal and does not include revenue from college football playoff, bowl game or NCAA tournament participation.
MORE: Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren is open to expansion, but there has to be added value
How does Big Ten compare to Power 5 contracts?
Here’s how the Big Ten’s deal compares to those at other traditional Power 5 conferences (via On3 Sports).
| conference | Annual payout | process |
| big ten | 1 billion dollars | 2030 |
| SEC | 300 million dollars | 2034 |
| Pac-12 | $250 million | 2024 |
| Acc | $240 million | 2036 |
| big 12 | 200 million dollars | 2025 |
Big Ten TV coverage under new contract
It remains to be seen how Fox, CBS and NBC will determine which networks get which games, but The Athletic reports that networks will pick weeks as opposed to individual games; Fox, the Big Ten’s longest-running media partner, has first choice broadcasters.
CBS Sports Chairman Sean McManus said of the process (via The Athletic):
“There’s a selection process where all three broadcast partners (weekly) have a selection of no selections much easier to manage now that you have these two national programs that are going to play in the Big Ten.”
Below are the following TV coverage schedules for Fox, CBS, NBC, Peacock and the Big Ten Network:
Fox
Fox’s inclusion in the deal is actually a renewal to continue broadcasting football and men’s basketball games (with the ability to add more sports throughout the year). It will be 10 to 14 games in the Big Noon Fox lunchtime slot.
According to Action Network, Fox and its sister network Fox Sports 1 will televise between 24 and 27 games in 2023, jumping to 30 and 32 games a year from 2024 through the 2029 season. They will also broadcast a total of 45 men’s basketball games.
CBS
CBS will broadcast seven regular-season football games in 2023, with each broadcast simultaneously streamed to Paramount+, the network’s dedicated streaming service.
In 2024, CBS will televise up to 15 regular-season football games in its historic 3:30 p.m. ET slot, including an annual Black Friday afternoon game. And yes, CBS brings its legendary football coverage to the Big Ten.
Hello, @B1Gfootball.
beat the music pic.twitter.com/PbMHPql1Cz— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) August 18, 2022
The deal also includes men’s basketball coverage in both the regular season and postseason, as well as coverage of the men’s and women’s Big Ten basketball tournaments. According to Action Network, CBS will have nine to 15 men’s basketball games, the fewest coverage of any of the Big Ten’s media partners (except NBC, which has not made a bid).
ABC
NBC will broadcast 14 to 16 games nationwide beginning in 2023 and will introduce “Big Ten Saturday Night” in the primetime slot – a direct companion to the station’s Sunday Night Football for NFL coverage. Each of the games that the network broadcasts will also be streamed to Peacock, NBCUniversal’s dedicated streaming service.
peacock
Peacock will referee up to eight exclusive regular-season football games each season (which means the games will not appear on NBC). The network will also receive up to 47 regular-season men’s basketball games, including 32 conference games and 15 non-conference games. The deal also includes 30 women’s regular-season games (20 conference and 10 non-conference).
Big Ten Network
Action Network reports that the Big Ten Network will broadcast between 38 and 41 football games in 2023 and at least that many in 2024-2029. The BTN also carries the vast majority of men’s basketball games, at 126 per year.
Big Ten Championship Schedule
Each of the three major networks will broadcast at least one of the Big Ten’s championship games from 2023 to 2029. Fox has the most with four; CBS has two; and NBC has one.
Here’s an annual breakdown of which network will carry the championship. Fox will broadcast the event in odd years, while CBS and NBC will rotate in 2024, 2026 and 2028:
- 2023: Fox
- 2024: CBS
- 2025: Fox
- 2026: ABC
- 2027: Fox
- 2028: CBS
- 2029: Fox
MORE: What’s next for college football after USC, UCLA join Big Ten? Look at the next steps for SEC, Pac-12, Notre Dame and more
Which schools are in the Big Ten?
The Big Ten currently includes 14 schools. That number will grow to 16 when UCLA and USC join the conference. They are in alphabetical order:
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Maryland
- Michigan
- State of Michigan
- Minnesota
- Nebraska
- northwest
- State of Ohio
- Pennsylvania
- Purdue
- Rueger
- Wisconsin
- UCLA (from 2024)
- USC (from 2024)
MORE: Winners, losers from USC and UCLA’s stunning departure for the Big Ten
However, the Big Ten didn’t just stop potential expansion with the two Los Angeles schools. According to Action Network, the conference is still trying to add more current Pac-12 schools:
Regardless of whether Notre Dame joins the Big Ten or remains independent, the league still wants to add more Pac-12 schools to ease potential travel concerns for USC and UCLA, sources said.
The Athletic also reports that Warren “would never close the door on expansion, but it has to come at the right time, for the right reasons, with the right institutions.”