Big Ten Strikes Up New Television Deal

The Big Ten made its new media rights deal official on Thursday. The league finalized a seven-year deal that will bring in nearly $1 billion annually with NBC, Fox Sports, and CBS that will start next year.

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In this new deal, every school including new members USC and UCLA, will get $70 million. According to the Big Ten, Fox and Fox Sports One (FS1) will still get the primary noon spot where they can broadcast the highly anticipated Michigan-Ohio State game. CBS will get the 3:30 time slot with Brad Nessler and Gary Danielson moving from calling the SEC to the Big Ten. NBC and its streaming service Peacock will also get exclusive rights to the Big Ten night games.

Most college football fans are used to seeing the SEC play in the 3:30 time slot on CBS, but this all changes in 2023 when the SEC moves to ESPN and ABC for 10 years. ESPN and ABC now have exclusive rights to many key college football games including the Iron Bowl, the Egg Bowl, Alabama-LSU, Auburn-Georgia, and the SEC Championship.

The question now is what happens to everyone else. Conferences like the ACC, Pac-12, and Big 12 have to make massive TV deals to keep schools from leaving to join the Big Ten or SEC. These conferences have to make deals fast with schools like Clemson, North Carolina, Florida State, Miami, Oregon, and Washington being rumored to leave.

Another big question is what happens to Notre Dame, an independent school and one of the most well-known college football programs. Ever since 1991, NBC has held exclusive rights to all Fighting Irish football games. Many fans expected NBC to renew the deal, but no deal was made. Notre Dame looks to find a new TV station that will give them money or the Fighting Irish may be forced to join a conference like the ACC or the Big Ten to keep up with college football.

Only time will tell what happens with all of the schools and conferences, but one thing is for sure, the old college football is gone.