A B1G Time TV Deal

We've known for weeks who the Big Ten's new TV deal would be with and what the terms were.  We just needed everybody to make it official.  And, now that they have, it's easy to see why UCLA and USC left the Pac-12.  Whether the Big Ten sought them out or vice versa doesn't really matter.  What does matter is the financial windfall all 16 institutions are set to receive.

As you know, I'm not the biggest college football fan out there.  I'm not a college football fan at all, actually.  But, I also understand that it rules the roost and that ain't changing anytime soon, so this TV contract was gonna be all about football.  And the Big Ten will have a full Saturday of football on network television every week of the season.  I'm not sure any conference has ever had that before.

Kind of like when the NFL realized they could have a four-game, full-day window and started scheduling the London games for 9:30 am kickoffs, the Big Ten will be able to do exactly the same thing on Saturdays.  In the weeks when they have an 11:00 UCLA or USC game on FOX, half of the Big Ten will be seen on national TV.  That's huge exposure for what's already one of the strongest conferences.

FOX is the biggest winner here, which makes sense, seeing as FOX is a partner in the Big Ten Network.  They get to keep the "Big Noon Kickoff" that they've built their entire college football package around, and they'll have first pick of games every week...which all but guarantees they'll have Ohio State-Michigan every year.

CBS, meanwhile, will replace its 3:30 SEC game with a 3:30 Big Ten game.  That's not much of a downgrade.  Instead of Texas A&M vs. LSU, they'll have Penn State vs. Michigan State.  Or Wisconsin vs. Iowa.  Or USC vs. UCLA (which can't be at 12:00 Eastern for obvious reasons).  And, CBS will get a Black Friday game, so it wouldn't surprise me if one of the rivalry games ends up in that spot every year.

NBC might have the fewest games, but what they're lacking in quantity they'll make up for in quality.  They get to keep their Notre Dame package AND have a primetime Big Ten game!  They won't have a Big Ten game if the Notre Dame game is at night, but it's also easy to imagine Notre Dame-Michigan or Notre Dame-USC moved into that primetime slot, thus covering both bases.  It also essentially guarantees NBC will have the Notre Dame-USC game every year (thru their Notre Dame contract when it's in South Bend, thru their Big Ten contract when it's in LA).

There will be exclusive games on Peacock, too, which isn't a surprise considering how much NBC is pushing Peacock.  They already put one Notre Dame game on Peacock every season, and the chances of a marquee game getting the streaming-only treatment seems minimal.  So, get ready for Rutgers-Maryland and Northwestern-Purdue on Peacock!

Notre Dame is a big winner here, too.  The Fighting Irish were able to keep their NBC deal, which only figures to get bigger now that it can be packaged with a Big Ten game immediately afterwards.  The pressure for them to join a conference is off, at least for now.  And they'll probably end up getting some road games on NBC, too, if they visit Big Ten teams.  (I can even see them arranging it with the conference where they, for example, play Penn State in Pittsburgh in a Penn State "home" game that's NBC's primetime selection for that week.)

Going back to the Big Ten, all three will get Big Ten Championship Games during the seven years of the contract.  It won't exactly be a Super Bowl-like rotation, though.  FOX gets the odd years, while CBS gets two of the evens and NBC only has 2026.  That makes sense, though.  NBC is the third partner in the package, so them getting the fewest championship games is understandable.

None of the details about the football portion of the contract were a surprise to anybody.  It's essentially what was unofficially announced a few weeks ago when the news first broke that ESPN was out and it would be a combination of FOX, CBS and NBC.  What I was curious about was how the Big Ten basketball contract would look for each network.

I must admit, there are some details about basketball that still confuse me.  The Big Ten is the biggest college basketball property CBS has, so you know they were gonna make damn sure it stayed that way, even if it meant fewer football games overall (as long as they filled their Saturday at 3:30 slot with a Big Ten game)!  And that's exactly what happened.  They got more regular season games, in fact, and added the women's championship game to go along with the men's semifinals and final, which have been on CBS for years.

The FOX and NBC portions of the basketball deal are where they lose me, though.  Not so much with FOX, which will have the Big Ten join the Big East on FS1.  And, since they already have the Big Ten Network, the rest will go there.  Nothing was mentioned about the Big Ten Tournament other than CBS having the weekend, though.  I'd have to assume it'll stay on BTN since the Big East will be on FS1.

One place I know it won't be is NBC.  The basketball portion in their part of the package calls for games exclusively on Peacock.  Again, I get it.  NBC is really pushing Peacock, and their theory is the more content on there, the better.  It also seems like it's limiting them, though, since they don't have the cable network to show Big Ten Tournament games on even if they wanted to.

Overall, though, there's no way anybody isn't satisfied with this package.  The Big Ten wanted its football Saturdays to resemble an NFL Sunday, and that's exactly what it got.  FOX expanded its relationship with the conference, CBS found a replacement for its 3:30 SEC game, and NBC achieved two goals.  They increased their college football presence and don't have to do anything with their NBC deal, which will only be strengthened.

Most importantly, there's the money.  This seven-year deal is worth $7 billion.  That's $62.5 million a year per school!  At a minimum!  That figure only stands to go up once UCLA and USC join, adding the Los Angeles market, which, in turn, will increase the Big Ten Network's reach.  Which will increase what the conference gets in subscriber fees.  When you look at it that way, their decision to go from the Pac-12 to the Big Ten makes total sense.  Financially at least.

After the SEC got its windfall from ESPN, people wondered how the Big Ten would respond.  They responded very nicely.  And once again showed that, when it comes to the Power 5, it's really the Power 2, then the Other 3.