Big Ten Rolls Announces New $7B TV Media Rights Deal

The long-awaited Big Ten media rights deal is now official and, as anticipated, it is a revenue geyser: a seven-year agreement with multiple broadcast partners worth more than $7 billion plus escalators, sources told Sports Illustrated. The back-loaded deal, which begins in 2023, averages out to more than $1 billion annually.

The agreement with Fox, CBS and NBC comes with this caveat from a Big Ten source: “We are not done expanding.” What that means—in terms of timetable, potential expansion targets and the overall stability of college athletics—was left unsaid. It could be posturing to keep the rival Southeastern Conference and others off-balance, or it could be an indication, as Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren said in July, that further national realignment could come within the next few years, well before this new deal ends with the 2029–30 athletic calendar.

In terms of the current deal, it resets the bar for what universities can make on their media rights. When USC and UCLA are added to the conference in 2024, the annual payout over the lifetime of the agreement could average in excess of $70 million per member in the 16-team conference. 

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