Big Ten gets $7 billion over 7 years

Football Insider Board
#1

In new media deal.

CBS will continue to carry SEC games in 2023 and will only have 7 Big Ten games that year, so it will pay less in 2023.

The distribution of games will be as reported recently once CBS is out of the SEC deal: Fox at noon Eastern, CBS at 3:30 Eastern, NBC at night, streaming games on Peacock. CBS will also have a Black Friday game for the Big Ten; I presume ESPN will continue that for the SEC, so we may be stuck with Misery on Friday for a while.

Big Ten Network will also continue showing games.

And this, folks, is why the courts are saying athletes need to get paid.

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#2

It is sad to see the SEC leave CBS.

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#3

They didn’t want it enough to pay for it. If they’d offered Sankey what they offered the B1G, they’d still have that 2:30 slot.

#4

I don’t know if that is necessarily the case. CBS offered $300 million to keep SEC games and reportedly paid $350 million for Big Ten rights.

The feeling I got was that the SEC was eager to make itself exclusive to ESPN.

#5

Am I understanding it correctly that CBS offered the SEC less money but would have gotten the first choice among SEC games each week, but they offered the Big Ten more money and will not even get the first choice of games? (First choice goes to Fox at noon, I think. Is that right?)

I suppose the Big Ten having the four largest TV markets in their footprint now is a huge factor.

#6

Also, doesn’t the SEC still have to re-negotiate the numbers of their deal with ESPN/ABC to factor in Texas and OU joining?

#7

That is correct.

#8

Yep. Fox gets first dibs. However, I read something this morning that there will be a complicated system of allocating the games, something similar to what the NFL uses to make sure Fox, CBS, NBC and ESPN all get good games. Kevin Warren has an NFL background and knows how that worked.

Put it this way. They’ll all get their supply of Ohio State and Michigan games.

You would think ESPN would have to re-work the numbers for Texass and Zero U but I’ve never seen that confirmed.

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#9

Sure it is. It’s a huge factor. The Big 10 has some giant cities and population areas in its “footprint.” And those areas have tons of old, established money in them. The SEC’s chest thumping needs to be tempered a bit after this deal. The SEC still plays the best football, mainly due to Bama. But the Big 10 is a juggernaut, especially now with the LA schools.

#10

I’m not sure if the SEC/ESPN agreement will be modified when the new teams enter the league. I tend to think it will not. It would not surprise me if it has language that could increase the financial commitment if new teams are added.

#11

I don’t think there is any doubt the Big Ten won this round of media rights negotiation.

#12

That’s certainly possible. We may not know for sure until the league starts announcing payouts in 2026.

#13

The product on the field is good but not SEC level but the number of TVs in the Big 10 I would think holds a sizable edge over the SEC states.

#14

Got a real kick this morning when I just caught a brief bit of ESPN talking about the B1G deal. They were saying things like well this just shows who the premiere football league is in college football.

Anything they can do to downgrade the SEC and lift others up is amazing to me. I have no doubt what so ever that the SEC is the ‘PREMIERE’ college football league. NO DOUBT WHAT SO EVER.

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#15

So, they were dissing the league they signed to a long year contract?

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#16

It is right now. Nothing is permanent.

#17

If you take population as a proxy for TV sets:

Big Ten footprint, including Cali, had 126 million residents in the 2020 census. SEC footprint, including Mobilehoma, had 100 million. Cali added 40 million to theirs; OK added 4 million to ours (Texas was already in our footprint because of TAM).

Now how many of those don’t care about college sports? Probably pretty high in Cali and Maryland, not very high anywhere in our footprint. But B1G starts out with a 25% edge. I guarantee you that the networks know, though. They know how many Cali sets are tuned in on Saturday afternoon, and how many in Oklahoma and Texas.

#18

Maybe when it comes time to count tvs. But I guarantee you that the NFL knows where the premiere football is played, just check out where the most players come from in the draft. The SEC.

I really don’t care who watches what or where or how many TVs. If you call a conference the PREMIERE league and your not talking about performance then you just blowing smoke in some other direction because you know your second best and can’t be first. Just my opine and bias.

#19

Why would ESPN downgrade the SEC? They’re tied to us and their ties to the B1G have been cut.

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#20

I am disappointed we ae going to be tied so close to ESPN and lose our CBS connection. ESPN will need to upgrade the quality of their broadcasters. The CBS telecast is the best, in my view. I guess the Big 10 just whipped the SEC on this deal.