Somewhat quietly, Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren and the Big Ten offices have been working on a media deal that could have eye-popping numbers. According to ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg, Warren is optimistic that the deal could get done in the next 30 days and has been in discussions with Fox, CBS, NBC, ESPN, TNT, and streaming services Amazon and Apple.
Even more than that, according to CBS Sports’ Dennis Dodd, the deal could be somewhere in the neighborhood of 1 billion and have the framework in place around Memorial Day. And while that sounds optimistic, there are reasons to believe that the deal could be a massive one with nearly one-quarter of the nation’s population in the Big Ten’s footprint.
The main issues at hand right now according to the CBS report is deciding whether to give Fox all its rights, split those rights as they presently do with ESPN, or take a different road like finding a partner besides ESPN or even attempt to expand even further.
Ahead of league meetings in Arizona, #B1G commissioner Kevin Warren told @CFBHeather and me that he hopes to have basic terms of Big Ten's new media rights agreements ready in next 30 days.
"I'm confident it will sort out and we'll land exactly where it's supposed to be."
— Adam Rittenberg (@ESPNRittenberg) May 3, 2022
A billion-dollar deal would be massive and account for roughly $71 million per school. If it does play out and come to fruition, that would be a record deal and set the course for future media rights deals among the other power five conferences.
We’ll obviously stay on top of all of this when more news becomes available.
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