In filching UCLA and USC from the Pac-12, the Big Ten Conference has detonated an aerosol bomb in the heart of the Power Five superstructure, an act of gleeful destruction that leaves it and the SEC towering over the ruins while the schools unaffiliated with either body scramble for shelter. The shock waves from the SoCal heist have introduced a frenzied element to an already overstimulated media market, and the Big Ten is about to pack even more cash into a new rights package that originally had been projected to rake in more than $1 billion per year.
In what should have been the first sign that something tectonic was about to go down, the Big Ten recently stopped making any noise about the negotiations for its rights package. Back in May, Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren said the deal was on pace to close by Memorial Day. As the home of the must-see noon football package and a majority owner of the Big Ten Network, Fox Sports has already booked its renewal, but the other media groups that have been circling around a smaller piece of the pie are heading back to the table.
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Among the parties said to be recasting their bids are ESPN, CBS, NBC and Amazon. If CBS lays claim to the secondary 3:30 p.m. TV window—the network hopes to replace its marquee SEC broadcast before ESPN’s $3 billion blockbuster deal with the conference officially kicks off in 2024—that will leave the rest of the field to duke it out over a third package. And in bolstering its roster with UCLA and USC, the Big Ten may start to get offers from outlets that heretofore were noncommittal.
The current Big Ten pact, which expires next summer, is valued at $440 million per year, or $2.64 billion overall. Whatever sum the conference lands on this time around should be well north of that projected $1 billion mark, although the suspicion that the Big Ten has only just embarked upon its raiding party makes it nearly impossible to speculate on a revised figure. If the conference manages to win over Notre Dame, for example, you may as well throw the adding machine out the window.
In the unlikely event the Big Ten’s acquisitional fervor is satisfied by its L.A. pickups, the conference’s revised footprint presents an opportunity to schedule four national windows on fall Saturdays. The Big Ten has achieved what amounts to Manifest Destiny, stretching its domain from sea to shining sea in a land grab that not only gives it a home base in the three largest…