It is not clear how, but CBS will reportedly be able to manage next year’s overlap between its pending Big Ten and expiring SEC rights deals.
The Big Ten’s imminent media rights deal with CBS will be structured in such a way to allow the network to carry its final season of SEC football, Sports Illustrated reported Thursday. Next year marks the first season of the new Big Ten media rights deal and the last season of the CBS SEC contract.
CBS is expected to carry Big Ten games in the same mid-afternoon window currently occupied by its SEC coverage. The network is contractually obligated to air SEC games in that 3:30 PM ET window each week. Given the Big Ten is expected to maintain a regular Noon ET window on FOX and primetime slot on NBC, it is not clear how CBS will be able to fulfill its SEC duties without stepping on a competing Big Ten window.
It should be noted that the CBS SEC deal only mandates games beginning in week three of each season (a leftover stipulation from when CBS had rights to US Open tennis), meaning that the network could carry Big Ten games with no conflict in the first two weeks of next season.
CBS did air split-national coverage of SEC and Big East games from 1996-2000, but there is no reason to believe that either the Big Ten or SEC would consent to such an arrangement.
With ESPN having officially exited negotiations earlier in the week, the Big Ten’s move to CBS and NBC would seem to be a formality — though as of yet nothing is official. ESPN is said to have rejected a deal that would have cost the network $380 million per year for half as many football games as under its current deal. CBS and NBC are both expected to pay $350 million for their respective packages, joining Fox in a three-network rotation.
[News from Sports Illustrated 8.11, additional info from AP 8.8]
