The new Big Ten deals with NBC, CBS, and Fox Sports remain unfinished, ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported over the weekend. The seven-year agreements that were reached prior to the 2022-23 football season are facing roadblocks as there are key details not made clear to schools or broadcast partners before the deals were announced.
The set of deals negotiated under former commissioner Kevin Warren have irked some of the conference’s premier teams, such as Ohio State, Penn State, and Michigan, with one sticking point being the availability of marquee schools to host primetime games after the first week of November. In the previously negotiated deals, some Big Ten schools were not required to play primetime games late in the season, citing health and logistical reasons.
According to Thamel, the availability of these teams was not communicated to NBC, the conference’s new primetime partner, during negotiations. The oversight has forced some schools to make concessions so the deal can work for the upcoming season. Ohio State will now play a night game on November 11th against Michigan State, and Penn State will host a game on Black Friday, also against Michigan State.
The misunderstanding seems to indicate a shocking lack of communication between the conference, its television partners, and the schools.
Warren, currently president and CEO of the Chicago Bears, had been lauded for masterminding the move to bring USC and UCLA to the Big Ten, capitalizing on the ensuing financial windfall, and solidifying the conference’s status as a “Power-2.” Now, with a television agreement that still must overcome substantial hurdles, it seems Warren may have left key stakeholders in the dark about details that could have devalued a possible deal.
The most interesting revelation from Thamel’s reporting concerns what appears to be a tenuous relationship between Warren and FOX. Back in 2016, when the previous set of deals were brokered, Big Ten Network — majority owned by FOX — acquired the programming rights for the Big Ten. In practice, this meant that FOX would negotiate future television agreements in conjunction with the conference rather than the conference negotiating independently, as is the norm.
John Ourand of Sports Business Journal reported that FOX execs were present with Warren and executives from other networks during April 2022 negotiations. Forcing networks to negotiate a deal with their direct competitors is odd from a business standpoint, but even more perplexing is Thamel’s recent report that Big Ten schools must “pay back” $40m to FOX in return for the conference granting NBC rights to the Big Ten title game in 2026. How would FOX be unaware of such a major provision in a deal that they helped broker?
In the most generous interpretation of events, Warren failed to communicate key details of the new TV contracts to Big Ten schools. NBC was unaware that historically, many of the Big Ten’s marquee teams have not made themselves available for night games late in the season. Schools were similarly unaware that their accommodations regarding night games would change under the new deals. Most surprisingly, FOX, who worked hand-in-hand with the conference during negotiations, was not aware that NBC would be granted a Big Ten title game in 2026.
The lack of full transparency between parties helped boost the value of the deals and Warren’s reputation as he searched for his next job. If one is eyeing a jump back to the NFL, inking an eye-popping, record-setting $7bn television deal would seem to be a decent talking point in an interview.
At the same time, the business of sports is built on relationships — and one does not casually burn bridges. It’s possible that Warren (maybe naively) believed NBC would go along with a package that didn’t feature its fair share of marquee teams late in the season.
The FOX situation, however, is harder to reconcile. It is possible that FOX was open to selling title game rights to another Big Ten partner as a way to keep other networks happy, but for another network to reach an agreement without the full endorsement of FOX is a surefire way to upset everybody involved.
For no fault of his own, new Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti surely has a huge mess to clean up — one he likely didn’t expect when he took the job.
