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Report: Big Ten getting $2.64 billion in new TV deal

Lev Facher
Special to the Detroit Free Press
Nov 28, 2015; West Lafayette, IN, USA;  Purdue Boilermakers quarterback Austin Appleby (12) tries to avoid a sack by Indiana Hoosiers linebacker Clyde Newton (41) at Ross Ade Stadium. Indiana defeats Purdue 54-36.

The latest Big Ten media-rights contract will earn the conference an average of $440 million annually over the next six years, according to a report in the Sports Business Journal.

The deal’s biggest players are Fox, which came to its agreement with the Big Ten in April, and ESPN.

Some rivalry broadcasts, including the annual Michigan vs. Ohio State football game, likely will move to Fox. Fox will have broadcast rights to the football championship game each year, and the networks will alternate picks for which weeks they get their first choice of football broadcasts, with Fox selecting first.

The Big Ten’s media windfall over the six-year period totals $2.64 billion. That includes a basketball-only deal that gives CBS the rights to some basketball broadcasts, including the Big Ten tournament semifinals and championship game, through 2023.

“For (Big Ten commissioner Jim) Delany, the deal is a clear win,” wrote the SBJ’s John Ourand. “Not only did the conference pick up a significant increase in a down market, but the relatively short length of the deal means the Big Ten will be the first major college conference to renegotiate a new deal in what it hopes will be a more robust marketplace.”

The agreement nearly triples the conference’s annual broadcast revenues. According to the SBJ report, Fox and ESPN will broadcast roughly 25 football games and 50 basketball games each season.

According to documents obtained by the Lafayette (Ind.) Journal and Courier in 2014, Big Ten schools received $27 million per year from the last rights deal, a figure that will rise to $35.5 million in 2016-17, in the final year of the deal. (And that doesn't include schools' individual deals. Michigan State just announced a 15-year, $150-million contract with Fox, and Michigan is on a 12-year, $86-million deal with IMG that began in 2008.)

Today's SPJ report says the deals are being reviewed by the conference’s lawyers, and the Big Ten hopes to announce them at its football kickoff luncheon July 26.