Big Ten completes 7-year, $7 billion media rights agreement with Fox, CBS, NBC

The Big Ten has completed a new seven-year media rights agreement with Fox, CBS and NBC that is set to bring in more than $7 billion to one of the nation's most powerful athletic conferences.

The deal will begin July 1, 2023, and run through the end of the 2029-30 athletic year. Specific terms were not disclosed, but a financial windfall won't come immediately, according to media sources. The CBS payout in Year 1 of the agreement is lower since it still will be carrying SEC games during the 2023 season and will air only seven Big Ten contests that fall. But the Big Ten's per-school distribution will turn upward in Year 2 of the deal, when new members USC and UCLA enter the conference. Revenue will rise substantially beginning in Year 3.

The Big Ten is projected to eventually distribute $80 million-$100 million per year to each of its 16 members. According to USA Today, the league distributed $54.3 million to most of its members during the most recent fiscal year (2019-20) not impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.

«It's very expensive to operate our athletic departments,» Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren told ESPN. «These new deals will continually provide stability for our athletic departments to service our students in a highly productive manner, allowing them to get a world-class education but be treated in a manner that they rightfully deserve.

»This will help our student-athletes in their continued pursuit of name, image and likeness opportunities, because now you're going to be on linear TV from morning to night on Saturday with three massive organizations."

All three networks will carry future Big Ten football championship games. Fox, which will remain the Big Ten's primary broadcast partner and has carried the