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What Does All This TV Talk on Big Ten Do for Big 12 and Oklahoma State?

August 9, 2022
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STILLWATER – Okay, the Big Ten hasn’t announced anything officially with their new television deal. However, details on the blockbuster financial deal are starting to leak out like Edward Snowden’s briefcase.

USA TODAY Sports
FOX gets the Big Noon game and the bulk of the inventory in the Big Ten.

The Big Ten is expected to earn in excess of $1 billion for a package that will bring Saturday triple-headers starting with FOX and their Big Noon kickoff, followed by an afternoon game on CBS, and a night game on NBC to go along with their Notre Dame package that will mostly stick to the afternoons. There will be some mobility in the windows, but that appears to be the standard Saturday game plan.

Out of the Big Ten entirely is ESPN, who has been televising Big Ten football and basketball for some 40-years. The deals with all three networks are not finalized. The Sports Business Journal media writer John Ourand was the first one to report these details. CBS is rumored to be paying $350-million alone for the Saturday afternoon slot.

Okay, so what does that mean for the Big 12 Conference and for Oklahoma State?

Big 12 Conference
Gundy has high confidence in Yormark.

Let’s start with this. FOX is looking for Friday night games as they want to establish a Friday night college package on Big FOX. They will also be looking for games for FS1, FS2, and FOX on Saturday afternoons and at night on certain Saturdays. We expect FOX will invest heavily in both he Big 12 and/or Pac-12 for inventory. Know this, new Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark has excellent contacts and relationships with many of the folks at FOX Sports that have come up the ranks during his tenure in both NASCAR and the New Jersey Nets.

Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
President Kayse Shrum loves to win as does Brett Yormark.

Just a word to the Big 12 and Cowboy brethren, Yormark is aggressive. He is not going to sit around and wait for deals to fall in his lap. He is the go out and grab the bull by the horns kind of an executive. You have the right guy working for you. Oklahoma State has a President in Dr. Kayse Shrum that matches up well with Yormark. They have developed an appreciation for each other already.

Honestly, I believe CBS is out as they will look for the Saturday afternoon games only. CBS has some Group of Five conferences such as the Mountain West and American Athletic as well as the military academies for programming on CBS Sports Network. NBC could be shopping for some more inventory as they only get Notre Dame home games and may want either an extra Big Ten game or a game from the Big 12 or Pac-12 to augment that schedule and make their slate a consistent doubleheader each week.  

As for ESPN, they have all of the SEC and ACC to themselves, but the word is they want inventory for the late night window. That screams Pac-12, but the Big 12 with BYU and potentially some additions if they were to poach some Pac-12 schools could jump into that.

Our sources have confirmed that Yormark has established a better relationship with ESPN after all the exchanges in the summer of 2021 with former commissioner Bob Bowlsby making accusations regarding ESPN working to help the SEC gain Texas and Oklahoma. Bowlsby basically accused ESPN of working to weaken the Big 12. ESPN has lots of channels and inventory and with no piece of the Big Ten package some money to spend. You would think.

Finally, how much is ESPN, and other companies with streaming capabilities willing to spend to push live sports, in this case college football, to grow their operation?

That is a multi-million dollar question that still needs to be answered. Maybe, there will be some streaming aspect to the Big Ten package where we can gauge how much money is in that well.

 
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