College Football TV

Big 12 inks TV deal with ESPN, Fox

Oct 30, 2022 • 10:48 am

The Big 12 has reached agreements to extend its TV contracts with ESPN and Fox, Sports Business Journal reported on Sunday.

The 6-year deal will see the networks pay a combined $380 million per year to the conference.

Securing this extension is a significant win for the conference and new commissioner Brett Yormark, in that it: A) secures the conference's intermediate-term future and B) actually represents an increase from its current TV deal, one that includes Texas and Oklahoma.

The $380 million per year keeps the Big 12 significantly behind the Big Ten ($1.1 billion per year from Fox, CBS and NBC) and the SEC (who netted $300 million a year from ESPN just for rights for the 3:30 ET game that currently airs on CBS), but represents a step up from the current deal, which pays $220 million a year. Former commissioner Bob Bowlsby estimated the conference's media rights would cut in half without the Red River Rivals.

The Big 12's $31.7 million per school per year payout (minus the conference office's cut) does not include third-tier rights*, unlike other conferences. Kansas, for instance, makes a not-insignificant amount of money selling rights to third-tier basketball games.

(*Update: ESPN's Pete Thamel reports this is not the case. ESPN will now own them, meaning lots of Big 12 content on ESPN+.)

In signing this deal, the Big 12 secures a $2.28 billion total commitment from ESPN and Fox ahead of the Pac-12, who is looking to do the same in its first post-USC/UCLA contract, and also gets the Big 12 back at the negotiating table before the SEC and ACC. This contract expires after the 2030 football season; the SEC is under contract through 2034 and the ACC through 2036.

The contract makes ESPN the 1A while Fox is the 1B, with SBJ reporting the Worldwide Leader gets the top four, eight of the top 12, and 12 of the top 20 football games each season. However, where those games air within the ESPN content jungle remains to be seen. This coming weekend, for instance, will see defending Big 12 champion Baylor and perennial Big 12 champion Oklahoma play on exclusively on ESPN+.