Big18 Media/TV Contract Summary
Here's a summary of the lastest on the Media/TV Deals, including the reports UO and UW deals:
The Big Ten is projected to eventually distribute $80 million to $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. LINK
Beginning in 2024, I assume this will be $60M to each school, conservatively. I'll assume approx. $5M increase each year which I think is pretty conservative as well. The only unknown is will this deal get renegotiatied to account for UO and UW? I have to assume it will after some hectic meetings with FOX and CBS re: game schedules in the next few months. But given that the B10 passed them over a year ago with rumors of their additions to the league leading to par at best for the per school pay out, I'll assume the payout doesn't change on a per school basis.
From what I've read, UW and UO will get $30M each year with a one million bump per year and then a full share of the next contract in '30-31. They can also borrow against future pay outs begining in 2024, but I won't account for that. I'm also pretty sure Rutgers and Maryland have now at a full share as well, so it's pretty simple:
2023-24: 14 schools receive ~$60M each, USC, UCLA, UW, and UO get $25M (??) from the Pac12
2024-25: 16 schools receive ~$63M each, UW and UO get $30M
2025-26: 16 schools receive ~$70M each, UW and UO get $31M
2026-27: 16 schools receive ~$75M each, UW and UO get $32M
2027-28: 16 schools receive ~$80M each, UW and UO get $33M
2028-29: 16 schools receive ~$85M each, UW and UO get $34M
2029-30: 16 schools receive ~$90M each, UW and UO get $35M
'30-31 and beyond: ??? new contract
Seems to me, the existing B10 schools are getting a steal with UO and UW getting less than half the payout thru 2030. Again, ignoring the borrow against future earning clause for the PNW schools, this is a difference of ~$300M over the course of the next 7 years.
These are pretty staggering numbers and you have to wonder what these 16 B10 schools will be doing with $300M that UO and UW (and the B12 and ACC schools) won't be able to do. This is the FSU conundrum, that I don't think to really as much of an issue as the $120M ACC GoR exit fee seems to be. Teams that want to compete at the highest level cannot do so under this large of a deficeit. $300M>$120M for the GoR exit fee and the GoR goes until 2034, 4 full academic years after the B10 gets a NEW deal. Those 4 years may represent another $50M/year deficeit. By the end of the ACC GoR, those schools may have close to a cumulative half a Billion dollar deficeit relative to B10/SEC schools.
August 5th, 2023 at 12:01 PM ^
$120 million is the cost to exit the acc. This is separate from the seemingly ironclad GoR, which gives the acc broadcast rights even if a school pays the exit fee and leaves the conference.
August 5th, 2023 at 12:18 PM ^
Wow. I didn't know that second part. And they agreed to this for 20-years? Who negotiated that contract and why would anyone ever have signed it?
August 5th, 2023 at 12:37 PM ^
People who believed ESPN would be the greatest thing in college sports forever.
They got played by ESPN. The long term GoR was the price of ESPN building the ACC Network for the conference.
August 5th, 2023 at 12:11 PM ^
Sumamry….
August 5th, 2023 at 12:13 PM ^
Sorry I could only give you +1. I think “rambling” is the the word they were looking for.
August 5th, 2023 at 12:12 PM ^
These contracts are just placeholders until the networks can get a sense of performance metrics and higher-draw brands will earn more money, spend more on talent, and will end up similar to professional leagues.
Michigan, USC, and Ohio State will become whales and subsidize the smaller teams.
It just shows how much more those schools are worth compared to the others. I’d need some hella evidence to believe Oregon and Washington are worth less than Northwestern, Purdue, and Indiana
August 5th, 2023 at 12:22 PM ^
A few ten million here and a few ten million there. Pretty soon we are talking real money!
August 5th, 2023 at 12:35 PM ^
Where are you getting 5 million annual increases from? The original announcement on the media rights deal was 8 billion over 7 years for the 16 institutions that figure was quoted for. This comes out to 71.4m per school annually. I’m sure there may be increases built in, but I’m guessing they’d be more modest so that the per school average annual payout doesn’t drastically exceed that 71.4 amount
Yes, as far as I could tell +$5/yr was completely arbitrary by the op, and I had this same question (and an eyebrow-raising-head-tilting reaction)
Ive also read the money that you get from B10 network would be around 20 mill which is where you get the 100 mill per yr number. Well, as it escalates.
I thought I read somewhere that Oregon at the end negotiated something higher that 50%. Someone threw around $50 million. Will be interesting to see what the final deal was.
That's a lot of money.
I don't really have anything to add, but I have to say it's gonna be weird when BTN is showing Charles White's phantom touchdown and Dennis Dixon running the statue of liberty play as "great moments in B1G history."
I think that Statue of Liberty play is the most defeated I've ever felt in a Michigan game.
Oh, right, I hadn't thought of that.
So a Pac 10 team didn't screw Michigan, a Big 10 team screwed Michigan.
Back then I believe they used a split crew of B1G and PAC 8 officials so by this logic they were all B1G officials. Friendly Fire!
Charles White's phantom touchdown.
stephenj - #toosoon
The ball still hasn’t crossed the goal line.. and, it was how many years ago?
I honestly don't know about the ACC's grant-of-rights situation so I won't comment there but it's still sorta crazy that Oregon and Washington getting a significantly smaller share of a Big 10 payout is still better than what the Pac-12 was going to get with their new TV deal.
I do suspect we'll start hearing from UW and OU in a couple of years that they're unhappy with their teams being national draws while basically subsidizing Rutgers, IU, Nebraska, etc. Not sure if anything will come of that but I wouldn't be shocked if there were additional negotiations/accelerations because of it. Because when you're picking up OU and Washington you expect them to be big-time brands and working from a huge financial deficit isn't helping the Big 10's bottom line especially when, again, NW, IU, etc. are cashing huge checks and bringing little to the table.
"especially when, again, NW, IU, etc. are cashing huge checks and bringing little to the table."
Bronx although fair to say there is also something to be said for reaping the benefits of being a founding member. Even the custodial engineers of Google and Apple died millionaires because they were there in the beginning.
IU/NW/etc. have played a large role in the academic consortium and the BILLIONS of dollars in research $$ and lobbying power in congress continues. As the B1G expands it needs to consider more aspects then football and the founding members have earned that share in many ways.
I just fixed "summary" in your OP title, "Michigan Arrogance".
I believe it's "Michigan Agrogrance"
Couple of things come to mind.
1) If you think the commercials during the games are bad now, they'll probably get worse going forward.
2) What happens to all of this if the ratings aren't what the networks expect? I don't think this is the slam dunk they do. If this all turns into a junior NFL in the long run I see problems. I think there's a limit for how much football people will watch. What if the NFL ever decides to say hell with it, we're going to play Saturday games all year who do you think would win the ratings game? They'd have to have the old TV law overturned but they could argue things have changed quite a bit since 1961.
If the ratings aren't what they expect, they'll solve the problem with more commercials, which will drive ratings down, which they'll solve with more commercials.
Profit? :-(
This is not a correct calculation. You're assuming that the networks will give the B1G a pro-rata amount for adding the 17th and 18th teams. They will not, hence UW/UO's lower share.
But do you know how this will work? I can't imagine it's just ignored as a revenue source. That would be a notable windfall for the networks.
The networks now get more games to broadcast, and the quality of those games is probably higher (or at least equal to) a median Big Ten game.
They don’t get more games besides BTN fox sports 1 and the big money is from Fox nbc cbs and they still just get 1 game a week. Cbs is going to let fox show a 330 big 10 game they paid for being the only game is a league from 330-7 besides BTN
Thank you. I didn't realize it was basically 1 game per week per network. I probably read that when the deal broke, but it's too amazing to think that dollar amounts so high come from only 3 games a week.
The networks will definitely benefit from a boost to quality of game selection, but that's only a very incremental revenue boost.
And I now finally see the value of those 3 time slots each week. With more premier games to show, and the real $$$ coming from linear Networks that can only show 1 game at a time to a national audience, spreading out by time slots make sense.
I'm also curious how the distinct BIG 10 vs SEC strategies will play out over time. The SEC's deal is wholly with a sports specialist - ESPN (and ABC, of course). The BIG 10 went with major networks instead with FOX, NBC, and CBS. Those choices may have some interesting effects over the long term.
That fact that the PAC 12 couldn't get a tv deal that could pay more than the 25-30 mil UO and UW were willing to jump at seeing what the other schools would be getting paid in the conference. I understand new school will never come in at the same percentage as the existing schools but i still thought they could negotiate more than that. The PAC 12 commissioner is trash and should lose their job.