The SEC rn

The Big Ten must’ve been getting negotiating lessons from Cuba Gooding Jr., cuz it just got shown the money. Yesterday, the conference announced a new media rights deal with ViacomCBS, NBCUniversal, and Fox worth upwards of $1 billion/year over the next seven years, the richest contract for a college athletic conference ever.

It’s also a big step-up for the Big Ten and its member schools. The conference’s current rights deal pays out ~$430 million/year, but under this new deal sources told Axios and The NY Post that each of the three networks are shelling out ~$350 million/year.

• Of that total, each school is expected to net $80-$100 million annually – up from $54.3 million in the most recent fiscal year not impacted by the pandemic.

📺 Big picture: The new agreement ends the conference’s 40-year relationship with ESPN, which will stop broadcasting all Big Ten games starting July 1, 2023 and take over exclusive SEC football and men’s basketball rights starting in 2024. 

• The move is as part of an expanded deal that nets the SEC ~$800 million/year, according to the WSJ.

+Wait, this sounds familiar… Beginning next year (2023), Sundays are about to feel like Groundhog Day. Big Ten football will be shown Saturday at noon ET on Fox, 3:30 pm ET on CBS, and 7:00 pm ET on NBC – the exact same setup as the NFL, just an hour earlier.