Editor’s note: This article first appeared in Sports Business Journal, the industry’s leading source of sports business news, events and data.
The Big East is on the cusp of formally signing a new set of six-year media rights pacts as soon as this week with Fox, NBC and TNT that will begin with the 2025-26 school year (taking it through the 2030-31 term), sources tell SBJ. Financial terms were still being finalized at presstime, but sources noted the conference will see a significant rights fee uptick. Fox and CBS have one more school year remaining on a 12-year, $500M deal with the Big East (an average annual value of around $41.67M).
Fox will continue as the lead “A” network in the new deal, as it had when it initially signed on with the Big East prior to the 2013-14 school year. Sources tell SBJ the rankings for selections of games have already been decided among the conference’s new media partners. CBS, which had long been a Big East partner, will not return with the conference, as the sides were not able to carve out a smaller fourth package of rights, per sources. CBS broadcast only had a handful of games under the existing deal (two to three each season).
Representatives from Fox, NBC, TNT and the Big East each declined comment when reached by SBJ. The Big East’s media deal was critically important to the league’s long-term future as the college landscape continues to shift dramatically amid the potential for revenue sharing and the outsized impact football continues to have on the industry.
The Big Ten ($1.1B annually) and SEC ($710M annually) both received massive media rights bumps in their latest negotiations on deals that are each worth north of $7B over their lifetime. The College Football Playoff, too, received an extension on its original deal with ESPN worth $1.3B annually starting in 2026. The CFP’s extension will also share revenue unequally among the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 and ACC in a twist likely to see the financial chasm between the Big Ten and SEC over the rest of their counterparts continue to grow.
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The Big East, which does not sponsor football, thus exists in a tricky in-between amid college sports’ power structure. The new media deal represents a step toward increased stability, as has the conference’s recent run of success in men’s basketball (The Big East has won four of the last eight national titles). That said, the framework settlement in the House, Hubbard and Carter antitrust cases figures to hit those schools sans big-time college football hard.
The framework agreement as currently constructed calls for non-Power Five schools to shoulder 35% of the nearly $2.8B owed in back pay to former college athletes over the next decade. The NCAA (42%) and Power Five (23%) will shoulder the rest of the load, despite most industry sources suggesting Power Five athletes will receive more than 90% of the almost $2.8B. Those specific terms led to ample frustration from those in the 28 D-I conferences outside the Power Five, including opposition from Big East Commissioner Val Ackerman at the time. Those sentiments have continued to percolate in recent weeks as lawyers iron out details before Judge Claudia Wilken eventually rules on the settlement likely later this year.
”We’re way too early in this process, but there’s been enough discussion about hard decisions that’ll have to be made,” a non-Power Five source told SBJ last month. “And if it comes back to hard decisions have to be made that negatively impact our student athletes’ experiences and opportunities because [The Power Five] didn’t want to take on an additional amount that was a fair, rational amount, then shame on us as an industry.”
The college media market, too, figures to settle down in the wake of the Big East deal. Each of the Power Four conferences is locked into long-term deals, though ESPN could technically opt out of its contract with the ACC over the coming years. The Mountain West is the next FBS conference due for a new deal as its six-year contract with CBS/Fox runs through 2025-26. The league received an almost 300% increase in value between its deal that concluded in 2020 and the current iteration worth $45M.
For the Big East, the new media deal gives the league stability – at least through the next six years. What happens beyond that in college sports, though, is anyone’s guess.
Non-Power Four league media deals nearing expiration:
• Horizon League (deal with ESPN ends after 2025-26)
• Mountain West (deal with CBS and Fox expires after 2025-26)
• Conference USA (deals with CBS and ESPN end after 2026-27)
• West Coast Conference (deal with ESPN ends after 2026-27)
Sports Business Journal
