Report: Big Ten football to leave ESPN partnership, CBS and NBC emerge as frontrunners

According to a Monday report, the Big Ten Conference will not have their games broadcast on ESPN for the first time in 40 years, once the current deal expires. The report indicates that only a last-minute change would stop the move, and highlights CBS and NBC as potential landing spots for the conference’s games.

Big Ten to move from ESPN

“Barring a last-minute change of direction, ESPN will not carry Big Ten games for the first time in 40 years. Big Ten deals could be reached by the end of this week or push into next,” detailed Sports Business Journal‘s John Ourand. “CBS and NBC have emerged as the clear front runners.”

The move away from ESPN comes on the heels of the SEC’s decision to move their broadcast partnership from CBS to the ABC and ESPN network, beginning in 2024. Prior to the SEC’s move, they were partnered with CBS for nearly two decades.

Ourand went on to highlight the roots ESPN holds in the conference as a possible final-hour solution to keeping Big Ten games on the network. Bob Chapek, the CEO of The Walt Disney Company, graduated from Indiana and earned an MBA from Michigan State — two connections that could potentially keep the Big Ten in place. According to the report, ESPN is poised to lose the conference due to being outbid by their competitors.

Fox has already agreed to the “A” package of games for the Big Ten, and will carry a football game from the conference at noon ET on their channel — in addition to games on FS1 and BTN.

The proposed change that CBS and NBC are pursuing is for a split of a “B” package of games.

“CBS would pick up games for the 3:30pm ET window, and NBC would carry games in primetime. NBC’s streaming service, Peacock, also would wind up carrying some games. Amazon has bid on these packages, but sources described CBS and NBC as the clear front-runners,” explained Ourand.

ESPN has been a partner of the Big Ten Conference since their first deal together in 1982, and the Big Ten has played games on ABC since 1966. With a new television deal, it’s possible that the conference would surpass $1 billion per year in rights fees between their broadcast partners.