Report: Details emerge on potential bidding war for Big Ten media rights

The looming Big Ten media rights deal is shaping out to be one of the most lucrative in college football history. Tuesday, The Athletic provided more details about who’s involved in the discussions — and it’s a true bidding war.

There are a few different scenarios in play, according to The Athletic’s Scott Dochterman, Nicole Auerbach and Stewart Mandel. One of them includes a tripleheader split between Fox, CBS and NBC. Amazon is also expressing interest in streaming one game per week on Amazon Prime, which recently landed Thursday Night Football.

But ESPN is part of the Big Ten’s current agreement, and that’s a big question that needs to be answered, as well.

“Speculation has swirled that the Big Ten might want — and might be willing — to sign away its rights to entities that are not ESPN,” the report said. “Imagine a Saturday with a noon game on Fox, an afternoon game on CBS and a night NBC game. If you know ESPN has a vested financial interest in the top teams in other leagues, the source mused, it might make sense to throw your weight behind one of their competitors, thinking that your best inventory would be prioritized.”

However, ESPN is still very much in play, and there are reasons why the conference might try and keep it involved. The Athletic noted what happened with the NHL when it took games to NBC, and ESPN didn’t have as much hockey coverage until re-acquiring rights to the league in 2021. That’s why the Big Ten might be trying to keep ESPN in play, according to the report.

“(ESPN is) still a very, very big part of this negotiation process,” an industry source told The Athletic. “They’re still firmly in the mix for everything that we’re talking about here.”

Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith: Financial aspects ‘are part of’ a new Big Ten media rights deal

The Athletic also talked with Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith about the upcoming deal. He cited viewership numbers as a reason why the current deal is good for the league, but acknowledged money is a big part of the current discussions.

“We’re coming off of an excellent run,” Smith told The Athletic. “We’ve got a great partner in Fox. Definitely the financials are a part of it. But more importantly is the exposure that our teams, our student-athletes and our schools will have. Our viewership has been ridiculously good for our conference and for all of our sports. We need to make sure we have the right partners to help us with that as well as the finances.”