Somewhat quietly, Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren and the Big Ten offices have been working on a media deal that could have eye-popping numbers. According to ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg, Warren is optimistic that the deal could get done in the next 30 days and has been in discussions with Fox, CBS, NBC, ESPN, TNT, and streaming services Amazon and Apple.
Even more than that, according to CBS Sports’ Dennis Dodd, the deal could be somewhere in the neighborhood of 1 billion and have the framework in place around Memorial Day. And while that sounds optimistic, there are reasons to believe that the deal could be a massive one with nearly one-quarter of the nation’s population in the Big Ten’s footprint.
The main issues at hand right now according to the CBS report is deciding whether to give Fox all its rights, split those rights as they presently do with ESPN, or take a different road like finding a partner besides ESPN or even attempt to expand even further.
