The Big Ten has a chance to be in the right place at the right time.
Many expected the league to announce its fancy new TV rights package, which will probably be north of $1 billion, around Memorial Day (that was the scuttle during league meetings in early May). The end of that month has come and gone and there’s no press release. As negotiations continue, it now seems like the next logical time to announce something would be around conference media days at the end of July—if it can get a deal (or deals) done.
One thing we know: Fox will remain in control of the primary package of games (think Ohio State/Michigan/Penn State vs. anyone good). Fox stumbled into Big Noon Saturday games by scheduling necessity to avoid conflicts with Major League Baseball, and it has been a success. But there’s opportunity here if NBC is really pushing for another college football game to pair with Notre Dame in a doubleheader slot, as Front Office Sports reported, and if CBS wants to stay in the college football game after losing the SEC, as Sports Business Journal reported.
