The Big 10 has signed a $1.14 billion deal with Walt Disney Co DIS's ESPN to acquire half of the conferences media rights. The new deal continues an incredible 50-year relationship between the company and the Big 10.
Currently, Fox Sports owns the other have of the Big 10's media rights, while CBS sports has a separate deal with the Big 10 for its basketball rights worth approximately $10Million per year.
Adding a major east coast presence with the inclusion of University of Maryland and Rutgers University to the Big 10 a few years back raised viewership and increased the value of the conference. Rutgers and Maryland have a combined enrollment of over 100,000 students, with millions of alumni on the East Coast alone.
The Big 10 Conference will bring in about $2.64 billion over the next six years after all of its media deals are factored in. The new agreement is currently worth three times more than the existing deal and goes into effect in the fall. The massive new deals will undoubtedly spark another debate on whether to pay student athletes, as the members of the major conferences stand to reap all the benefits.
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