Big Ten Expansion Could Continue After Record TV Deal

On the heels of college football's return, the Big Ten is making headlines. The conference has agreed to a historic media rights deal that could be a prelude to even more expansion.

The Big Ten agreed to a seven-year deal with three different networks worth at least $1 billion a year, according to multiple reports. The conference's games will be broadcast across CBS, ABC and Fox. The new deal starts on July 1, 2023, and runs through the 2029-30 college sports calendar.

"It's very expensive to operate our athletic departments," Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren told ESPN.

"These new deals will continually provide stability for our athletic departments to service our students in a highly productive manner, allowing them to get a world-class education but be treated in a manner that they rightfully deserve.

"This will help our student-athletes in their continued pursuit of name, image and likeness opportunities, because now you're going to be on linear TV from morning to night on Saturday with three massive organizations."

The second year of the TV deal marks the introduction of USC and UCLA to the conference. The addition of the Pac-12 schools might not be the end of the Big Ten expansion.

One Big Ten source told Sports Illustrated that the conference is not done expanding. The Action Network reported last month that the Big Ten has its eyes on Notre Dame, Oregon, Washington, Stanford and the University of California.

"I get asked every single day, what's next?" Warren said at the start of Big Ten Football Media Days in late July. "It may include future expansion, but it will be done for the right reasons, at the right time, with our student-athletes' academic and athletic empowerment at the center of any and all decisions that we will make.

"We will not expand just to expand. It will be strategic; it will add additional value to our conference."

In 2017, Fox landed half of the Big Ten's available media rights for a reported $250 million per year. The deal included 25 football and 50 basketball games.

The Big Ten will replace the SEC on CBS. College football's dominant conference is leaving CBS for a $3 billion deal with Disney.

ABC and ESPN will have exclusive rights to SEC games starting in the 2024 season.