Report: Big 12 Reaching New Media Deal With Industry Giants
When first-year commissioner Brett Yormark took the stage at Big 12 media days in July, he made his intentions forthright, saying the first priority of his regime would be to iron out a new, lucrative media rights deal. Before the calendar has even flipped to November, it looks as though he may have already delivered.
Multiple outlets are reporting the Big 12 has struck a new deal with ESPN and FOX worth 2.28 billion, an annual average of 380 million, for six years, starting in 2025.
Even with the conference going to 12 teams instead of its current 10, the new agreement will payout each member institution approximately 47 million a year, a stark increase over the current deal which includes Oklahoma and Texas. That annual figure could go up to 50 million a year when the College Football Playoff expands to 12 teams.
Yormark reportedly opened a negotiating window with ESPN and FOX earlier than they had intended, which allowed the conference to beat the PAC-12 to their media rights deal, giving the Big 12 a metaphorical high ground over their west coast counterparts as the Big 10 and SEC poach their biggest programs.
This deal also gives the Big 12 a distinct advantage over the ACC, whose rights deal does not expire until 2036, meaning Yormark and company are cashing in on market value the ACC can't realize for another decade without re-negotiating. With the Big 12 deal expiring in 2031, they will get two negotiating cycles (including the deal they just completed) before the ACC or SEC gets one.
The deal allows ESPN to get their pick of the top four football games of the season, six of the top eight, and 12 of the top 20, including the conference's championship game in both football and basketball. FOX will run 26 games on their main network and FS1.
The Big 12 will add BYU, UCF, Houston, and Cincinnati in 2023.
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Covering Baylor for Inside The Bears and the Locked on Baylor podcast. You can follow me for more Baylor content at @realcamstuart on Twitter. Originally from Rockland, Massachusetts and a Baylor alum, so I might mix the occasional bias and/or Boston sports tweet in there every once in a while.