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Big Ten announces new multi-billion-dollar media rights deal

The long-awaited Big Ten media rights deal is now official and, as anticipated, it is a revenue geyser: a seven-year agreement with multiple broadcast partners worth more than $7 billion plus escalators, sources told Sports Illustrated. The back-loaded deal, which begins in 2023, averages out to more than $1 billion annually.

The agreement with Fox, CBS and NBC comes with this caveat from a Big Ten source: “We are not done expanding.” What that means—in terms of timetable, potential expansion targets and the overall stability of college athletics—was left unsaid. It could be posturing to keep the rival Southeastern Conference and others off-balance, or it could be an indication, as Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren said in July, that further national realignment could come within the next few years, well before this new deal ends with the 2029–30 athletic calendar.

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