BIG TEN HAS ONE NATIONAL TITLE IN 20 YEARS, YET GETS BY FAR THE BIG RATE
Wiping out the Pac-12 only brings more whirlwind to the Big Ten, which can wipe out two years at ESPN — which is having nothing but problems these days — and can carry more national championships
A fair distribution of resources, this is not. An even-steven, this is whacked. The Big Ten would have 18 teams beginning next season, as it stands, yet the Southeastern Conference would have just 16 teams. Beyond that, the Big Ten universities would receive more than $75 million annually for TV money, about $27 million more than the SEC clubs.
So what happened atop college football, America’s No. 2 sport as long as the gambling committees keep the University of Iowa out of cornstalk ville? The Big Ten now will have Oregon, along with Washington, to battle USC and Ohio State and Michigan and Penn State. The SEC will have, what, Georgia to play Alabama, and Alabama to play Georgia, and a fairly seldom LSU and perhaps Texas and Oklahoma to wage war?
Suddenly, it’s not an equitable game. In the 52 years since 1971, only three Big Ten schools — Ohio State in 2014 and 2002, Michigan in 1997 — have won national championships. Fox, NBC, CBS and the Big Ten Network will pay the Big Ten as much as $1.5 billion a season, for all 18 teams once they decide to play next season and say goodbye to the long, lost Pac-12. The SEC commissioner, Greg Sankey, is imploring his toxic duties into Congress solving the problems. “The reality is, only Congress can fully address the challenges that are facing college athletics,” he said. “The NCAA cannot fix all of these issues, the courts cannot resolve all of these issues. The states cannot resolve all of these issues, nor can the conferences. Whether congressional action is achievable is a matter of debate. Much debate.”
We’re not hearing the same dispute atop the Big Ten. All they want to do is move forward, invite two new teams to join USC and UCLA and carry on with a wild season in the $80-million per team each year. Sankey has 13 national titles in 17 years, yet somehow, he got pushed way down by cutting a deal inside a pandemic in 2020. We’re assuming Northwestern still will get a rate, meaning a sullen five years or 10 for its 1-11 record, but clear as day, the Big Ten becomes the network for people to watch back East, the Midwest and out West. The SEC is in the Southeast — in the 16 hours between Austin to Columbia, S.C., starting next seasom — but that is only a swatch. The Big Ten operates everywhere else, from the Midwest flyover region to State College and Washington and Piscataway in the East, to Los Angeles and Eugene and Seattle in the West.
The SEC has 15 percent of the country.
The Big Ten has everything else that matters.
So it shouldn’t be too long before the Big Ten, with more to draw from, starts producing national titles. Oh, it won’t be easy, with USC and Oregon expected to make four trips to the Midwest or beyond. But at some point, they’ll squeeze into the December season next year. Four games will be held before Christmas, with the quarterfinals played Dec. 31 and Jan. 1 and the semifinals played Jan. 9 and 10, before the national title game is Mon. Jan. 20.
By then, you’ll get it. Starting in 13 months, the Big Ten will have a Big Noon kickoff game, a CBS game at 3:30 p.m. and an NBC game at 7:30 p.m. All in the East. The SEC? Go find it. One shot.
“The power of broadcast TV can’t be underestimated,” Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti said. “Last season, 27 of the 30 most-watched college football telecasts were on broadcast television. This season, the Big Ten will have more games on broadcast TV than any other conference. When the new deal is fully implemented in 2024, we will have 45 broadcast TV games. Big Ten fans will move seamlessly from Fox to CBS to NBC.”
Now at some point, Sankey may go to ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro and ask, um, will you pay more? Chances are, no. The deal was done in December 2020. Fox, CBS, NBC and the Big Ten Network cut its scrum last year. These are the deals that happen. Seems we have one more, and if USC doesn’t like it, there’s always an NFL job for Lincoln Riley to take when Sean McVay resigns.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.