From a sports media perspective, one of the biggest stories of the 2024 college football season has been Big Ten fans being frustrated with Fox’s handling of the conference’s rights.
And as it turns out, they aren’t the only ones tired of seeing the Big Ten’s biggest games predominantly played at noon, with fellow rightsholder NBC having “expressed its frustrations to numerous stakeholders around the conference” regarding its own restrictions, according to The Washington Post.
While the windows for the Big Ten’s three media rights partners have been well established — Fox at noon, CBS at 3:30 p.m. ET and NBC at primetime — the latter reportedly wasn’t aware of the hurdles it would face regarding the league’s night games. Specifically, Ohio State and Michigan both have clauses allowing them to veto night games following the first week of November, with the Wolverines only obligated to play two primetime games per season.
Similar clauses for other Big Ten schools also exist, limiting NBC’s potential offerings throughout the season.
Writes Ben Strauss:
NBC has expressed its frustrations to numerous stakeholders around the conference, according to people with knowledge of the conversations, suggesting that the network did not understand the full extent of the prime-time restrictions. The network has argued that it was informed of the full night game veto rights (and they were expanded from the Big Ten’s previous agreements) only after the term sheets for the deals were agreed to and announced, according to multiple people familiar with the deals.
What’s more, despite NBC being a media rights partner since the 2023 season, its deal with the league has yet to be officially signed—something that isn’t necessarily uncommon in the sports rights space but can create additional “haggling,” per Strauss.
Ultimately, the lopsided nature of the Big Ten’s media rights package was always going to favor Fox, which owns the rights to the conference’s football games and subleases them to CBS and NBC. Laying claim to the first three picks in the conference’s annual schedule draft, Fox was/is always going to have the inside track to the conference’s biggest games, regardless of how many Big Ten — and specifically, Ohio State — fans are tired of the Big Noon experience.
As for NBC, it is worth noting that the network did land the top-five matchup between Ohio State and Oregon (albeit via a trade with Fox) in October, which proved to be one of the most-watched games of the 2024 season. Still, that’s proven to be the exception and not the rule for the Comcast-owned network’s Big Ten experience, as it finds itself facing restrictions it was apparently unaware of in a deal it has yet to put pen to paper.
About Ben Axelrod
Ben Axelrod is a veteran of the sports media landscape, having most recently worked for NBC's Cleveland affiliate, WKYC. Prior to his time in Cleveland, he covered Ohio State football and the Big Ten for outlets including Cox Media Group, Bleacher Report, Scout and Rivals.