INDIANAPOLIS — If the SEC has adopted the slogan “It Just Means More,” the Big Ten has earned the tagline “This is Really B1G” going into the 2024 season.
The once purely Midwestern conference has expanded to 18 universities located in three times zones stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans. It includes college football’s defending national champion (Michigan), the national runner-up (Washington) and a perennial Goliath in Ohio State. The league’s footprint includes four teams in the nation’s top three metro areas and nine of the top 16 markets. That has led to contracts with three linear television networks and a dominant ratings performance last year.
Last season, five of the eight college football games with at least 10 million viewers and 10 of the 15 highest-rated games included current Big Ten teams. The addition of USC, Oregon, Washington and UCLA to the conference has the potential to not only create ratings bonanzas for its media partners but enhance the Big Ten brand throughout every broadcast window. In addition, the media package has consistent weekly viewing options for the first time, with the CBS increasing its Big Ten telecasts from seven to 15 this year.
“The fact that they’ve now established themselves as the only conference in the country from the West Coast to the East Coast and everywhere in between, the iconic brands, massive programs that are going to be fighting for national championships up and down the entire league … we’re excited,” said Dan Weinberg, CBS’ executive vice president for programming.
With all eyes on the Big Ten, let’s take a look at each of the league’s primary television partners and what they will air this year.
Fox
Fox is the Big Ten’s primary rights holder and owns 61 percent of the Big Ten Network. It received the top three selections in the annual broadcast draft, Fox Sports’ president of data and analytics Michael Mulvihill said on a podcast with Fox analyst Joel Klatt. Along with its weekly “Big Noon Saturday” and “Big Noon Kickoff” pregame show, Fox will air 10 Big Ten contests on Friday night and one on a Thursday. In addition, more than two dozen football games will appear on FS1.
“Probably the genesis of ‘Big Noon Kickoff’ was when Fox kind of put its stamp on it, we’re here and we’re coming into college football with a serious intention of being one of the biggest best partners and telling the stories and talking about the tradition and providing you with the best content, entertainment around the sport,” Fox college football analyst Brady Quinn said.
Last year, Fox won the nation’s weekly ratings battle four times and posted the most viewed regular-season game (19.07 million) for Ohio State at Michigan. “The Game” had more viewers than any other college football game since 2011.
With its first two selections this year, Fox drafted Michigan at Ohio State and Texas at Michigan. It also landed Alabama at Wisconsin and will have the first selection on the loaded Nov. 2 slate, which includes Ohio State at Penn State, Oregon at Michigan, USC at Washington, Wisconsin at Iowa and UCLA at Nebraska.
Among the top Friday clashes are Illinois at Nebraska (Sept. 20), Michigan State at Oregon (Oct. 4), Iowa at UCLA (Nov. 8) and a post-World Series 11 p.m. ET kickoff featuring Rutgers at USC (Oct. 25).
CBS
CBS enters the Big Ten lineup at 3:30 p.m. ET for 14 consecutive weeks and also adds a noon ET Black Friday game between Minnesota and Wisconsin. Last year, CBS sprinkled seven Big Ten games around its final season of televising the SEC, including a Sunday afternoon tilt on Labor Day weekend.
In the season’s first three weeks, CBS airs Ohio State’s opener against Akron and fellow in-state matchups Iowa State at Iowa and Notre Dame at Purdue. In a game that perhaps excites Weinberg the most, USC makes its Big Ten debut at Michigan in Week 4 on CBS. The Trojans and Wolverines have matched up eight times in the Rose Bowl and combined for 29 national titles.
“We love that game,” Weinberg said. “USC, obviously new to the conference, the first Big Ten conference game, but also just the history amongst those two schools. I kind of also like the idea of like, the first big clash between the new and the established. USC is one of the new teams, Michigan, obviously, the establishment of the conference. So lots of really good things about that game. We’re excited. The Big House is going to be rocking that day.”
Thanks to the league’s depth, Weinberg said he will be satisfied no matter where CBS sits in the weekly pecking order.
‘There’s usually two or three games that are interchangeable for that No. 1 (pick), so there are plenty of weeks where we don’t have a No. 1 where we feel we’re gonna get a top quality game regardless,” Weinberg said. “I would imagine if you talk to the Fox folks, and you talk to the NBC folks, they will say the same thing.”
NBC
Entering its second season in the prime-time window (7:30 p.m. ET), NBC hopes a deeper conference can provide better matchups. Last year, only one of NBC’s Big Ten-only prime-time games was decided by single digits; five featured a final spread of at least four touchdowns.
“I thought it was a great season,” NBC college football color analyst Todd Blackledge said. “I was really pleased with our production and this group being together for the first time. It clicked right away. Kathryn Tappen was great on the sideline, our producer and director, our whole truck. I thought it was a really good show.
“Our schedule was OK. We had some great games, but we also had some tough games to do. One of the things I know right away coming into Year 2, I think we’ll be even better this year, because we’ll be together for the second year. But the schedule is going to be dramatically better.”
NBC airs defending national champion Michigan’s debut against Fresno State in Week 1. In the second week, old Big Eight foes Colorado and Nebraska resume their rivalry in Lincoln after facing off last year in Boulder before nearly nine millions viewers. Then the network airs UCLA’s home Big Ten debut against Indiana, which hasn’t played a game in the Rose Bowl since Jan. 1, 1968. NBC also broadcasts the annual Black Friday game between Nebraska and Iowa for the first time in prime time.
NBC also operates the Peacock streaming service, which showed nine games last year and has three scheduled so far, including a 10 p.m. ET game featuring Boise State at Oregon in Week 2 and the Washington-Washington State rivalry matchup in Seattle on Sept. 14.
Big Ten Network
Entering its 18th year airing Big Ten sports, BTN still has an impact role in covering the league. It broadcasts two football games for each school every year, including one Big Ten matchup. It will show 44 games this year with an expanded presence throughout the calendar.
“We’ve got 16 of the 18 teams in the league that will be on the Big Ten Network in the first three weeks,” BTN president Francois McGillicuddy said. “We’re going to have a West Coast prime window. So our day is getting longer in terms of consumption, which is great. And obviously, we’re going to start to be more of a presence on the West Coast.”
On the second weekend, BTN airs six games in four different viewing windows, highlighted by Western Michigan at Ohio State in prime time followed by Utah State at USC at 11 p.m. ET. BTN hired several former Pac-12 Network staffers to boost its coverage and production of the four newcomers.
The league’s media arrangements have changed since BTN’s inception in 2007, and the network’s priority has fallen when it comes to game selection. To compensate, BTN has built its women’s volleyball coverage alongside football games to maximize fall viewership.
“Obviously, where we come in the order has shifted down,” McGillicuddy said. “But we’re still going to be really strategic.”
(Photo: Robert Goddin / USA Today)