With the additions of USC and UCLA to the Big Ten, the conference believes it could get a record-breaking television deal.
According to Michael McCarthy and Amanda Christovich of Front Office Sports, the Big Ten was already “on track to garner up to $1 billion annually in its new media rights deal” before the addition of the two Southern California schools.
Now, the Big Ten is targeting a TV deal of at least $1.5 billion per year, according to McCarthy and Christovich.
NBC, Amazon, ESPN/ABC and CBS Sports are bidding to share rights with Fox, which currently owns the Big Ten rights, per McCarthy and Christovich.
It would be a huge step up from the Big Ten’s current TV deal, which is worth about $440 million per year, per Front Office Sports.
Meanwhile, the Pac-12 — sans USC and UCLA — is currently in discussions for its newest TV deal.