The Big 12 has reached new media rights agreements with Fox and ESPN, conference and media sources confirmed to The Athletic on Sunday. The six-year extension of the deals runs through 2030-31 and is worth north of $2.2 billion.
Sports Business Journal first reported news of the agreements.
The new deal, negotiated by recently hired commissioner Brett Yormark, will average $380 million per year. An average payout of nearly $31.7 million per school for an expanded 12-member conference represents an increase from the Big 12’s current TV rights revenue – believed to be around $28 million per school – despite the fact that Oklahoma and Texas are departing the conference for the SEC in 2025.
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Combining that revenue with NCAA, College Football Playoff and bowl payouts and schools’ third-tier television rights would help Big 12 members approach $50 million in annual distribution. The conference distributed a record $42.6 million per school for 2021-22, a sum that did not include third-tier rights revenue.
The Big 12’s current rights agreement runs through the 2024-25 academic year. But the conference entered early discussions with the networks in August, leapfrogging the Pac-12, which seemed to have an advantage in being next to market because its media rights agreement expires in 2024.
This deal takes the Big 12 into its life post-Oklahoma and Texas. Its two flagship schools will depart for the SEC in 2025, while BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF will all join the conference in 2023.
The Big 12’s decision to expand with those four new members — and the markets and national reach they provide — is one reason why the conference won’t see the dramatic revenue cuts it feared in August 2021, when former commissioner Bob Bowlsby estimated Oklahoma and Texas represented roughly 50 percent of the value of its TV rights.
A pro rata clause is expected to be included in the Big 12’s extension with its network partners, multiple conference sources said, which would aid the conference if it pursues additional members. Yormark said in July the Big 12 is “open for business” and exploring its expansion opportunities. The Athletic previously reported that the league has talked with six Pac-12 schools: Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, Oregon, Utah and Washington.
Yormark and conference stakeholders preferred doing a deal now in the interest of stability and gaining much-needed clarity about the conference’s financial future, rather than waiting until the spring of 2024 when the exclusive negotiating window with ESPN and Fox opened and the conference could potentially seek new partners.
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It marks the second major media rights deal for a conference in recent months after the Big Ten struck seven-year agreements with Fox/FS1, CBS, NBC and the Big Ten Network totaling more than $8 billion.
The Pac-12 announced on July 5 that it would begin negotiations for its next rights agreement. Its exclusive negotiating window with ESPN and Fox ended without a deal, allowing the conference to take its media rights to the open market.
(Photo: Michael C. Johnson / USA Today)