At the sprawling Big Ten TV deal’s halfway point, here’s what’s working and what’s changing

Posted August 29, 2026 11:01 am

By Scott Dochterman

Fox has owned the Big Ten's first-tier rights for 10 years and owns 61% of the conference's Big Ten Network, but CBS and NBC paid up to get their own windows for prominent games. Adam Cairns / Columbus Dispatch

At the midpoint of its seven-year media rights deal, the Big Ten has put together its strongest schedule yet to help the league keep pace with the SEC in the battle for regular-season television ratings.

With eight teams ranked in the preseason AP Top 25 and a condensed calendar that squeezed a bye week off the college football schedule, the Big Ten’s media partners had a deeper pool of selections as they split up the games. Each week from Sept. 26 through Thanksgiving weekend contains at least three Big Ten matchups between ranked opponents, brand names or historic rivals. Six Big Ten teams have qualified for the College Football Playoff semifinals the last three seasons, and all six are ranked in the preseason top 20.

“Add to that broadcast and attendance records, we are confident that the Big Ten is in the strongest position in its history,” commissioner Tony Petitti said in July at Big Ten media days.

Of last season’s 10 highest-rated college football games, eight involved Big Ten teams. Indiana’s national championship victory against Miami (Fla.) hit 30.1 million viewers, which at the time was the highest-rated non-NFL sporting event since Game 7 of the 2016 World Series. The Hoosiers’ win against Ohio State in early December broke the Big Ten Championship Game ratings record, too.

But the Big Ten needs to grow its regular-season viewership, especially when comparing itself to the rival SEC. Of the top 10 highest-rated games of the 2025 regular season, the Big Ten was involved in just two, while the SEC was involved in eight.

“The SEC, because it’s more concentrated, there’s better matchups, so they get better ratings now,” said an industry source, speaking on condition of anonymity in order to evaluate the market candidly. “It’s not that difficult to understand. There’s like four or five brands that really move the needle for the Big Ten, and there’s more for the SEC.”

Big Ten officials enlisted feedback from its media partners and spent more time catering this year’s schedule toward television viewing windows. The league’s 130th season opens with a Week 0 game: USC hosting San Jose State at 2 p.m. Saturday on NBC. Here’s a breakdown of the league’s adjustments, what’s new and what has stayed the same for the upcoming season.

Where things stand

The Big Ten’s current media rights contract began with the 2023 football season and concludes after the 2029-30 basketball season. Fox, which owns the Big Ten’s distribution rights through 2036, was involved in choosing CBS and NBC as the league’s other broadcast partners.

Fox has built its college football brand around the “Big Noon” window, and it almost exclusively airs a Big Ten game to lead off the day’s slate at 11 a.m. Central time. CBS broadcasts a Big Ten game at 2:30 p.m. while NBC shows a 6:30 p.m. Big Ten game except when it moves Notre Dame into prime time, which will happen three times this fall.

Each spring, the networks hold a draft with a prearranged number of selections to divvy up the Big Ten games they’ll broadcast in the coming season. Fox owns the first three picks, which this year it used on Michigan at Ohio State, Ohio State at Indiana and Oklahoma at Michigan. CBS had the fourth pick this year and chose Oregon at Ohio State. NBC had the fifth pick and announced USC at Penn State as a prime-time selection.

Although trades can take place, generally Fox has five of the top 11 picks and the other networks have three selections apiece. Fox also chooses for FS1 while NBC picks for its Peacock streaming service. The networks often draft for a weekend’s pecking order rather than a specific game, which allows them to make their final selection for a given weekend 12 days before kickoff.

Big Ten Network, of which Fox owns 61%, is considered its own entity during the draft. Every Big Ten school must appear twice on BTN, including once during conference action.

There are a few restrictions, however. Fox cannot air a West Coast kickoff at 11 a.m. CT. Michigan, Penn State, Ohio State and Iowa are exempted from hosting games on Fridays. With all three networks likely to select a game involving the Buckeyes or Wolverines, neither will participate on Friday nights.

Beefing up Fridays

When the Big Ten added Washington and Oregon, it secured extra money from Fox but agreed to play more conference games on Friday nights in return. In 2024, its first season as an 18-team league, the Big Ten shifted 10 games to Friday, with nine appearing on Fox. Last year, four Big Ten conference games moved to Friday.

The ratings have been lackluster, with only two matchups generating more than 3 million viewers: Illinois at Nebraska in 2024 and Iowa at Rutgers in 2025. This year, the Big Ten altered some of its scheduling principles to increase its Friday visibility. Schools now can compete on Friday nights more than once per season, and three teams play on consecutive Fridays.

Even without Michigan or Ohio State, several matchups involve the league’s higher-profile programs. Defending national champion Indiana kicks off the league’s Friday slate at home against Northwestern on Sept. 25. The Wildcats then open their new $850 million stadium against Penn State on Oct. 2. Ranked opponents Iowa and Washington follow on Oct. 9 in Seattle. Overall, seven conference games air on Friday, with Northwestern, Washington and Illinois playing twice.

Fox's Big Ten Friday night games

Sept. 4

Fresno State at USC

9 p.m.

Sept. 25

Northwestern at Indiana

8 p.m.

Oct. 2

Penn State at Northwestern

8 p.m.

Oct. 9

Iowa at Washington

9 p.m.

Oct. 16

Washington at Purdue

8 p.m.

Nov. 6

Nebraska at Illinois

8 p.m.

Nov. 13

Illinois at UCLA

9 p.m.

Nov. 20

Oregon at Michigan State

8 p.m.

High-ceiling Saturdays

The league’s current scheduling rotation, which was set before the 2024 season, has synced nicely with this year’s preseason rankings. Over the 10-week window that includes the bulk of the Big Ten’s conference games, every week has at least one matchup of preseason Top 25 teams, with seven weeks containing two. That doesn’t include games involving Nebraska, which usually generate high ratings, or historical rivalries like Michigan State at Michigan, Illinois at Ohio State, USC at UCLA or the Wisconsin-Minnesota-Iowa rivalry triangle.

Indiana has now vaulted into a ratings winner, appearing in four of the seven highest-rated games last season en route to a title. The Hoosiers have Saturday games against Ohio State, Michigan, USC, Washington and Nebraska, all of which offer solid viewership potential.

The Ohio State-Penn State rivalry cycles off the schedule for the first time since the Nittany Lions joined the Big Ten in 1993. But after two years off, Michigan-Penn State returns to the schedule. Ohio State and USC meet for the first time as Big Ten opponents on Halloween, and the West Coast trio of USC, Oregon and Washington will all play critical matchups against each other.

TV talent moves

The most significant change among the league’s partner networks takes place at CBS with longtime analyst Gary Danielson retiring. Veteran NFL and college football broadcaster Charles Davis steps in for Danielson and will work alongside Brad Nessler, sideline reporter Jenny Dell and new lead game producer Steve McKee.

Davis served as analyst for Big Ten Network’s debut in 2007 and was in the booth for Appalachian State’s shocking upset of Michigan. Davis then built a reputation as one of the best NFL Draft analysts in the business and called the NFL for Fox and CBS before returning to the college football booth.

“Somewhere around 30 years ago, this kid walked up to (Nessler), met him, the whole deal,” Davis recalled. “(Nessler) asked that kid, ‘What are your aspirations for your career?’ And the kid said, ‘If I could ever get to a level where I would work with you, Mr. Nessler, I think I might be doing pretty well.’ That kid was me, and now I get to work with Brad Nessler.

“The best part is, when this all came about, Brad Nessler and I had a conversation. He recounted the story to me. He remembered it, blew me away.”

It’s Fox’s 10th season of owning the Big Ten’s first-tier rights, and its lead crew of Gus Johnson, Joel Klatt and Jenny Taft has called games together all 10 years.

NBC returns its lead crew of play-by-play broadcaster Noah Eagle, color analyst Todd Blackledge and sideline reporter Kathryn Tappen. Calling additional games for either NBC or Peacock will be Paul Burmeister, Jason Benetti and Dave Flemming on play-by-play, Yogi Roth and Matt Cassel for analysis and Ashley ShahAhmadi on the sidelines.

Roth, who worked at BTN last year, will work with multiple play-by-play hosts in numerous roles. In Week 1, Roth will call Eastern Illinois at Minnesota on a Thursday alongside Benetti for Peacock, then join Burmeister on Sunday in Seattle for the Washington-Washington State rivalry game on NBC.