Big 12 signs $2.6B media rights deal with ABC/ESPN, FOX

Irving, TX, United States (4E Sports) – The Big 12 Conference has reached a 13-year media rights deal with ABC/ESPN and FOX reportedly worth $2.6 billion.

The Big 12 announced the deal will last until the 2024-25 school year, with ABC/ESPN and FOX sharing coverage for football games while ABC/ESPN will exclusively handle Big 12 men’s basketball games.

The conference is made up of Baylor University, Iowa State University, University of Kansas, Kansas State University, University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State University, University of Texas, Texas Christian University, Texas Tech University and West Virginia University.

Sources said the deal is worth an average of $200 million per year and worth $20 million per school, slightly behind Pac-12′s $21 million per school media rights deal.

“The stability of the Big 12 Conference is cemented,” Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby said after signing the deal. “We are positioned with one of the best media rights arrangements in collegiate sports, providing the conference and its members unprecedented revenue growth, and sports programming over two networks.”

The contract includes a “grant of rights” agreement, meaning if a Big 12 school leaves for another league in the next 13 years, that school’s media rights, including revenue, would remain with the Big 12 and not its new conference.

“Today’s announcement, coupled with the hiring of Bob Bowlsby as our league’s new commissioner, is a great example of how well the Big 12 is positioned for the future,” said Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds, chairman of the Big 12 ADs. “This contract ensures the Big 12 Conference will continue to be one of the premier conferences in the country.”

Meanwhile, Bowlsby announced that the Big 12 has no plans for expansion.

“We have no active agenda for expansion of the conference at this point in time,” Bowlsby said. “That doesn’t mean that we are oblivious to what might be other opportunities going forward, but I really believe that a period of calm would be advantageous to us and college athletics in general. … We have a lot going for us and we ought to be slow to share that unless somebody brings extraordinary cache.”

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