The college football world was shaken yet again on Thursday when news broke of USC and UCLA was exploring joining the Big Ten. Quickly the news went from exploration to an application for membership and almost just as quickly, a formal vote and invite was extended to the two institutions.
Most believe this is almost purely a reach for cash, specifically from media rights deals that currently the Big Ten is negotiating. Upon the news on Thursday, Apple reached out and wanted back in on the negotiations.
Sports Business Journal reported that the conference was nearing an end to it’s media rights negotiations and expecting to be finished by mid-July and Apple was not seen as a “credible bidder”.
The reporting believes that FOX Sports and CBS would grab the majority of the conference’s content with ESPN, NBC and Amazon remaining to potentially grab a third rights package. Clearly things have changed with the addition of the two West Coast powerhouses.
It was becoming possible that the Big Ten was in-line to receive the first billion-dollar annual media rights agreement. If that is the case, this almost certainly puts the number over that mark.
