"We try our best to respect the game and showcase and display it in a fashion that might be a little bit more appetizing for a different group of people that are watching alongside the best play commentators on Earth."
The conference will earn more than $8 billion over a seven-year deal with CBS, Fox, and NBC. It will generate $1.1 billion per year. Its previous deal with Fox and ESPN garnered the conference $440 million annually.
ESPN unveiled their 26 (!) college football announcing crews late last week, and I got to their 8th best crew before I started to wonder if NBC would put together something better than that.
Dellenger reports the Big Ten's deal will allow CBS to air their final season of the SEC during the first year of the contract, but said details weren't provided.
Sports Business Journal's John Ourand reports ESPN declined a seven-year, $380 million per year offer from the Big Ten to remain a media partner of the conference.
“The Big Ten would have exposure in every TV home,” said one source to Front Office Sports. “It would also be a smart idea to follow the model of the most successful sports league in America.”
"In the booth, there’s technique, there’s fundamentals that go along with it that just take time to kind of learn, to kind of train. Just like as a quarterback. It doesn’t happen overnight."
Sources are telling CBS Sports that if NBC is to engage in a number like that, it is looking for "shoulder programming" from a Power Five conference in order to boost the network's college football coverage.
"We look forward to honoring the content that moved audiences in 2026 and continuing the Gracies’ long-standing investment in the people who will shape what comes next.”