Big Ten Drama...

[Sheffielder]

In case you missed it...

https://www.espn.com/college-footba...missioner-television-deal-coaches-uncertainty

Highlights:
* Apparently Kevin Warren promised NBC the Big Ten Championship Game in 2026 without realizing it wasn't his to offer (BTN owns the rights and never agreed to give them up).
* Warren also offered up November night games to NBC which historically haven't been a thing, and no one is eager to bend.
* Warren's unfinished business and bad promises has everyone mad about playing night games and November and giving millions back to Fox (even though millions off of a billion is still a pretty good pay day).
* New guy has to tie up all the loose ends. I wish him well.

Warren was unavailable for comment.

 

[CatManTrue]

Good luck to the Bears on hiring that Warren guy:

 

[Katatonic]

Should have hired the other guy (what was his name?)...

 

[Bwm57]

Wow, that sounds like quite a mess.
Wonder if that will ultimately cause issues with USC/UCLA?
If the money is different will that change their decision?

 

[dillonpgp]

I have no trouble casting aspersions on Kevin Warren as long as it comes with a heaping additional helping on 14 Presidents and 14 Athletic directors, none of whom apparently bothered to read what they were signing off on, only the size of the checks they were going to cash.

When “NBC is going to become the home of Big Ten Saturday Night Football!” was announced (in August 2022!!!), did everyone assume that NBC would stop airing football games right around the time playoff rankings were coming out? How do you read “15 game schedule” and presume no night games the last 3 weeks of the season?

This contract was signed to broadcast games of four schools, Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan and USC. If any of them have a problem with it, then there should be a price tag that comes off their TV revenue share. If the B10 wants to emulate the NFL (and it does when it comes to TV exposure), you recognize that the schedule revolves around the Cowboys, Super Bowl Champs and a few high profile players (Aaron Rodgers). Put in a few safety nets (no back to back away night games if the first involves travel over X number of miles - or a guaranteed home game after a west coast trip), cash the checks, pay the players something and shut up. NBC didn’t pay all that money to broadcast Minnesota at Maryland in week 12.

 

[Sheffielder]

Should have hired the other guy (what was his name?)...

In fairness to everyone involved, there's no way to know if "that guy" would've had the vision to go after $1B, or if his institutional memory would have left us swimming in our own bath water.

Honestly...what's worse? Nudging the marquee programs to step slightly out of their comfort zone for November night games, or coming to the table and telling NBC/CBS/FOX, "we wont' do that" before they ever even told us how much they wanted to pay for it?