Oregon and Washington could enter Big Ten with reduced revenue shares, per report
Oregon and Washington are back on the table for the Big Ten, according to reports on Wednesday. But if the two programs did jump from the Pac-12 to the Big Ten, they might have to sacrifice some money to do so.
ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg is reporting that if the Big Ten decides to invite Oregon and Washington, the duo could enter the league as only partially-vested members — similar to when Maryland and Rutgers joined in 2014. The same would be true if Stanford and Cal garnered invites. All four are reportedly being discussed.
USC and UCLA enter the league in 2024 as full members right away, entitling them to a full share of the league’s TV revenue.
The Big Ten’s seven-year, $7 billion media rights agreement with FOX, CBS, and NBC will reportedly pay out between $80 million and $100 million per year to each school. The payout is expected to be substantially larger in 2024 once USC and UCLA join. That deal also reportedly included escalators that could raise the total value higher if the Big Ten continued to add teams.
During the most recent fiscal year, the league distributed approximately $58.8 million to 11 of its 14 member institutions. Nebraska, Maryland, and Rutgers all had to wait six years before becoming fully vested members of the league.
But even if that’s the fate for the Ducks and the Huskies, it might still make for a markedly better financial situation than the one they’d find in whatever’s left of the Pac-12.
League commissioner George Kliavkoff presented presidents and chancellors with the makings of a deal on Tuesday that would see the league’s rights primarily go to Apple in a deal heavily dependent on streaming.
Though official numbers aren’t yet widely known, speculation has been that the per-school payouts would only be able to rival that of the Big 12 (nearly $32 million average) if subscription benchmarks were hit. And it has been suggested those benchmarks would be quite high.
ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported Wednesday that the Big Ten doesn’t want to be viewed as predatory when it comes to taking more schools from the Pac-12. If Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah were to leave for the Big 12, that would be the domino that could trigger another move for the Big Ten.
It’s in line with the reporting from Yahoo Sports’ Dan Wetzel, who said Wednesday that discussions involving Oregon and UW are in the “very early stages,” and a decision on whether to further expand or stick at 16 teams is not considered to be imminent.