While the last few seasons of college football have seen major changes, there’s reason to think that yet more changes could be coming. The financial whirlwind of the last few seasons is showing no signs of slowing, and the recent Big Ten proposal of a media rights sale for $2.4 billion could unleash yet more chaos. One of the Big Ten’s longtime fixtures has been led to at least consider a move away from the league.
The Big Ten is under its current media rights deal with FOX until 2036. The recently discussed $2.4 billion move would carry from the end of that deal until 2046. Despite the fact that Michigan, along with Ohio State and Penn State, would get a larger share of that $2.4 billion payout (reportedly $190 million), Michigan is unhappy with the proposal and is threatening to withhold its agreement.
While the other schools could theoretically continue without one or more holdouts (USC has also been reportedly indicated as a team with issues with the arrangement), it both lessens the collective pot of money and raises the possibility of splitting up the Big Ten. The CIO of UC Investments, the big money player behind the $2.4 billion offer, has indicated that it wants all 18 Big Ten teams.
University of Michigan Regent Jordan Acker commented on Sirius XM College Sports Today, “Michigan has a lot of options…. The possibility of independence for football is something that has to be considered.” Acker indicated that while Michigan didn’t particularly wish to leave the Big Ten, the conference’s indication that it could move forward without Michigan State “would be the end of Michigan, as far as I can see, in the Big Ten Conference.”
The Big Ten has swollen to 18 teams in its current configuration, and many are suggesting that the essential issue now is just that the league has outgrown any sort of functional footprint. The conference added Nebraska in 2011, Maryland and Rutgers in 2014, and then Oregon, Washington, UCLA, and USC in 2024.
Before that run, Penn State had joined the Big Ten in 1990 and the league’s most recent prior addition had been Michigan State in 1950. Michigan is one of six remaining original members of the Big Ten from 1896. Independent football has essentially become a situation of stopgap members and Notre Dame, but if Michigan is indeed serious about leaving the Big Ten, it’s not hard to imagine the Wolverines having a Notre Dame-like significance as an Independent. A separate Michigan media rights deal could be massive, if that’s the direction this ultimately tends.
Could Michigan be headed away from the Big Ten and toward life as an Independent in football? Signs suggest it’s possible. / Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
