The Big Ten’s newly effective media deal is breaking up the Power 5 by pulling colleges into their own conference with the incentive of money. The Power 5 conferences, which include the Big Ten, SEC (Southeastern Conference), ACC (Atlantic Coast Conference), Pac 12, and Big 12, are a group of top-notch colleges mainly focused on athletics.
Last year the Big Ten signed a 7-year, $7 billion contract with Fox, NBC, and CBS that began as of July 31st, 2023, but recent negotiations with ESPN could boost their revenue to $8 billion. By taking in new schools from different, largely populated areas of the country, the Big Ten increases the number of viewers per game, and thus brings in more money.
With the addition of the University of Oregon and the University of Washington, the Big Ten has now expanded to 18 teams while possibly looking to bring in Florida State University (FSU) and Clemson.
As an athlete, Lleyton Arnold, a Battlefield senior who verbally committed to FSU for swim and dive in April of 2023, said, “Whichever conference they go to I don’t think I’d lose my spot swimming for the Florida State team. I only see positives in possibly money and revenue if we were to move conferences.”
When talking about FSU president Richard McCullough’s take on their current position in the ACC, an article by Sportico, a digital platform focused on news and information of the sports industry, states “He laid out an ‘existential crisis’ the school faces with at least an annual $30 million shortfall in revenue versus its peers in other conferences, namely those in the Big Ten and SEC.”
One conference being hit especially hard is the Pac-12. The conference is struggling significantly and according to Brad Agate of Forbes, “To no surprise the reason behind the defections is revenue. Among the Power 5 conferences only the Pac-12 does not have a long-term TV rights deal.” Currently, the Pac-12 is down to only two teams, Oregon State and Washington State.
The Power 5 also used to be organized by location, with each conference getting a certain region. Over time the conferences have become more spread out. Now with the Big Ten’s new additions, colleges like California, which is one of only 4 colleges in the Big Ten on the West Coast, will often have to travel to the East coast to play their games.
While Arnold says he feels secure with his position at FSU no matter which conference they go to, he also mentions that a negative impact would be “traveling North to like Wisconsin or Minnesota. Somewhere cold which is the opposite of what I went to Florida State for.” While the future of the Power 5 conferences is still uncertain, the effects of this year may change the dynamic of college sports forever.
