The revenue gap between the ACC and the Big Ten just got a lot bigger.
The Big Ten on Thursday announced new seven-year distribution agreements with Fox, CBS and NBC to broadcast games. The rights holders, which also include NBC's Peacock streaming service, Fox Sports 1 and the Big Ten Network, will pay the Big Ten more than $1 billion per year, according to the Associated Press.
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The agreements begin July 1, 2023, and run through the 2029-30 season. The Big Ten will have an NFL-style national triple-header each fall Saturday beginning in 2024 with Fox broadcasting a game at noon, CBS at 3:30 p.m. and NBC in primetime.
In the 2019-20 fiscal year, the Big Ten distributed an average of $54.2 million to its members. The payout dipped slightly during the 2020-21 fiscal year because the league played a reduced football season due to the coronavirus pandemic. But at $48.7 million per school, the league still distributed more than the ACC did to its members.
The ACC distributed a record $36.1 million to its members in 2020-21, according to conference tax disclosures reviewed by WRAL News.
The Big Ten currently has 14 members, but will add USC and UCLA from the Pac-12 in 2024. The conference has traditional football powers such as Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State, plus other big Midwestern schools such as Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska. The league will stretch from coast to coast in 2024 with Rutgers and former ACC member Maryland on the East Coast and the two Los Angeles schools on the West Coast.
The Big Ten could pay its members at least $62.5 million annually from just its television deal. Conferences also distribute revenue from the College Football Playoff and NCAA men's tournament to its members schools.
The new television contract is expected to push the Big Ten past the SEC in terms of total revenue. The SEC generated a record $833 million in total revenue in the 2020-21 fiscal year. The Big Ten generated more than $700 million annually for three consecutive years before the pandemic season.
The ACC, by contrast, set a record with $578 million in total revenue in 2020-21. The Big Ten will nearly double that just from its television contact.
The ACC signed a 20-year television agreement with ESPN in 2016, which led to the formation of the ACC Network. While the league's revenue has risen steadily, the Big Ten and SEC have grown even faster. With its agreements ending in 2030, the Big Ten is expected to sign at least one more set of television deals before the ACC signs its next television agreement to begin in 2036.
The SEC signed a 10-year, $3 billion deal with ESPN in 2020.
"Financially there's a gap, and we're doing everything we can to close that gap," North Carolina athletics director Bubba Cunningham said this week in a video posted by the athletic department. "Our challenge as a league will be to continue to find ways to help ESPN and help ourselves close that revenue gap."
ACC commissioner Jim Phillips talked about the gap throughout his remarks at July's football kickoff event.
"We understand where those two leagues are," Phillips said. "No one is ignoring it. We're all trying to find ways to close that gap."