The Big Ten Conference distributed $1.37 billion to its member schools in fiscal year 2024-25, a record haul driven by the seven-year, $7.5 billion media rights package with Fox, CBS, and NBC that launched in fall 2023. The conference announced the figure Tuesday without breaking out per-school averages, a deliberate opacity that masks the tiered structure now governing college sports' richest league.
Eighteen schools split the pot. The 14 legacy members—Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, and eleven others who were present when the Fox deal was negotiated—received full shares estimated at $60 million to $65 million each, according to two athletic directors briefed on the distributions. USC and UCLA, who joined in August 2024 after departing the Pac-12, also took full shares under their integration agreement. Oregon and Washington, the conference's other 2024 additions, operated under partial-share terms for fiscal 2024-25, likely in the $30 million to $40 million range, with escalators that reach parity by fiscal 2029-30. The conference declined to confirm school-level figures.
The payout is 22 percent higher than fiscal 2023-24's $1.12 billion, which itself set a record. That year-over-year jump reflects the first full fiscal cycle under the new television contracts, which guarantee an average of $1.07 billion annually through 2030. Fox holds the primary rights package, CBS carries a Saturday afternoon window, and NBC inherited the conference from its Peacock streaming bet. The structure allows the Big Ten to schedule games across three broadcast windows on Saturdays, a flexibility that has pushed noon Eastern kickoffs to Fox, 3:30pm slots to CBS, and primetime to NBC. Ratings through the 2024 season averaged 4.8 million viewers for Fox's top windows, second only to SEC on CBS among conference packages.
The distribution model now determines how aggressively the conference can pursue further expansion. Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti has said publicly the league will only add schools that are "revenue-accretive," meaning their media value must exceed the per-school payout they would claim. At $60 million-plus per full share, that bar is higher than any conference in college sports. Notre Dame remains the only independent whose national brand could clear it without negotiation. The Irish are contracted to NBC through 2029 under a separate $60 million annual deal, and their partial ACC football scheduling agreement runs through 2036. A source close to the Notre Dame administration said the school has received no formal Big Ten overture since the USC-UCLA announcement in June 2022, though informal conversations have occurred at every College Football Playoff event since.
The fiscal 2024-25 payout also includes $85 million in NCAA distributions, primarily from March Madness basketball units and College Football Playoff payouts. The Big Ten placed three teams in the 12-team playoff field in December 2024—Ohio State, Oregon, and Penn State—which generated an estimated $12 million in conference revenue from participation units. That figure is split evenly among all members under the conference's basketball-style revenue-sharing model, a structure that has irritated some high-performing programs who argue for performance-based tiers.
Sponsor and licensing revenue added $120 million to the distribution, up 9 percent from fiscal 2023-24. The conference signed a six-year, $48 million extension with Allstate in October 2024 to keep the insurer as title sponsor of the Big Ten Championship Game through 2030. The league also completed a $30 million multi-year deal with Nike in February 2024, though individual schools retain their own apparel contracts.
What to watch: The Big Ten's fiscal 2025-26 distribution will be the first to reflect a full year of College Football Playoff revenue under the 12-team format, with payouts expected to rise 15 percent to $1.58 billion. Oregon and Washington's share escalators kick in for that cycle, adding $20 million in costs. The conference's next media rights negotiation begins informal discussions in late 2027, with Fox holding a first-look window. Petitti has scheduled a spring 2025 athletic director retreat in Chicago to discuss expansion criteria and revenue-sharing reform proposals that would reward playoff participants with bonus units.
The $60 million per-school baseline is now the floor for every Big Ten budget conversation. It is also the ceiling for every conference trying to compete.
The takeaway
Big Ten schools averaged **$60M-$65M** in fiscal 2024-25; Oregon and Washington took partial shares as expansion math tightens around Notre Dame.
big tenmedia rightscollege footballconference distributionexpansionnotre dame
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