NBC Sports is asking $70 million per year to sublicense the Big Ten football championship game broadcast rights to Fox, according to people familiar with the negotiation. NBC controls the game through 2029 under its seven-year, $1 billion deal signed in 2022, but rarely airs it—Fox has carried the December showcase in most seasons as part of its broader Big Ten package. This year NBC is naming a price.

The move arrives as the Big Ten championship transforms from conference trophy game into College Football Playoff semifinal in all but name. The winner takes a first-round bye and likely a top-two seed. The loser still makes the twelve-team field but plays an extra game, on the road, in mid-December cold. That's $10 million in incremental playoff distribution and a recruiting pitch that writes itself. Fox knows this. It currently pays roughly $45 million annually for Big Ten rights excluding the championship. NBC is now asking Fox to pay $25 million more than the marginal rate just to keep a game it has promoted for a decade.

The ask reflects two realities. First, NBC understands it holds leverage during a playoff format transition that has not yet settled into predictable ratings. The 2024 Big Ten championship drew 10.6 million viewers on Fox, down from 13.1 million in 2023, but still the highest-rated conference title game by a wide margin. CBS paid $350 million over eight years for SEC championship rights starting in 2024; that's $43.75 million annually for a game that drew 8.9 million viewers last December. NBC's $70 million ask prices the Big Ten game at a 60% premium to the SEC, which tracks with regular-season viewership gaps but ignores the SEC's six straight national titles.

Second, NBC is testing whether Comcast's lame-duck management will leave money on the table as it executes a spinoff of NBCUniversal's cable networks—including USA Network, which carries many Big Ten games—into a separate public company. The spinoff closes in mid-2025. NBC could air the championship itself on broadcast, pair it with Notre Dame's playoff opener if the Irish qualify, and sell a December doubleheader to advertisers at a 15% premium over standalone inventory. Fox would lose its December anchor, the promotional window for its January semifinal games, and the ability to sell Big Ten championship + NFL Sunday packages to sponsors like Ford and Anheuser-Busch, who pay $8 million to $12 million for integrated Q4 buys.

Fox has until late March to respond before NBC begins its upfront planning cycle. If Fox declines, NBC will almost certainly air the game itself rather than let it go dark—Peacock streaming exclusivity remains unlikely given the playoff stakes. The more interesting question is whether Fox counters by bidding for Notre Dame's home playoff games, which NBC controls but has not yet scheduled. The Irish are contracted to NBC through 2029 at $15 million annually, a figure that does not explicitly include playoff hosting fees. Fox could offer $25 million for a single South Bend semifinal and force NBC to choose between writing a check or losing its December programming tent pole.

Meanwhile, the Big Ten is watching. Commissioner Tony Petitti has told university presidents the conference will renegotiate all media rights when the current deals expire in 2030, with an eye toward bundling football, basketball, and Olympic sports into a single $2 billion annual package. He views the championship sublicensing dance as a preview of that auction. If NBC can extract $70 million for one game six years into a deal, Petitti's math says the whole sport is underpriced.

The negotiation window closes when NBC finalizes its 2025-26 upfront commitments in mid-May. Fox's response will arrive before then, probably after the NFL Draft in late April, when the network knows which teams and markets will anchor its fall slate.