MADISON, Wis. — The Big Ten conference completed a seven-year, $7 billion dollar media rights agreement with NBC, CBS, and FOX.
This is big for the Badgers, who are celebrating the National Champion Volleyball Red and White scrimmage, and a football open practice this weekend.
"The volleyball team, coming off the NCAA Championship. They're going to host a Red/White Scrimmage on Saturday starting at noon," Wisconsin Director of Football Brand Communications Brian Lucas says. "The next day, the football team hosts an open practice in Camp Randall Stadium starting at 3:30 p.m. We're going to have a Badgerville, sort of pre-practice tailgate starting at 1:30 p.m."
Lucas calls these two great free opportunities for fans to kick off the fall season with the Badgers.
"One thing I'll definitely say about volleyball at the Field House, it's an experience," Lucas says. "We sell out. We're lucky enough to sell out just about every match. The quality of volleyball is high quality. Every night, the Big Ten's the best volleyball conference in the country. And what Coach Sheffield has done with our volleyball program specifically is unbelievable."
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The Big Ten announced Thursday it has reached agreements to share the rights to the conference's football and basketball games.
The deals go into effect in 2023, expire in 2030 and eventually will allow the conference's soon-to-be 16 member universities to share more than $1 billion per year, a person familiar with the terms told The Associated Press.
The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because Big Ten and network officials were not disclosing financial details publicly, but the deal is believed to be the richest ever on an annual basis for a college sports property. The large increase in revenue to the conference won't kick in until the third year of the deal and gradually will increase over the final five years.
