Matt Millen leaves ESPN to join Big Ten Network and Fox Sports

Matt Millen, who has given some rather head-scratching analysis during his years on ESPN, will be heading back to the place where he was a number two analyst for the NFL. John Ourand at Sports Business Journal reports that Millen has signed a new contract with Fox Sports where he will work for multiple networks – Fox, Fox Sports 1 and Big Ten Network.

As a result, Millen will leave the Worldwide Leader where he worked as mainly a college football analyst studio and game analyst. He’ll become part of the Big Ten Network’s “A” team with play-by-play man Kevin Kugler. Millen replaces Glen Mason who was the previous “A” analyst with Kugler. Fox owns a majority share of BTN.

With this new Fox contract, Millen will get to work not only on Big Ten Network, but Fox Sports 1 appearing on studio shows to discuss college football and the NFL. And the big kicker is that Millen will get to work on Fox proper on college football games as well as yes, the NFL. So Millen will get back to work on the league where he did the most damage when he was General Manager of the Detroit Lions.

Millen does have a connection to the Big Ten as a Penn State alumnus. Sandwiched around his management days in Detroit, Millen worked at CBS/CBS Radio and Fox Sports where he concentrated on the NFL and was the backup to “A” analyst John Madden. But his tenure with the Lions made him a villain in Michigan where fans there have not forgiven him for his eight years there.

Still, Millen now will get to work on the two packages with Fox plus goes back to the sports group which made him one of the premier analysts on the NFL.

[Sports Business Journal]