Over the weekend, Scott Dochterman published a piece at The Athletic about the Big Ten’s seven-year media deal midway through and how it’s shaking out.
Buried in the piece, Dochterman reveals the first five picks from the partner networks’ television draft, which include some of the biggest college football games of the year.
Talk about burying the lede, at least as far as we’re concerned.
For the uninitiated, as part of the arrangement between Big Ten media partners Fox, CBS, and NBC, the networks hold a draft each year with a predetermined number of selections to decide which Big Ten games they’d like to broadcast that season. Fox always gets the top three picks and five of the first 11, while CBS and NBC each have three of the top 11 and switch off on the No. 4 pick each season.
According to Dochterman, Fox selected Nov. 28’s Michigan at Ohio State, Oct. 17’s Ohio State at Indiana, and Sept. 12’s Oklahoma at Michigan to start the draft. CBS had the fourth pick this season, and they went with Nov. 7’s Oregon at Ohio State. With the fifth pick, NBC went with Oct. 10’s USC at Penn State, which they put in primetime.
Knowing what we know about Fox’s penchant for noon kickoffs, we can also assume that’s what will be the case for the Indiana-OSU game. The Oklahoma-Michigan and OSU-Michigan games have already been announced to start at noon.
We can also expect Oregon-Ohio State to kick off around 3:30 p.m. ET on CBS, their preferred timeslot.
While the networks for some of these games were already known, it’s a fascinating look into how the sausage gets made and, perhaps most importantly, which games the networks think are the most valuable. It’s no small thing to pick one game over the other, as some of these matchups will be among the highest-rated college football games of the season.
Dochterman previously dug into the nuances and details surrounding the Big Ten media partner draft, and they’re worth revisiting if you’re not familiar. According to his report, the networks will hold mock drafts beforehand, and, as with any draft, trades happen from time to time. Last year, Fox traded its third overall pick to NBC, which ended up being Ohio State-Oregon, while Fox took the fifth pick (and presumably moved up in the draft) to grab Ohio State-Penn State.
About Sean Keeley
Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Managing Editor for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.