The state of Illinois is attempting to obtain a copy of the Big Ten’s media rights agreement.
According to a report by Daniel Libit in Sportico, the Illinois attorney general’s public access bureau has determined that the University of Illinois, a public college, is required to disclose a copy of the deal to the AG’s office. The AG’s decision comes two years after the University of Illinois denied a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request that sought to disclose the media rights deals.
Per Sportico, the university maintains that it does not possess a physical or digital copy of the Big Ten’s media rights agreements, and thus does not have anything to disclose to the requesting parties. This is seemingly common practice in college athletics. Some may recall, when Clemson and Florida State brought lawsuits against the ACC, they had to travel to the conference’s headquarters in North Carolina to view documents like the grant of rights.
The University of Illinois, “in the spirit of transparency,” did ask the Big Ten for a copy of its media rights agreements to provide after the FOIA request two years ago, but was denied.
Under the AG’s recent determination, the university must “take additional measures” to obtain the media rights agreements in order to fulfill the FOIA request.
While it sounds like this might result in the Big Ten’s media rights agreements becoming public, it’s possible that the university won’t comply. Per Sportico, “Despite this directive, it remains uncertain whether the attorney general’s office will take further action if the university fails to provide the record, given that it opted not to issue a binding opinion and now considers the matter closed.”
The Big Ten is currently entered into deals with Fox, CBS, and NBC. Big Ten Network, which is majority-owned by Fox Corporation, controls the media rights for the conference.
It is rare for these agreements to become public, especially when they aren’t even finalized in many cases. The Illinois situation will be worth keeping an eye on as, if the contracts are released publicly, they would reveal a lot about the inner-workings of college media rights agreements.
