Big Ten Teams Reach $60 Million Annually in Media Revenue

Dennis Dodd, a Senior Writer at CBS Sports, reported on Thursday that Big Ten members will each receive over $60 million in media rights revenue in 2025. That number is expected to increase to $70 million by the end of the decade. This number includes the money earned from media rights to both football and basketball, as well as anything earned from the typically non-revenue sports.

To supply a frame of reference regarding media revenue amongst the Big Ten teams (via the Detroit News):

Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel presented the budget at the Michigan Board of Regents meeting Thursday afternoon.

The department projects revenues of nearly $188 million, including a significant boost from the Big Ten financial distributions. Michigan will receive $52.1 million in Big Ten conference disbursements.

The Big Ten’s new television football and basketball agreements last year gave Michigan a big chunk from the conference. Michigan received $51.1 million in conference disbursements, a significant increase from the $36.3 million in 2017. The Big Ten moved to multiple television partners in the new deal with ESPN/ABC and Fox.

This exemplifies the money-making potential of each sport over the past decade or so. This steep increase also coincides with the new media deal that the Big Ten conference signed in 2017.

Dodd also pointed out that Rutgers would receive its first full share of the media rights revenue in 2027 as they had been borrowing against future shares since they joined the Big Ten as a full-time member in 2014.

It will be interesting to see how the universities disperse this significant increase of income as media rights revenue skyrockets (*hint hint*).