The NBC-FOX Sports standoff over the Big Ten Championship game seems to be ending soon. After a major tussle between the two regarding the broadcasting rights of the lucrative title game of this year, FOX seems to be having the last laugh. Though it will have to slide an eight-figure-worth paycheck across the table, the Big Ten Championship game is finally coming home.

Washington Street Journal’s Joe Flint reported that NBC is set to hand over the game’s rights to FOX for between $45 to$55 million. This comes after NBC had been looking to sell the rights to Netflix and Amazon Prime for a reported $70 million since December last year. But the NBC-FOX-Big Ten triangle ultimately saw the larger network exercising its dominance.

The conference signed a historic media rights deal with NBC, FOX, and CBS in 2022, which was worth $7 billion. But since FOX has a majority stake in the Big Ten Network, any sublicense agreement that NBC made needed approval from the former network. A deal woth any of the streamers would have been monumental, since college sports are yet to be picked up by platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime. But with FOX having the final say, there was only one buyer for the 2026 Big Ten Championship. Now, FOX gets to hope for yet another record-setting game.

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For the first time in college football history, the Big Ten title game became the most-watched among all conference title games this season. 18.3 million viewers tuned in to FOX for the clash between Ohio State and Indiana, and saw the 2024 National Champions being knocked out of the race. If an underdog vs dominator matchup is set for this year too, FOX will most definitely break that record. NBC is giving up a big one with this deal.

NBC never got much out of the $7 billion partnership with FOX and Big Ten

Under the multi-network agreement, NBC gets to host 14-16 games of the Big Ten’s regular schedule, while FOX hosts 27 regular football games every year. Last season, NBC broadcast 15 games, which had an average viewership of about 3.1 million. In 2024, that number was 3.5 million. But FOX is now willing to cut NBC some slack, as the network will get one more regular-season game in exchange for the title game rights.

NBC might not get the marquee games with FOX calling the shots, but they will get to be more present in the Big Ten this way. NBC’s most-watched game last year was the Oregon-Penn State clash, which hit 8.1 million in viewership. The most watched game on FOX, however, was the Ohio State-Michigan game, which drew 18.4 million viewers. It was a calendar highlight for the network and the conference, as the Buckeyes finally beat the Wolverines after a four-year losing streak.

NBC will probably never get to host these high-stakes games as long as this agreement runs. But this move also proves that the Big Ten, in today’s time, is the conference that drives the sport.