KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark was more than happy to rattle off what Big 12 men’s and women’s basketball has accomplished in the past 12 months.
But, for a commissioner that has made no secret of his desires to attempt to uncouple the conference’s basketball television contracts from football, it’s what is coming up that has him the most excited.
During Big 12 media days at T-Mobile Center, he noted that the men’s 93 games across linear television outlets and the women’s 19 games on the same outlets are the most for both since the 2018-19 season.
Part of that is due to the sub-licensing deal between ESPN and CBS. The latter network will broadcast 26 men’s games on either CBS (six games) or the CBS Sports Network (20 games), giving those games a national reach.
“They’ve always had a relationship with ESPN for sub-licensing, but they wanted to get deeper with the Big 12,” Yormark said. “I don’t blame them, and I think that just gets an opportunity to have another major player doing basketball with us next year.”
Related: Four Biggest Takeaways from Big 12 Men’s Basketball Media Day
Big 12 Basketball TV Deal Ending
The Big 12 is in the final year of its current deal with its TV partners, one that was signed years ago when the conference had just 10 teams. In 2025-26 the six-year extension that Yormark negotiated kicks in, which will allow Fox to get a larger piece of the basketball pie.
Right now, Fox can only get Big 12 men’s games if the Big 12 teams is on the road and Fox holds the rights to the home team (think the Big 12-BIG EAST Battle). This season the Big 12 men have just two games on Fox and eight games on FS1. All are non-conference.
Next year, per Yormark, Fox could have access to as many as 50 men’s basketball games. Combine it with the CBS sub-license and the conference will have three major networks at the table through at least the 2026-27 season when the sub-license deal expires.
The ESPN-CBS sub-license doesn’t extend to the women, but their relationship with Fox grows a bit this season as the network or FS1 will broadcast five games. That includes huge non-conference showdowns like Iowa State vs. South Carolina (Nov. 28) and Baylor vs. UCLA (Jan. 20), along with three conference games.
Future Big 12 TV Deals are Just a Few Years Away
As for the future, the extension ends with the 2030-31 season. The media landscape at that time will largely determine whether Yormark can make good on the potential of a basketball-only television deal, something no major conference has done before.
The Big EAST — which doesn’t play FBS football — recently negotiated a new TV deal that kicks in next year and through 2030-31 with FOX, NBC and TNT. The deal is valued at $480 million, but for 11 teams at $80 million per year the per-school payout is approximately $7.27 million before other revenue streams.
That is a bit less than a quarter of what Big 12 schools are expecting in revenue share each year from their whole deal.
Yormark has been clear that he believes basketball is “undervalued.” But it’s the value of whatever deals he could negotiate that will ultimately determine what he does when the time comes — and he’s in no hurry. The new deal, he said, gives him and the league back-end rights to negotiate the next deal as a bundle — which is currently done — or try to do it separately.
The growth of basketball, he says, gives him options.
“I think there’s real upside, and I’m looking to capture as much of that, both short-term and long-term, as I can,” he said.
You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard.
