In the wake of an NBA broadcasting rights settlement between the league and Warner Bros. Discovery, the Big 12 Conference has secured a significant deal to have several of its football and basketball games on TNT.
This move comes as part of what Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger says is being called a “network trade,” with the Big 12 being a secondary part of a major deal between the NBA, ESPN, and Warner Bros.
“The sublicensing deal begins next academic year (fall 2025) and spans six seasons, running concurrent to the Big 12’s new television contract with partners ESPN and FOX, Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark told Yahoo Sports,” Dellenger writes.
This “trade” resolves litigation brought by Warner Bros. over the NBA’s decision to give its future media rights to ESPN, NBC, and Amazon.
The decision is considered strategic, as it provides TNT with a higher-profile slate of college sports while also giving the Big 12 more national exposure. As part of the deal, TNT will broadcast 13 Big 12 football games and 15 men’s basketball contests.
Dellenger points out that, while weekly kickoff times are still unclear, “10 of the 13 [football] games will be Big 12 conference matchups, and those will be simulcast on the streaming service MAX, formerly HBO Max, a proprietary unit of WBD.”
While it’s a secondary part of the NBA agreement, this is a significant deal for the Big 12 as it moved football games that were set to air on ESPN+ to more widely available channels, and also gives the league an additional network partner. It sets the league up for great success when it’s time to renegotiate its media rights after 2031.
“This is additive to what ESPN and FOX bring us. That’s why this is a great deal,” Yormark told Yahoo Sports. “Any addition to both is complementary and will lead to more promotion and marketing around the Big 12 and conference brands.”
