Has anyone heard about where the #4 or #5 games would be? I've assumed all along that they would be on Fox too except during the MLB playoffs but haven't read anything stating this. Fox has always had 2 or 3 games on tv. With so many big brand teams I assume that the 4th best Big Ten game still has an advantage over the best PAC10 or Big12 game.In any event, the lion's share of the money in this deal is those three big national network broadcasts every week. Apparently CBS is paying $350 million annually for just one football game a week which sounds like it's a weekly tradeoff with NBC for choice of game #2 vs game #3 (Fox getting game #1, though how can that be with it being at 9AM PT in a conference where USC is a top brand?
USC, Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, to a lesser extent Michigan State, Wisconsin, Iowa, UCLA football games, especially against each other or other big (read: SEC or ND) brands in the non-conference, broadcast on maximum household reach network television in regularly scheduled exclusive windows. That's ALL the money here, that's everything, that's why everything that's happening is happening. We're just along for the ride.
If UCLA or USC has to play at Illinois at 9AM PT, I'll take any advantage we can get . They decided to join us after all. For when USC plays Ohio State, I'd assume that Fox takes it as their #1 choice and then has them play later in the day. Fox would then flex another Big Ten game in their inventory into the noon slot.