Bob Bowlsby Gives Update On BYU’s TV Deal Heading Into Big 12 Era
Jun 2, 2022, 6:10 PM
Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby provided an update on how BYU's Football TV deal will work within the league. (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images)
(Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images)
IRVING, Texas – When BYU joins the Big 12 in 2023, they will be part of a new television package.
In 2010, BYU declared its football independence, creating a space for its home football games to air on ESPN and BYUtv. That will soon change.
To wrap up day two of the Big 12’s Spring Business Meetings at the Four Seasons, Bowlsby was asked how BYU’s TV deal would work within the league’s TV contract that includes ESPN and FOX as partners.
Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby was asked how BYUtv will work within the league’s TV package.
“They (#BYU) have told us that they intend to defer to us.”@kslsports pic.twitter.com/DXPYwbAron
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“They have told us that they intend to defer to us,” Bowlsby said. “I think eventually we’ll roll their ESPN package into the Big 12 package. We haven’t had those discussions yet, but we will. We’ve had them with BYU, but we haven’t with ESPN. We’ll have those. It really is not very material, one way or the other.”
BYU’s ESPN contract runs through the 2026 college football season. The Big 12 Conference’s current tv deal expires after the 2024-25 academic year.
That current TV deal with the Big 12 also includes the Big 12’s streaming platform, “Big 12 Now,” on ESPN+. The current members in the Big 12, except Texas and Oklahoma, utilize Big 12 Now for their third-tier rights.
Bowlsby noted that BYU would also participate in the streaming package.
“Relative to BYUtv, BYU will have the same obligations to put content on Big 12 Now that all the other members do. Which I think is 50 events a year, or something like that. And then, of course, that’s where a lot of our men’s and women’s basketball are; a few of the football games. So they’ll fully participate in our package.”
BYU becomes a full member of the Big 12 Conference on July 1, 2023. The fellow newcomers of the Big 12, UCF, Cincinnati, and Houston, will be in no later than July 1, 2024. They are currently working on an exit fee with their current league, the AAC, to join the Big 12 at the same time as BYU.
Mitch Harper is a BYU Insider for sports.ksl.com and host of the Cougar Tracks Podcast (SUBSCRIBE) and Cougar Sports Saturday (Saturday from 12–3 p.m.) on KSL Newsradio. Follow him on Twitter: @Mitch_Harper.
