Kevin Warren reportedly left B1G with incomplete media rights deal with major flaws

Kevin Warren left the B1G following the 2022-23 athletic calendar to take the CEO and president’s post with the Chicago Bears. The biggest feather in Warren’s cap during his time as commissioner of the B1G was a landmark media rights deal for the conference.

Unfortunately, that deal has come under scrutiny in a report compiled by ESPN’s Pete Thamel. According to Thamel, Warren left an incomplete deal in his wake for new commissioner Tony Petitti to cope with. That includes more than $70 million from the deal that is in flux, a total that is nearly $5 million per school.

“These deals aren’t done, and they aren’t what they were represented to be from the standpoint of the NBC deal and the availability of all members to participate in November games in primetime,” said an industry source.

Among the major issues included, Thamel reports B1G schools have learned:

• They will need to pay back nearly $40 million to FOX because Warren reportedly delivered NBC the 2026 B1G Championship Game without full authority to do so. Thamel also included the conference actually doesn’t control the rights to the inventory of the latest deal, the Big Ten Network — majority owned by FOX — does.
• They are going to have to pay $25 million for a deal to pay FOX back for lost inventory from the 2020 football season.
• There are tens of millions of dollars of value from the NBC primetime deal in flux with Petitti rushing to maintain as much of the original value as possible. Historically, B1G programs were not required to play night games after the first weekend in November for multiple reasons, including health, recovery and campus logistics. Prior TV contracts accounted for these “tolerances.”

Thamel cited multiple sources indicating pushback from multiple schools (including Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State) to playing late-November night games in the new deal. Athletic departments and coaches from around the B1G also claimed to be surprised November night games would be part of the deal and were not asked for permission to play them or informed of the change prior to the deal.

“NBC was surprised, and I was surprised,” said Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel. “We had not discussed, and I had not discussed with anyone in the league to change the tolerances we had agreed upon years ago.”

Basketball issues exist within TV deal

Though the football issues are front-and-center of the issues from the TV deal, the basketball portion of the deal has also caused problems. According to Thamel, Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo was critical of Warren for a lack of transparency and consultation regarding the deal.

The number of games to be featured as streaming-only options are among the chief concerns for Izzo, a sentiment felt around the B1G per Thamel:

Izzo added that he has “concerns” about the amount of games available only on streaming and said that would be among his first questions to Petitti, as “it was not discussed with us [coaches] at all.”

“Those are some things I’d like to see with the new commissioner, that there’s some transparency in working together,” Izzo said.

We’ll see how the B1G moves forward in the wake of Warren’s incomplete deal, but it sounds like there are still significant hurdles to be cleared before the fall.

Paul Harvey

Paul is a lifelong fan and student of all things college football. He has been covering college football since 2017 and the B1G since 2018.