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Ohio State president expects ‘a conversation’ around unequal revenue sharing in Big Ten
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The Ohio State president didn’t explicitly say so, but the insinuation that was made this week in an interview with USA Today was that Ohio State is not compensated accurately under the Big Ten’s equal revenue-sharing system relative to the value the Buckeyes bring to the league.
Ted Carter took over as the president at Ohio State in January 2024 after spending 4 years as president of the University of Nebraska system. He has been in the Big Ten for long enough, and he has seen the Big Ten expand. In an extended sit-down with USA Today, Carter seemed to suggest that conversations will soon be had about splitting Big Ten revenue in unequal ways.
Carter told USA Today that Ohio State Athletics enjoyed a surplus during the 2024-25 fiscal year, with an operating budget around $262 million and $325 million in revenue.
He was asked directly during the interview if he foresaw the Big Ten adopting a rev-share model similar to the one the ACC recently enacted in order to satisfy two angsty schools, Florida State and Clemson.
“I don’t want to get into the type of conversations that are happening inside the Big Ten,” Carter said. “I would just tell you that we’re a proud member of the Big Ten, and that’s where we’re going to stay. We have … our own bylaws for how we do the distributions. When new members join the conference, they don’t always come in at the same share, as you know. So … that’s the way our media rights deals are set up. That’s how we’re set up for now.”
Pressed further about a different rev-share model in the future, Carter said, “That’s going to be a conversation that will be had over time.”
In August 2022, the Big Ten closed a record-setting 7-year media rights agreement with FOX, CBS, and NBC. That contract officially began in July 2023 and runs through the end of the 2029-30 athletic year. Initial projections for the latter stages of that deal were that the Big Ten would equally distribute around $100 million to its then-16 members.
When Oregon and Washington signed on to join the conference, they agreed to a sub-50% share of media rights revenue. Reporting at the time from The Hotline’s Jon Wilner suggested that the $100 million figure also included postseason revenue from bowls, the College Football Playoff, and the NCAA Tournament, and that the actual media rights figure would top $70 million later in the deal.
Regardless, the next contract the Big Ten signs could be worth more.
“I will say that there’s only a couple of schools that really represent the biggest brands in the Big Ten, and you can see that by the TV viewership. I mean, look what we just went through with the Texas game,” Carter told USA Today. “You know, 16.(6) million people watching that game over the whole game. And it peaked at 18.6 million. It’s the most-watched opening game in history, third-largest game ever watched in a regular season (on FOX). So, that’s what happens when you put the Ohio State brand out there.”
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.