If you want to tell yourself the POTUS saved Big Ten football this season, knock yourself out. Personally, I’m going with the Big Ten Network.
Restoring the football season also bolsters the other major arm of the conference’s television revenue package, the Big Ten Network, which it operates in partnership with Fox. Without football (or fall sports more generally), BTN would have struggled badly for programming, and advertising as well.
In the conference’s current media setup, it pulls in $440 million from external partners, but also more than $100 million from BTN-specific revenue. Restarting football strengthens that revenue stream once again.
And all this puts advertising dollars back on the table as well. Crakes estimated the conference might see 60-70% of that revenue restored to what it would have been under normal circumstances.
The article estimates that if the season can be played, that’s worth somewhere in the range of $40-60 million to Indiana. That ain’t chump change, especially now.
Yeah, I think the conference made the mistake of thinking it was leading the charge to close down the season. But once it saw that several of its peers weren’t following, the it wasn’t going to walk away from millions it badly needs. The Big Ten isn’t a suicide pact.
Get The Picture 
The whole deal is laughable. Money trumps integrity and principles every time. They were willing to fall on their sword until they realized they were dying alone. Its a good thing the new information on the virus come out just in time.
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the gold rush always trumps the staunchest conservatives and the most flaming liberals agendas.
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Rule# 1 is always follow the money not what is said.
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Does anyone think the B1G would’ve had the turnaround if all the other conferences followed suit and closed it down when they did?
If you want to point to “who” saved it (other than the money) start with the conferences that didn’t quit.
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Ed Zachery
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The South saved Big 10 football this fall.
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I agree with you, but it makes me feel sort of dirty. I wouldn’t care at all if Big Tele-whatever football wasn’t played.
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I understand your sentiment, but without the B1G 10, my condescension has lost its muse.
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Kevin Warren, we hardly knew ya.
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New tagline “The Big10, we ain’t no suicide pact”
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TV ratings should see a bump this year, considering the number of people that can’t watch the games in person. That doesn’t sound like much if you’re just talking about the 60K-70K for a single game, but if you look at the entire season, and an additional 60K-70K eyeballs on the broadcast for every game, in every conference, it will add up.
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I think it’s more that the other conferences didn’t cane like they thought they would. They called the bluff and lost.
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I’ve honestly enjoyed watching the B10 scramble to pull this off and try to save face.
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I think this is more likely.
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