The 2022 season has already been a major success for multiple Big Ten football programs. After coming together for a media rights deal of seven years that has an estimated worth of seven billion dollars, both the Big Ten schools, and FOX, CBS, and NBC/Peacock are looking for immediate financial success. The deal that will include college football and all Olympic sports will run through the year 2030.
So far, the massive contract is already showing its worth as Ohio State and Michigan both have already posted record setting years. Coming just two years off of the 2020 Covid season where the Big Ten, unlike many other conferences, decided to put a limitation on their team's schedules, saw big records being broken in the amount of revenue they were able to generate. For Ohio State and Michigan, both schools brought in over 55 million from ticket sales and another 47 million just from football alone. Not only this, but both schools brought in another 46 million for Michigan and another 49 million for Ohio State in media rights deals. Contributions from a combination of donors, foundations, and companies also added to the success of the big programs. Both schools reported an increase of over 13 million dollars in donations from the previous years with Michigan capping out at 43 million and Ohio State at 62 million.
With record setting numbers like these, media programs like FOX, CBS, and NBC are bound to receive some of the success and attention these programs alone bring in. A lot can be said about the Big Ten programs as they brought in the most viewers this year with Ohio State at 1 with 70.3 million viewers and Michigan at 2 with 70.1 million viewers, and the next closest program is Alabama at 3 trailing behind with 62.2 million viewers to show for. Ohio State and Michigan also held the most watched regular season game in week 13 with 17 million viewers which is 10 million viewers more than the next best game. As well as Ohio State recorded the season high of 22.4 million in the Peach Bowl and Michigan with the second highest at 21.7 million in the Fiesta bowl.
Michigan, Ohio State post record revenue in 2022 | Yardbarker
Ten most viewed college football teams in 2022 | Buckeyes Wire (usatoday.com)
College football TV ratings 2022 - Sports Media Watch
I'm not surprised by the success of Ohio State and Michigan in regards to viewership and income but it is surprising to see their relative success when compared to a school like Alabama which is also a massive college football powerhouse. This is also interesting to see coming just two years after the shortened season the Big Ten implemented due to Covid as you said.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting to see how the Big Ten is growing financially compared to other conferences like SEC with multiple ranked teams every year and multiple national championships. I wonder where a lot of this viewership is coming from and which fan base is contributing the most money.
ReplyDeleteThese numbers just show how big football is in the Midwest. It is really incredible to see just how much interest BIG Ten football brings in. It'll be interesting to see how much these numbers will increase with Michigan and Ohio State being powerhouses for the foreseeable future.
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