David Shaw reacts to Big Ten media deal, forecasts how it will change college football's future

On3 imageby:Nikki Chavanelle08/19/22

NikkiChavanelle

Stanford football head coach David Shaw joined the Paul Finebaum Show this week following the Big Ten’s announcement of its historic new media rights deal.

Shaw discussed the deal and forecasted its impact on college football’s long-term future. Although he doesn’t see much sense in the Big Ten’s realignment and adding USC and UCLA, he believes the new media deal allows things to level out in a few years’ time.

“In keeping with who I am and how I think, it’s really hard right now to visualize two West Coast teams playing in a conference in the Midwest and East Coast,” Shaw said. “I think there’s no way around it that both those teams are going to have three road games in a row that their student-athletes are going to have to pay for. In the complete arch, I believe eventually, in the next decade or so, these things will kind of work out. One of the wisest parts of that Big Ten deal is that it’s not 10, 11, 12 years… I think that’s going to allow things to move back towards common sense. Whether that means the Big Ten gets bigger again or it shrinks again.

“The fact of having these high-value TV contracts, but for shorter years, will hopefully allow things to morph back into a way where things make sense.”

Ultimately, Shaw believes the move of USC and UCLA will harm the student-athletes at those schools more than it will benefit them.

Big Ten announces major media rights deal

The Big Ten Conference made waves on Thursday. It announced a historic media rights deal that will put the conference across multiple networks, including CBS, FOX, NBC and NBC’s Peacock.

According to Pete Thamel of ESPN, the new seven-year agreement will “begin July 1, 2023, and run through the end of the 2029-30 athletic year.”

Additionally, the college football insider writes the Big Ten is “set to bring in more than $7 billion” over the course of the agreements.

“Specific terms were not disclosed, but a financial windfall won’t come immediately, according to media sources,” added Thamel. “The CBS payout in Year 1 of the agreement is lower since it still will be carrying SEC games during the 2023 season, and will air only seven Big Ten contests that fall.

“But the Big Ten’s per-school distribution will slope upward in Year 2 of the deal, when new members USC and UCLA enter the Big Ten. Revenue will rise substantially beginning in Year 3.”

On3’s Stephen Samra contributed to this report.