Report: FOX to buy back 2026 Big Ten championship game from NBC for $45-55 million

FOX is reportedly nearing a deal to reacquire the 2026 Big Ten football championship game from NBC for between $45-55 million, according to the Wall Street Journal’s Joe Flint. NBC had subleased the game from FOX, which is now effectively buying it back.

NBC had reportedly been seeking to offload the game for several months, and was asking upwards of $70 million from various streaming services, including Amazon’s Prime Video and Netflix, to acquire the game, according to Awful Announcing. But given its de facto ownership of Big Ten media rights, including holding a majority stake in the Big Ten Network, FOX reportedly nixed NBC’s sublicensing plan before it even got started. Any sublicense deal to which NBC agreed would require FOX’s approval.

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With this agreement, FOX will now own the rights to the Big Ten championship game in five of the seven years under its current agreement with the conference that runs through the 2030s. CBS has the rights to the other two Big Ten title games, including in 2024.

As part of its agreement with FOX, NBC will receive additional regular-season Big Ten games, according to Flint.

The 2025 Big Ten Championship between undefeated Ohio State and Indiana was the sixth-most-watched college football game of last season, drawing an average of 18.3 million viewers to FOX. That figure also made it the most-watched game of championship weekend, surpassing the SEC title game by nearly 1.5 million viewers. Big Ten teams actually accounted for eight of the Top 10 most-watched games of 2025, including the Week 14 game between Ohio State and Michigan drawing 18.4 million viewers for FOX.

NFL, college football continues drawing huge TV ratings

The NFL remains king when it comes to TV ratings. Regular-season games accounted for 89 of the top 100 shows on TV since the 2025 season began. The biggest matchup of the season came on Thanksgiving when the Dallas Cowboys’ victory over the Kansas City Chiefs brought in 57.3 million viewers on CBS. That shattered the previous mark for most-watched NFL regular-season game on record.

But while the NFL draws the biggest TV ratings in sports, college football is also seeing its own success. During the 2025 regular season, a record number of games topped the 10 million-viewer mark, with ABC emerging as the big winner. The network aired 21 of the 25 most-watched games of the year, led by the Lone Star Showdown between Texas and Texas A&M. The Longhorns’ win averaged 13.0 million viewers in Week 14.

FOX was also a big winner, bringing in the two most-watched games of the regular season. The rivalry game between Ohio State and Michigan led the charge at 18.4 million – on par with the NFL’s average via Nielsen Big Data + Panel – and the Buckeyes’ Week 1 win over Texas averaged 16.6 million viewers.

— On3’s Nick Schultz contributed to this report.