Ohio State president Ted Carter addresses conversations about future Big Ten revenue sharing

As the Big Ten enters the third year of its media rights deal, viewership around college football continues to soar. Ohio State is at the forefront after becoming the second most-watched team in the country during the 2024 regular season and with this year’s record-setting season opener against Texas.

But when it comes to revenue sharing, Ohio State president Ted Carter told USA Today a “conversation will be had” about how to distribute those funds. He pointed out the Buckeyes’ ratings success while pointing out the brand power in the Big Ten.

SUBSCRIBE to the On3 NIL and Sports Business Newsletter

The Big Ten’s seven-year, $7 billion media deal with FOX, CBS and NBC runs through 2030, and the conference distributes roughly equal revenue among its members. New members Oregon and Washington, though, are taking a smaller piece of the pie.

As for where things go in the future, Carter isn’t sure. But he pointed to the amount of people watching Ohio State games.

“We don’t have any answers,” Carter told USA Today. “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 (Ohio State’s football season opener). … 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.”

Ted Carter: Big Ten has ‘own bylaws for how we do distributions’

Revenue distribution became a key point in another power conference over the last year. The ACC was facing lawsuits from Florida State and Clemson challenging the league’s grant of rights, leading to questions about whether another round of conference realignment could begin.

Ultimately, the ACC and the two schools settled the two suits. The league also unveiled a new distribution model based on TV ratings, which will see an equal 40% distribution among member schools. A majority share – 60% – of the base media rights will then be placed into a viewership pool to be distributed via a TV ratings-based model.

When asked about whether the Big Ten could eventually follow a model similar to the ACC’s, Ted Carter declined to discuss specifics of the talks within the league. He added the current setup is already in place, per conference bylaws.

“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.”