There had been talk for weeks that Joe Buck would move to ESPN ever since that network agreed to a deal with Troy Aikman, but the complicating factor was that, unlike Aikman (who was able to opt out and go free agent), Buck had a year left on his deal with Fox. As Jim Miller discussed earlier this month, this created a potential “horse trade” between ESPN and Fox to get Buck on ESPN this year, and he specifically mentioned, “You know, if I’m Fox, I could ask for two or three big Ten games. Well, Andrew Marchand of The New York Post reported on Friday that Fox has granted ESPN permission to speak to Buck and a deal is expected soon. Later Friday, Marchand noted on Twitter that in return, Fox is expected to have the right to pick one additional Big Ten game ahead of ESPN this fall:
Fox and ESPN first talked about compensation last night. Fox will get the right to pick one game from the “Big 10” before ESPN next season, according to a person familiar with the matter.
I’ve been told it’s a little more complicated, but that’s the gist of it. https://t.co/M6Rkr6y6GO
— Andrew Marchand (@AndrewMarchand) March 12, 2022
Marchand notes that it’s “a bit more complex” so there may be other components to it. But this choice is certainly important and valuable. In the current Big Ten deals that run through the upcoming 2022-2023 season, ESPN and Fox currently have an equal share of the Big Ten rights when it comes to football and men’s basketball (CBS also has a small package only for basketball, but that’s not important here). But Fox pays the conference about $240 million a year, while ESPN pays about $190 million.
The two big differences that make Fox pay a lot more are that they get the conference championship game and the first-choice regular season football game. They tend to use this first pick in the Ohio-Michigan State game, which is sometimes the most viewed regular season game of the year and is always Fox’s most viewed regular season game; thus, when this game did not take place in 2020, it was a huge blow to them. So those picks can make a big difference, and there’s some value in that for Fox, even if this deal is only about acquiring one extra pick (there could be more, with a “more complicated than that” note).
There are several potential candidate games in which Fox could use this selection, but the most likely option according to AA is Notre Dame Fighting the Irish at the Ohio State Buckeyes in Week 1, Sept. 3. (Yes, Notre Dame is not Team Big Ten, but this game is in the Big Ten TV package because Ohio is at home.) It would be a useful game for Fox on several fronts. First, both teams generally perform well on television (in 2019, Ohio State was the most watched team and Notre Dame was eighth). And there may be even more interest in the Fighting Irish than usual, given that this will be their first game under new head coach Marcus Freeman (and Brian Kelly left for LSU after last season).
Update: ESPN’s Burke Magnus says that’s not the case:
Let me put an end to this… this is 100% false. Let’s get back to championship week. @awfulannounceing @AndrewMarshan @Andrew Bucholz @BryanDFischer @mattsarz https://t.co/BtJFwhr0IC
— Burke Magnus (@burkemagnus) March 13, 2022
Our original post continues below:
But beyond that, there aren’t many other great games this week that Fox could feature in their Big Noon Saturday slot (the main slot they care about). The only other Power 5 games in Power 5 this Saturday are Georgia-Oregon, Illinois-Indiana, Utah-Florida, Rutgers College-Boston and Louisville-Syracuse. In the last three of those games, the SEC or ACC teams are at home, so ESPN has the rights. Georgia-Oregon is in the Pac-12 package that ESPN and Fox shared, but the early afternoon in the east isn’t ideal for West Coast teams, where it’s 9 a.m. PT cases). Illinois-Indiana might have been Big Afternoon’s choice if Fox couldn’t get Ohio’s Notre Dame State, but they would definitely have preferred Fighting Irish and Buckeyes. And that would allow them to start their season (well, the main part of the season; there will be week zero games and midweek games before that) with a bang. (Schools and fans may not like this though; there have been a million instances of schools and fans complaining about these midday kicks.)
We don’t yet have full confirmation of how Fox will use the pick purchased in exchange for Buck. But at the moment it seems likely. And if it does, it could turn out to be a pretty good deal for them. It wouldn’t make much sense for them to keep the unfortunate Buck for a year, and it allows them to move on to their succession plans immediately; it also gives them a potential spike in CFB viewership for at least one week. So maybe it’s an even better deal than when Disney, ESPN’s parent company, got lucky rabbit Oswald from NBC in exchange for releasing Al Michaels from his contract in 2006; yes, Oswald has since appeared in some video games and Disney theme parks, but that overall impact has been limited. Getting Notre Dame State Ohio in exchange for Buck could be a bigger deal.
[Andrew Marchand on Twitter]