FOX officially buys back 2026 Big Ten title game from NBC

FOX officially finalized its deal to re-acquire the rights from NBC to broadcast the 2026 Big Ten title game, sources told On3.

NBC received between $45 million and $55 million from FOX for the Big Ten title game, The Wall State Journal reported. NBC will also receive one additional Big Ten game this season from Fox, sources said.

Jon Miller, President, Acquisitions & Partnerships for NBC Sports, told Puck’s John Ourand that NBC had “interests from streamers” to broadcast the game. However, sources told On3, NBC’s only option was to televise the contest if FOX didn’t buy it back. 

Miller also told Ourand: “The Fox guys (said) we’d like to take the Big Ten championship back, if you’re open to it.”

However, NBC had no authority to keep FOX from buying back the game if FOX wanted it, sources said.

FOX will now own the rights to the Big Ten championship game in five of 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 in that span.

The 2025 Big Ten title game between undefeated Indiana and Ohio State was the sixth-most watched college football last season, drawing an average of 18.3 million viewers to FOX. It was the most watched game of conference championship weekend, surpassing the SEC title game between Georgia and Alabama by nearly 1.5 million viewers.

Last season FOX also had the two most watched regular season games – Ohio State vs. Michigan (18.4 million viewers) and Ohio State vs. Texas (16.6 million viewers).