Indiana has only appeared on network television twice in the first season of the Big Ten’s media deal with Fox, NBC, and CBS.
However, the Hoosiers are likely to gain more national attention with important games against Michigan next Saturday and Ohio State on November 23.
Indiana’s 8-0 start, the first since 1967, is one of several factors the conference and the networks will consider when deciding which matchups to highlight.
Fox will cover the early afternoon slot, while CBS has its first season at 3:30 p.m. ET after many years focused on the SEC. NBC is in its second season with the prime-time package. This is the first time a conference has had a weekly package with three broadcast networks.
“The whole design here was for the top three games every week to be on broadcast television. And as we know, broadcast television continues to attract huge numbers of viewers for these big live events,” said CBS Sports executive vice president of programming Dan Weinberg.
“I think the conference recognized the potential benefits of that model, especially with how successful the NFL has been. The structure they aimed to create is what we’re seeing in action, and we see it as a positive with even more potential in the coming years.”
There was already a lot of excitement for the season with the addition of Oregon, Southern California, UCLA, and Washington. The Ducks reaching the top spot in the AP Top 25 has added to the benefits of this expansion.
Oregon, Penn State, and Ohio State hold three of the top four spots in this week’s poll, with the Hoosiers ranked 13th.
“I think the depth and variety of matchups with these four new teams has allowed us to spread out the best games a bit more,” said Justin Byczek, NBC Sports’ senior vice president of programming. “We’ve been able to showcase the best matchups every week in our respective time slots.”
Oregon will make its second consecutive appearance on CBS this Saturday when it plays at Michigan. This will be the fifth time in seven weeks that CBS has featured a matchup with one of the Big Ten’s West Coast teams.
Last Saturday was the first time since the 2007 Sun Bowl that the Ducks were featured on CBS.
“We talked about it before the season when we were looking at the schedule. Any given week, there are matchups that would have been considered Rose Bowls in previous years. And that’s just exciting,” Weinberg said.
However, Oregon will not be on network television on November 9, as their game against Maryland is already set for the Big Ten Network.
Each team is guaranteed at least two games on the Big Ten Network, and one of those must be a conference matchup.
All three networks have worked together to secure matchups. Fox has the top three picks in the preseason television draft each year but traded the third pick to NBC, which chose the October 12 game between Ohio State and Oregon. In exchange, Fox got last Saturday’s Nebraska-Ohio State game and Saturday’s Ohio State-Penn State matchup.
Fox has the top three selections as the main media partner for the conference and through its ownership of the Big Ten Network.
In addition to the “Big Noon Saturday” slot, Fox has featured the Big Ten with nine matchups on Friday nights. All four West Coast schools have at least one Friday night home game, while the Bruins, Ducks, and Huskies have two appearances.
“We wanted to use Friday to showcase the new West Coast schools and on Saturday to go a little deeper and not just focus on Ohio State and Michigan,” said Mike Mulvihill, Fox’s president of insights and analytics.
Ironically, Indiana is one of five conference schools that wasn’t scheduled for a Friday night game.
The Hoosiers were featured on NBC on September 14, where they spoiled UCLA’s conference debut. They were also on Fox on October 19, winning against Nebraska 56-7. Indiana’s other three conference games were on the Big Ten Network.
However, Indiana does have a national game on Saturday, as their match against Michigan State will be streamed on Peacock.
The kickoff time and network for the Michigan game will be decided after Saturday’s games are finished.
Indiana-Michigan isn’t the only interesting matchup on November 9. The third-ranked Nittany Lions will host Washington in their annual whiteout game, and No. 4 Ohio State will play Purdue.
The outcome of Saturday’s Ohio State-Penn State game should help decide where all three matchups will be placed. The Penn State-Washington game will start at either 3:30 or 8 p.m. EST.
NBC will have an afternoon Big Ten game on November 9 since it also has Florida State-Notre Dame in prime time. It will feature a Peacock-exclusive game that day as well.
All 18 Big Ten schools have been on Fox this season, either on Friday night or during “Big Noon Saturday.” Half of them have appeared on CBS at least once, with USC and Michigan both appearing three times.
Only four schools — USC, Northwestern, Rutgers, and Maryland — have not been featured on NBC or Peacock.
