July 1 is the usual start of the new college athletics calendar, and for the time being, there’s been no news about the future of the Big East Digital Network.
One year ago today exactly, the Big East announced the structure of their new television contract. Beginning with the 2025-26 academic calendar, you will be able to find Big East basketball not just on platforms from Fox Sports, the league’s longtime television partner, but on channels and services provided by NBC Sports and TNT Sports. Part of that new agreement actually began last season, when Peacock, the streaming platform run by NBC/Universal, picked up some Big East contests.
So that’s pretty settled. One thing that is not settled as we come up on July 1, the usual “this is where college sports contracts start and end” date, is the future of the Big East Digital Network. Back in early August 2022, the Big East announced that they had agreed to a three year extension of their contract with FloSports. Those three years would, of course, be the school years ending in 2023, 2024, 2025….. which means that contract is now over.
Is it getting renewed? No idea! There was no mention of the future of the contract with FloSports when the Big East announced their new Fox/NBC/TNT television contract a year ago. That’s not saying that it’s a lock that was getting renewed, nor is it a declaration that it’s definitely on the outs, either.
What we do know for sure is that the amount of events available for the Big East Digital Network is decreasing starting with the 2025-26 school year. From the Big East press release about the Fox/NBC/TNT arrangement:
BIG EAST women’s basketball coverage will be enhanced significantly under the new deal, with the networks at least tripling the current contractual commitment under the current agreement up to 65 regular season games and all BIG EAST Tournament games.
With an 18 game schedule, there are 99 regular season Big East women’s basketball games every season. I presume that part of the 65 will actually end up being non-conference games — perhaps someone wants to broadcast Marquette/Wisconsin at the McGuire Center, for example — but a large chunk of the 65 will get occupied by the conference schedule. I think it’s safe to say that the Big East women’s basketball part of the Big East Digital Network was the most valuable part of the FloSports contract, and now a big ol’ chunk of that is going to Fox/NBC/TNT one way or another.
Does FloSports still want the rest of the contract at that point? Does it make more sense for NBC to grab the Digital Network for Peacock? Or TNT Sports for Max? Do either of those streaming services have the architecture to support the streaming broadcasts? Do the streaming broadcasts have a quality level that Peacock or Max might require?
If the Big East re-ups with FloSports, I’ll be personally fine with that. I’m watching enough soccer, volleyball, and lacrosse that the subscription still makes sense for me….. but I know there’s a lot of people who refused to subscribe even for women’s basketball for those four months of the season, even with the Big East league discount made available to them. If that’s the case, and if that primary driver is disappearing, then what’s the next best step for the league to make these games available to the widest possible audience?
It’s not going back to letting the schools make their own decisions, I’ll tell you that much right now. If I recall correctly, Villanova and Georgetown kept their home games behind a paywall, and there is a less than zero percent chance that I’ll ever hand them the $10 they’re asking for a month’s worth of access in order to watch one game. Is that a perfectly reasonable price relative to a ticket to the game? Sure, but I also have no idea if that streaming broadcast is going to work on that particular day. Heck, we’re already at the point where DePaul has worked out a deal with Marquee Sports Network in Chicago for soccer matches, and that’s even worse than if DePaul was asking me for $10 for a month of streaming. Marquee — the broadcast home of the Chicago Cubs, for the record — is completely inaccessible to anyone outside of Chicago, and even if it was, it costs $20 a month. Great value to watch the Cubs every day, sure, but not if I want to watch one Marquette/DePaul game from the comfort of my living room in Milwaukee.
I expect that we won’t get clarification on this issue until August. That’s when the soccer and volleyball games will be getting underway, and there’s not really any reason to make a public relations push to let everyone know how to watch until then. That’s fine, my yearly FloSports subscription doesn’t re-up until a week into September, so on a personal level, my bases are covered here.
But for now, the future of the Big East Digital Network remains a mystery…….
Follow Anonymous Eagle on social media
Facebook: AnonymousEagle
Instagram: AnonymousEagleSBN
Bluesky: AnonymousEagle