Couch: No Big Ten on ESPN would take getting used to

ROSEMONT, Ill. – Lots of folks are leaving ESPN these days.

Familiar names: Mike Tirico, Colin Cowherd, Skip Bayless, Bill Simmons, Keith Olbermann, maybe Jim Delany. Maybe the Big Ten. Maybe you, the Big Ten football and basketball viewer.

The Big Ten’s longtime marriage with ESPN and ABC is on the rocks. The latest 10-year term is almost up and commissioner Delany wants the league to get paid like never before. He expects to announce a new deal to begin in 2017 sometime this summer. Nothing personal. Just business. Always business.

Not for the viewer, though. We’re creatures of habit. We like familiar and trusted voices and channels. ESPN and ABC are the epicenter of our college football experience, from the pregame show through prime-time telecasts.

Fox and its affiliates have always been reserved for the off-the-radar West Coast or Big 12 game — the channel where Washington State and Kansas State live. FS1, Fox’s fledgling national sports network, is somewhere in the 220s on my dial, I think.

Familiarity will increase, of course, if the Big Ten takes its product to Fox and FS1. The Sports Business Journal reported in late April that the Big Ten and Fox were close to a six-year, $250 million annual media rights deal for half of the Big Ten TV package after Fox outbid a low-ball offer from ESPN.

“The market will decide what happens. ESPN has been a great partner,” Delany said this week at the Big Ten’s annual spring meetings just outside Chicago. “… It’s a new day. And we’ll approach it that way. We’re into the marketplace, and we’ll see what we shall see.”

We’d get used to Fox and FS1. We already support Fox, which is a partner of the Big Ten Network and televises the Big Ten championship game. The Big Ten — and by extension, we — might help save FS1.

The Big Ten doesn’t need ESPN any longer. But ESPN and ABC have played a role in the league’s national oomph and reach. If ESPN no longer has a piece of the Big Ten television package — and it still might — how differently would they cover the league? Is the Big Ten less present on College GameDay and SportsCenter? Does that matter to you? To the ego of fans? To national perception over time? To teenage recruits?

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The Big Ten and SEC are the big dogs financially in college football. The Big Ten and ACC are the most visible leagues in college hoops. The Big Ten enjoys a twosome at the top of both sports in terms of political will and voice. ESPN is part of that. Would leaving the network behind be risking losing that separation?

One colleague suggested Delany do everything he can to split the package between Fox and ESPN, to have both networks enjoying the value of the Big Ten brand from the fall of 2017 through the spring 2023 — and then cash in again on that value.

Whatever you think of Delany, it’s hard not to give him the benefit of the doubt on television deals and innovation. He’s done this before. And he’s made the league an envied pioneer.

When the Big Ten Network began, there were hiccups with quality and availability. Now it’s an accepted and valued part of our television lives. Wherever Big Ten football lives, we’ll adjust. Same for hoops. But if it doesn’t include ESPN, it’ll be weird for a while.

Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @Graham_Couch.