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Topping $1 Billion a Year, Big Ten Signs Record TV Deal for College Conference

The agreement splits the Big Ten’s sports between Fox, NBC and CBS, and is the richest annual deal for any college sports league.

Credit...Illustration by The New York Times

The Big Ten Conference has reached the richest-ever television agreement for a college athletic league, selling the rights to its competitions for an average of at least $1 billion a year.

The seven-year arrangement cements the Big Ten as one of the nation’s pre-eminent college sports leagues, but it promises to fuel the intensifying debate over how universities should treat athletes who are not paid salaries.