Big Ten Television Contract Drama Over NBC Primetime

Photo by Bernstein Associates/Getty ImagesESPN.com’s Pete Thamel broke the story over the weekend how new Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti has spent most of his first month of the season trying to tie up the loose ends of the Big Ten’s new multi-billion dollar contract with CBS, Fox and NBC. At the time, it sounded like the seven year deal that could have been worth up to $8 billion, but now Thamel’s report makes it sound like there are few sticking points that could reduce the size of the deal.

How big are these sticking points? And who screwed it up? The common scapegoat is outgoing commissioner Kevin Warren, but some of this criticism doesn’t hold up when you read the details. And the…