Sports

Big Ten Moves Major Rivalry To Accommodate New TV Deal, Football Fans Are Furious

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A view of Ford Field.

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The Big Ten‘s found itself in a bit of a predicament regarding its massive new media rights deal. While the agreements with NBC, FOX, and CBS resulted in the most lucrative contract in college sports, not all details were made known to conference members.

One of the major requirements called for teams to play late season primetime games, something the league has shied away from in years past. Most previous TV deals took those “tolerances” into consideration.

This latest agreement did not.

Programs cited things like health, recovery and campus logistics as reasons for not wanting to play night games in November, and the lack of transparency led athletic directors to voice frustrations over being left out of the loop.

But where there’s a will, there’s way, and $1 billion annually is certainly incentive to make the deal work.

Certain members of the Big Ten have offered to take those primetime slots, though not all have been the league’s top choices. On Wednesday, it was announced that a major conference rivalry has been moved to accommodate the media rights requirements.

Michigan State posted a press release on the announcement as it effectively takes away one of the Spartans’ 2023 home games.

The Big Ten Conference approached Michigan State about the athletic department’s willingness to consider moving the final game of the regular season to a national television window on Friday night, and the potential of moving the contest from Spartan Stadium to Ford Field.

“This is an exciting opportunity for our program to play in prime time on a holiday weekend,” said MSU head football coach Mel Tucker. “Our players will be able to compete in an NFL environment while being showcased in the national spotlight.”

While the game now gives the Big Ten a major primetime matchup on Thanksgiving weekend, not everyone is excited about the move.

College football fans posted comments of disgust after seeing the game moved out of East Lansing.

One person sarcastically wrote, “That Tv deal is looking so good…”

Another follower exclaimed, “STOP PLAYING AWESOME GAMES AT NEUTRAL SITES!”

It certainly doesn’t seem to benefit the Spartans.

“This seems great for Penn State. Lions don’t have to go to Sparty and get to play indoors. But man, Sparty giving up a true home game in conference for a neutral site game? That doesn’t seem ideal for them,” one tweet read.

It doesn’t look like many fans are happy about the adjustment.