Why doesn the Big Ten Network televise every Big Ten football or mens basketball game?
There are several contributing factors. In college athletics, the home team or home conference holds the television rights to its events. The Big Ten Conference only holds the rights to events hosted by a Big Ten school. When a Big Ten team plays a non-conference road game, the hosting school, conference or tournament organizer holds the television rights for those games and thus decisions already have been made regarding how those games are televised. For football, the Big Ten Conference has divided those rights among the Big Ten Network, ABC and the various ESPN networks. For basketball, the Big Ten Conference has divided those rights among the Big Ten Network, CBS and the various ESPN networks. The Big Ten Network televises more Big Ten basketball games than any other network. The Big Ten’s television partners will combine to nationally televise more than 200 Big Ten men’s basketball games in 2009-10. No conference had more games televised nationally than the Big Ten in 2008-09. The
