Ohio State President Believes Major Change Could Come To Big Ten

Change has been constant in college football for years now but there's really no denying that the changes haven't paid off in a huge way for most teams - especially Ohio State. But a recent discussion on revenue sharing has Ohio State's President believing that change could be coming to the Big Ten Conference they play it.

In a recent interview with USA Today, Ohio State President Ted Carter spoke about the current even revenue sharing split among the Big Ten members whether a future split might be more proportional to revenue generated. Carter said that while he wouldn't speculate, new members don't necessarily come in with the same share as of now.

“I don’t want to get into the type of conversations that are happening inside the Big Ten,” Carter said. “I would just tell you that we’re a proud member of the Big Ten, and that’s where we’re going to stay. We have … our own bylaws for how we do the distributions. When new members join the conference, they don’t always come in at the same share, as you know. So … that’s the way our media rights deals are set up. That’s how we’re set up for now.”

Carter didn't explicitly call for a change in the current revenue sharing model but did point to Ohio State's record-setting numbers in their Week 1 win over Texas.

“We don’t have any answers. I will say that there’s only a couple of schools that really represent the biggest brands in the Big Ten, and you can see that by the TV viewership. I mean, look what we just went through with the Texas game (Ohio State’s football season opener)… You know, 16.(6) million people watching that game over the whole game. And it peaked at 18.6 million. It’s the most watched opening game in history, third-largest game ever watched in a regular season (on Fox). So, that’s what happens when you put the Ohio State brand out there.

Carter believes that changing the model is a conversation to be had in the future.

“It doesn’t matter what Ted Carter thinks. I think that’s going to be a conversation that will be had over time.”