College sports are the Wild West. That phrase is often used in reference to unencumbered player movement through the Transfer Portal, but universities are just as guilty, if not more guilty, of chasing the almighty dollar.
Even in a new landscape of media, Duke basketball pulled off an unprecedented move this week, announcing a multi-year partnership with Amazon Prime, giving the streaming platform exclusive rights to multiple non-conference games each season. For the 2026-27 that includes matchups against Michigan, UConn, and Gonzaga.
The ACC and its television partner, ESPN, allowed Duke to reach the agreement with Prime outside of its TV rights deal in exchange for future neutral-site non-conference games of its own. Inevitably, with the cost to field a championship-caliber roster rising every year, some football program is going to try to pull off a similar deal, and Matt Hayes of USA Today thinks Ohio State might be the first.
Ohio State could strike a massive TV deal outside of the Big Ten’s agreements
“Live sports is the only guaranteed winner in broadcast television and streaming. Live sports with Ohio State? A revenue-driving king. And what’s the Big Ten going to do? Tell Ohio State you’re either with us, or you’re out of the league?” Hayes posed.
He makes a strong point. Ohio State could generate more revenue on its own, as Notre Dame does by striking its own TV deal as an Independent, than it can in the Big Ten, where TV revenue is split. We’re quickly barrelling towards a super league anyway, so why shouldn’t Ohio State test the fortitude of the Big Ten leadership by exploring a deal that could set it up to spend even more on its roster?
At the very least, it would create leverage for a new revenue-sharing agreement in the conference that gives the big-money programs a much bigger and more proportional slice of the pie. At its most extreme, it could be the straw that finally breaks the current model of college football's back and gets us to a super league. And would that really be such a bad thing?
In a super league, broken away from the NCAA's antiquated governance, we could get collective bargaining, which would allow multi-year contracts, controlled player movement, realigned regional scheduling, and so many more fixes to the sport's glaring issues.
There are still a few hurdles to clear for Ohio State to lands its own deal
The biggest difference between Duke basketball executing a move like this and Ohio State football following suit is that to sell a compelling non-conference package of games, you have to schedule quality non-conference competition. The Buckeyes haven’t shied away from that in the past, case in point, their Week 1 matchup with Texas for the second-straight season.
Still, there’s a limit to how many marquee matchups Ohio State would be willing to add, while Jon Scheyer can easily sign up for three contests against blue-bloods each year without any fear of missing the NCAA Tournament. If the College Football Playoff does eventually expand to 24 teams, that may allow Ohio State to add another Power Conference opponent to its schedule and another week of high-value inventory to its portfolio, but there are no guarantees.
Ohio State may not feel much incentive to ruffle feathers in this way, but if a Big Ten team wins the national title for the fourth-straight year, and it’s not the Buckeyes, that could be enough motivation to test the waters.
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