The Fox Sports division of US network Fox has acquired rights for a new college sports competition that will include teams that have left the existing Big East conference.
The 12-year deal will run from 2013-14 to 2024-25 and is reported to be worth a total of $500 million (€384.6 million).
Fox Sports will show all men’s basketball games, some women’s basketball contests, and all other Olympic sports events organised by the conference. The nationwide Fox Sports 1 channel, which will launch this summer, will show more than 100 men’s basketball games every year.
DePaul University, Georgetown University, Marquette University, St. John’s University, Seton Hall University, Villanova University and Providence College will leave the existing Big East conference at the end of the 2012-13 academic year to form the new conference. They will be joined by the Xavier, Butler and Creighton colleges.
The existing Big East conference has a seven-year deal, from 2013-14 to 2019-20, with US cable-television sports broadcaster ESPN, but the deal includes a clause that would allow the broadcaster to cancel the agreement if certain members move to the new conference, barring the seven that have already confirmed their departures.
“We applaud all the Big East schools for taking responsibility for their own destiny and forming what is clearly one of the top college basketball leagues in the country,” Fox Sports Media Group co-president and chief operating officer Randy Freer said.