Inside the Big Ten TV Draft with Scott Dochterman

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4.8 • 3.3K Ratings

🗓️ 5 June 2025

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this college football podcast episode, we chat with The Athletic's Scott Dochterman about the little-known, high-stakes draft process by which Fox, CBS and NBC pick the Big Ten games that each will air this season. Learn about the insane preparation, strategy, negotiations, and decisions that shape our TV experience every fall. Plus, some insight into the Big Ten's playoff positioning strategy, why the conference is pushing for four automatic CFP bids, and more.

Check out Scott's reporting on the TV draft (https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6389813/2025/05/29/big-ten-football-tv-schedule-draft-fox-nbc-cbs/) and the Big Ten's push for automatic bids (https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6398844/2025/06/03/big-ten-cfp-automatic-bids/)

Timestamps:

00:00 - Introduction

04:20 - Scott Dochterman from The Athletic explains the TV game draft

11:30 - Network strategies: Fox vs CBS vs NBC

18:00 - Surprising discoveries while reporting the story

23:51 - The "Big Noon Saturday" product

27:12 - Lessons learned from previous scheduling mistakes

31:42 - Buyer's remorse over bad matchups

36:15 - TV draft crushes

38:25 - The sophisticated preparation process

42:13 - Is there corporate espionage?

44:45 - Big Ten's push for automatic CFP bids

52:05 - Closing thoughts

_____

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the solid verbal.
0:03.8	The solid verbal.
0:04.8	Come after me.
0:06.5	I'm a man.
0:07.5	I'm 40.
0:08.2	I've heard so many players say, well, I want to be happy.
0:10.7	You want to be happy for a day?
0:12.3	Eat a steak.
0:13.3	It's that woo, woo.
0:14.8	And now, down and tie.
0:20.2	Dan, I am not going to lie to you.
0:22.0	I am elated.
0:25.0	Elated to be doing this show with you today.
0:28.6	I am thrilled about this episode.
0:31.3	I like that it's tickling you right where you need to be tickled, scratching you where you're itch.
0:35.8	And bring it on Scott Docterman.
0:37.0	As you know, you've seen the title from The athletic to talk about the Big Ten TV draft, maybe a little
0:42.3	Big Ten playoff stuff as the SEC is positioning itself with how it views the playoff and the ideas
0:48.8	it's looking for to be more solution oriented. And the Big Ten with Tony Petiti allegedly preferring or at least pitching the auto bid pitch for the 4 plus 4 plus 2.
1:03.2	So right now we're at 12.
1:05.6	4-4-2213.
1:07.7	13.
	...

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