One of the marquee matchups of the men’s college basketball regular season will tip off this afternoon as the No. 1 Arizona Wildcats will battle the No. 3 Purdue Boilermakers at 3 p.m. ET. However, the game won’t be aired on traditional television, as it will be streamed exclusively on Peacock. So why is this significant early-season, non-conference game only available on streaming?
Simply put, it’s part of the media rights deal the Big Ten signed with NBC in 2022. Along with having big-yime football games airing on NBC, the conference also agreed to have several men’s basketball games to be exclusively streamed on Peacock. NBC announced in October that 32 Big Ten regular season games will be exclusive to the streaming service, along with two games in the Big Ten Tournament. Today’s showdown between the Wildcats and Boilermakers is the most marquee game in this slate as it features two teams that could be vying for No. 1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament this March.
So yeah, go ahead and pay the $6 monthly fee Big Ten fans. You’re going to need it at some point this season.