How the Paramount-WBD deal could impact Power Four media rights and Pac-12, MW football | Analysis broadcasts

The 2026 Final Four likely will mark the end of two eras with the NCAA Tournament field size poised to expand and the event’s media partners set to contract.

The sport’s power brokers must decide this month whether to create a 76-team tournament for March 2027 that will feature 12 opening-round games instead of four.

Meanwhile, the Department of Justice will determine later this year whether to approve Paramount Skydance’s $110 billion takeover of Warner Brothers Discovery (WBD).

Paramount owns CBS, the decades-long home for March Madness and the Selection Sunday bracket reveal.

WBD owns TNT, TBS and truTV. All three networks will show the Final Four on Saturday and the national championship on Monday.

Put another way: Broadcast rights to the tournament will fall under one ownership group starting in 2026-27, presuming Paramount’s takeover receives regulatory approval.

The impact on tournament presentation, time slots and network distribution might be limited given the existing synergy between CBS and TNT/TBS. There is little inefficiency in the current framework of 67 games (although it would behoove the networks to space out the Sweet 16 tipoff times).

But for college sports generally — and particularly for the future of conference media rights and realignment — the Paramount-WBD deal is bad news.

“My immediate reaction was that it’s not good for college sports,” Justin Beitler, director of media rights consulting for Octagon, told the Hotline. “There are five core linear rights-holder, and you’re taking one out of the pool.”

For power conferences, the demand side of the media ecosystem currently features five networks: ESPN, Fox, CBS, NBC and TNT/TBS, which carry Big 12 football and basketball along with College Football Playoff games and, of course, March Madness.

Assuming WBD is subsumed by Paramount – barring a snafu, the deal is expected to close in the second half of 2026 – then five becomes four with potential consequences for the supply side of the equation: The football and men’s basketball inventory licensed by the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten and SEC to the networks.

That said, plenty could change before the Big Ten goes to market for a new rights agreement starting in the summer of 2030, followed by the Big 12 (2031), CFP and NCAA Tournament (2032), SEC (2034) and ACC (2036).

The CW, for example, could take a more active interest in college football. Same with USA Sports. And the streaming companies could get involved, although “they haven’t shown an appetite for a full season of college sports rights,” Beitler said.

Paramount’s acquisition of WBD requires a morsel of context, however: It could have been worse for college sports. Much worse.

Netflix was viewed as the frontrunner to acquire WBD for months. Had the pursuit been successful, the streaming giant likely would have kept HBO Max and the WBD studio (e.g., Batman, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings) and spun off the WBD linear networks, TNT and TBS.

“If the networks were off by themselves and not considered growth entities, they probably would not have been ultra aggressive in the market,” Beitler said.

“The advantage to college sports from Paramount acquiring WBD is that it will keep the company together rather than spin off the cable assets.”

That could motivate Paramount to seek high-quality sports content for CBS, CBS Sports Network, TNT and TBS. At the very least, industry experts believe the offerings will be fully integrated.

“We’ll see how they slice and dice what they own,” said Bob Thompson, the retired president of Fox Sports who runs Thompson Sports Group. “CBS can use TNT and TBS as part of its college strategy.”

In that scenario, conferences outside the Power Four that have media rights deals with CBS, including the Pac-12 and Mountain West, could benefit.

The two leagues will begin new chapters in the fall, having secured media agreements for the rest of the decade:

• The Pac-12 starts a deal with CBS (as its primary partner), along with The CW and USA Sports.

• The Mountain West cut linear agreements with CBS, Fox and The CW.

As a result, a tantalizing possibility exists for both: Football games that had been slotted for CBS Sports Network in the original agreements could, in theory, be moved to TNT or TBS.

“That would be great for those conferences,” Thompson said. “TNT and TBS distribution is significantly larger than CBS Sports Network.”

Exactly how Paramount will “slice and dice” the content remains to be seen — there could be stipulations in the merger that limit flexibility.

“It really depends on the distribution specifics of each of the deals,” Thompson added.

So the $110 billion deal seemingly carries distinct outcomes, depending on the timeframe.

In the short term, the integration of WBD networks into the Paramount family could benefit conferences lower on the college football food chain.

But over the long haul, the loss of a potential rights-holder could impact the Power Four when they head to market at the turn of the decade with the future of college sports – and another round of realignment – in the balance.