Fox and the Big Ten Conference agreed to terms on a television deal this past summer, and the extra exposure is paying dividends in a hurry.

For the Big Ten, the deal made perfect sense. By working with Fox, ABC/ESPN and CBS, the conference stood to gain more national exposure...and mountains of money.

With Fox, bringing on the Big Ten full-time meant more live content, more eyes on Fox programming and more ad revenue.

And so far, the relationship between Fox and the Big Ten is worth it all and then some.

Case and point: Saturday's marquee matchup between the Penn State Nittany Lions and the Ohio State Buckeyes. No. 2 battling No. 6. That should bring in more eyes, right?

Yep.

Despite going up against No. 4 TCU at No. 25 Iowa State, No. 14 NC State at No. 9 Notre Dame and a triple overtime road loss for No. 16 Michigan State, Penn State at Ohio State won the 2:30 p.m. CDT slot. And then some.

Never before had Fox seen overnight ratings like that for a regular season game. And the only college football game to see higher ratings this year happened Week 1: Alabama versus Florida State on ABC.

But it isn't just last week. Fox's share of the college football market and the network's total viewing are both up considerably, according to Sports Business Journal.

So you see, with more games, marquee matchups and prime time slots, both Fox and the Big Ten Conference stand to benefit from their broadcasting relationship.

The future is bright, too. Ohio State at Michigan is still on the schedule, as are other intriguing matchups.

And we haven't even talked about college basketball.

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