The American Athletic Conference and ESPN agreed on a 12-year, $1 billion media deal, according to a report from Michael Smith and John Ourand of Sports Business Daily.

The deal, which begins in 2020-2021, pays the schools in the AAC four times what the current deal pays. The current media deal pays the league around $20 million annually.

ESPN will have rights to all AAC live events excluding a small basketball package on CBS and some Navy football games on the CBS Sports Network.

The report states football and men’s and women’s basketball will stay on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU, but “the majority of basketball games and a significant number of the football games will go to ESPN+.”

The 901 Connection spoke to M. David Rudd, President of The University of Memphis, in September regarding the media rights deal:

Rudd is also helping in the process of negotiating a new television contract with ESPN and the American Athletic Conference, the Tigers’ conference affiliation. Rudd says that gone will be the days of the Tigers playing on a digital channel like ESPN3 or behind a paywall like ESPN’s new digital service, ESPN+. The American will predominantly play on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and occasionally on CBS and the CBS Sports Network.

“You will see an upswing of exposure,” says Rudd. “We hope to get $8-12 million out of the deal which will be substantial for us. The American Athletic Conference is the predominant non-Power Five conference and this new contract will show that.”

You can read the full conversation with Rudd here.

The 901 Connection reached out to Rudd for comment, but he has not yet responded.

ESPN+ is a separate digital streaming service from its family of networks. It requires a separate monthly subscription from cable, satellite and Watch ESPN. The UFC recently voted to move all of their pay-per-views to the streaming service though 2025.