The Big Ten conference finally released the full TV schedule and tipoff times for the season and so now the 2025-2026 men’s basketball schedule is fully fully complete. For real this time. I posted the details
of the announcement in The Feed earlier so if you’d like to take a quick look you can do so over there. However, what I wanted to talk about in this article is just exactly how much it’s going to cost you to watch every Purdue game this season assuming that you don’t have cable. Now, I’m making a few assumptions in this article. I’m going to assume you’ll pay the lowest price and for the shortest amount of time to watch all the games. This is something that has been getting worse and worse over the years with the latest conference TV deal causing headaches for a lot of fans. I’ve been flippant about this in the past but with games migrating to more and more services it is getting a bit silly. So, let’s take a look at the schedule itself and what you’ll need to be able to watch each game this season.
I’m going to try and take this in order of network/streamer just to keep things a bit organized. I’m including the exhibitions in this knowing full well that some people don’t care about those. However, Purdue does travel to play UK on the road and that’s not something you’re going to see very often so I’m assuming most Purdue fans will be interested.
SEC Network – Only one game – Exhibition against Kentucky – If you don’t have cable it seems your best bet here is ESPN+ which it looks like will cost at minimum $11.99/month. I suppose if you can find a free trial it’s possible. But let’s just assume $11.99 for a one month subscription. SECN Total – $11.99 – Overall Total- $11.99
Big Ten + – Two game Exhibition versus UIndy October 29th and Kent State December 29th – The service used to have a school specific subscription that was $9.99/month. That appears to have gone away and you can now only get a “conference” pass. That’s $12.99 per month. If you want to watch both games you’ll need two months. Big Ten + total= $12.99×2=$25.98. Overall Total- $37.97
BTN – Purdue will play 8 games on BTN ranging from the season opener on November 4th to the penultimate game at Northwestern on March 4th. Based on the dates of the games you’ll need at least four months of a service that allows streaming of BTN which, oddly enough, does not include Big Ten +. The best I can find, again short of a cable service that you already have, is subscribing to the Fox One app which their website states includes all Fox sports streaming services which includes BTN. You can get a 7 day free trial otherwise it’s $19.99 per month. BTN total=$19.99×4= $79.96. Overall Total- $117.93
Peacock – Purdue will have 8 games on Peacock tying it with BTN for the network/streamer with the most games this season. These games range from November 7th against Oakland to February 26th against Michigan State. Overall, you’ll need 4 months of Peacock to get every game. The ad supported tier of Peacock is currently $7.99/month. Peacock total= $7.99×4= $31.96. Overall Total- $149.89
ESPN2 – Purdue will have just one game on ESPN2 (recall that ESPN was shut out of the Big Ten’s recent media rights deal) and that is the Alabama game on November 13th. You might think to yourself, well I’ve already subscribed to ESPN+ and this falls within the month of my subscription so I’m good right? WRONG! ESPN+ does not include ESPN2. So you’ll likely have to subscribe to ESPN Unlimited which for now is $29.99/month. Now, you can use this $29.99 a month to also access the SEC Network for the UK game. It works out to an additional $18 if you go this route. You could also bundle ESPN and Fox One for $39.99/month. It might make more sense to simply add $18 and do the ESPN Unlimited for the month. ESPN2 addition=$18. Overall Total-$167.89
CBS Sports Network- Purdue will have two games on CBS Sports Network this season. These games are on back to back days in November and so you’ll only need a week or a trial of this. CBS Sports Network is NOT part of Paramount+ if that’s what you’re wondering/thinking/asking. You can get a free week trial through Fubo. That’s what I’d recommend if you can find no other way. CBS Sports Network total=Free (trial). Overall Total- $167.89
FS1 – Purdue will have two games on FS1 in December at Rutgers and in February at Nebraska. Luckily, you’ve already paid for Fox One by this point and the games overlap so there should be no additional charges coming your way. FS1 total=No additional cost. Overall total- $167.89
CBS- Purdue will have five games on CBS with the first being against Iowa State in December and finishing up with the last game of the season against Wisconsin on March 7th. You’ll need three months of a subscription service to get all of these games. You’re best bet is probably going to be to get Paramount+ at $7.99/month. CBS/Paramount+ Total=$7.99×3= $23.97. Overall Total= $191.86
Fox- Purdue will have four games on Fox starting at Wisconsin in January and finishing February against Indiana. So you’ll need two months of Fox, but again, you’re already going to have Fox One so that you won’t need to get anything additional for these games. Fox additional cost=$0. Overall total=$191.86
So there you have it, assuming my calculations are correct, and there are no additional ways to get around this with bundles or free trials. There are of course going to be deals, coupons, bundles, and all sorts of things to get these costs down but right now just looking at what I’ve done here you’re looking at just a shade under $200 if you want to watch every game this season in what should be a blockbuster season for the Boilermakers.
