By Ralph Russo, Austin Meek and Stewart Mandel

For the second time in the last three years, Michigan and the Big Ten are at odds with each other.

In 2023, the school that has won more Big Ten football championships than any other banged heads with the conference over the handling of an NCAA investigation into the Connor Stalions sign-stealing scandal. To this day, there are Michigan supporters who resent that the Big Ten suspended former coach Jim Harbaugh for three games and allowed the cloud of scandal to hang over the program’s national championship season.

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Now, the dispute is over a multi-billion-dollar investment deal that could help ensure the Big Ten’s place as one of the richest and most powerful conferences in college sports for the next 20 years. Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti has lined up an equity partner willing to infuse more than $2 billion into the league for a cut of its lucrative media rights.

The potential windfall could help schools keep up with the rising cost of big-time college athletics, where the athletes are now paid directly, coaching salaries have skyrocketed and many schools have accrued significant debt services from capital improvement projects, including six Big Ten members owing at least $225 million.

Perhaps most significantly, the deal would bind the schools together through 2046 — bringing a modicum of stability to a murky future where anything is possible in realignment and