All is fair in love and sports broadcasting, apparently. That’s the philosophy taken by Netflix in what has become a somewhat surprising public scandal regarding its brazen attempt to steal a marquee college football game from a major broadcast channel. John Ourand of Puck News has the details on Netflix’s attempted robbery, which saw it try to swipe the USC Trojans vs. Notre Dame Fighting Irish game this year.

According to Ourand, Netflix approached the Trojans to see if it could create something of its own giant, wooden horse. The biggest stumbling block, of course, is that Notre Dame and the Big Ten’s media rights are already spoken for; Notre Dame home games are exclusively shown on NBC and Peacock, and the Big Ten’s rights are split between NBC, CBS, and Fox, with the latter primarily owning the top-flight rights.

To get around these rules, Netflix and USC discussed ideas like moving the game to a neutral site, such as Las Vegas or Mexico City. Traditional conference partners eventually got wind of the machinations, setting off a firestorm of fury from network executives outraged by Netflix’s interference.

When the Big Ten found out about the subterfuge, it shut discussions down immediately, reminding USC it had no standing to negotiate broadcast rights on its own under any circumstances. This is not a privilege any conference-aligned school enjoys, and it’s frankly rather astounding that USC would even try.

The move by the world’s largest streamer once again serves to emphasize Netflix’s desire to acquire sports it can turn into giant events, such as the Canelo vs. Crawford fight or the MLB’s Home Run Derby. The rivalry between USC vs. Notre Dame is a storied one. And as Netflix has begun dipping its toe into college football with its new docuseries “Any Given Saturday,” which centers on SEC football, the streaming giant appears to have been looking for a major follow-up.

While the streamer’s eventized philosophy may keep Netflix from bidding on season-long sports packages, traditional TV companies are increasingly seeing Netflix as a competitor for major sports rights. Fox and ESPN have stopped sharing onscreen talent with Netflix for that reason, and relations between linear broadcasters and the streamer are hardly likely to improve in the wake of Ourand’s reporting.

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