The Big Ten announced its new media rights deal Thursday, an agreement that spans multiple platforms and fetches a whopping $1.2 billion annually.

But that’s not the story.

The bigger move on the horizon — one that will change college football and bring distinct division and strife within the 130 FBS teams — is the expanded Playoff.

A Playoff that will, by the time a 16-team structure and format is complete, be worth well over $1.2 billion annually. Playoff revenue that will lead to direct pay-for-play for players.

“(University) Presidents are desperate for revenue because they can’t hold (pay-for-play much) off much longer,” an industry source told SDS. “After they’ve all worked their own conference (media rights) deals, there’s only one revenue stream left to supplement players.”

The 16-team Playoff.

“We have to get ahead of (pay-for-play),” a Power 5 athletic director told SDS. “We didn’t with NIL, and now we’re all kind of scrambling to make it fit universally. There has to be a clear path this time (with pay-for-play).”

That’s why Big Ten commissioner Keven Warren, who scuttled a 12-team Playoff expansion last year with his Alliance colleagues (ACC, Pac-12) as a curb to SEC power, began last month talking about a 16-team format.

And why ACC commissioner Jim Phillips and Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff quickly chimed in, the latter proclaiming it could be implemented before the end of the current Playoff contract that ends after the 2025 season.

The Pac-12, ACC and Big 12 want Playoff expansion now because they’re in survival mode. Each of their media rights deals will be at least half of what the Big Ten and SEC earn — and each would struggle to support pay-for-play.

The only way to survive in the new college football landscape of pay-for-play is increased revenue.

But as one Power 5 source told SDS: “Not everyone will be a fit for the (pay-for-play) model.”

Translation: Not every conference will be able to afford it, which will draw distinct lines between levels of play in FBS.

If a school or conference can’t afford pay-for-play, it impacts recruiting and the ability to build and grow a program — and compete against the top programs in college football.

Any new Playoff format will come with new per conference payouts. Currently, the Group of 5 conferences share 22 percent of the estimated $600 million annually for the 4-team Playoff.

The Power 5 conferences share the remaining 78 percent, minus less than 1 percent given to the FCS and NCAA lower divisions.

A new 16-team Playoff will fetch at least double the current model — and come with new payouts. Expect the Power conferences (however many remain) to receive a large majority of the new contract.

Expansion from the Big Ten and SEC already has changed the dynamics of media rights deals. It will soon change the dynamics of the Power 5 structure and the Playoff payout.

When I asked a current Power 5 athletic director if that meant college football eventually moving more toward a “mini-NFL” model with the Big Ten and SEC as the defacto AFC and NFC, the response was telling: “I don’t see how we avoid it, whether it’s by structure or by default.”