Wednesday, the Big 12 Conference announced a new 13-year, multi-million dollar television contract with Fox Sports to broadcast 40 football games each season.

The deal, which Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe called a “landmark agreement,” will take effect in 2012 and will be worth more than four times what the conference’s current deal is worth.

“This is a clear demonstration of what we’ve been saying all along: We have a clear, bright future,” Beebe said. “These 10 institutions are excited about what we have going forward.”

Beebe also said that, with the agreement, now each of the conference’s football games will be distributed, either through this deal or through existing deals with ABC, ESPN or school-specific contracts.

ABC still retains rights to select 18 football games for broadcast, leaving the remaining games for Fox’s cable distribution.

ISU Athletic Director Jamie Pollard released a statement along with university President Gregory Geoffroy and football coach Paul Rhoads, commenting on the deal’s reported worth of $90 million.

“The finalization of this contract provides our athletics program much-needed long-term financial security,” Pollard said in the statement. “Additionally, there is tremendous potential for additional revenue growth when the Big 12’s over-the-air football and cable men’s basketball rights are negotiated in 2016.”

The rights to men’s and women’s basketball games still sit with ESPN and ABC, but only through the 2015-2016 season, at which point, Beebe said, the conference will once again have a chance to “elevate our revenue and exposure to a greater degree.”

This deal comes in the wake of the departure of Colorado and Nebraska, two schools leaving for the Pac 10 and Big Ten.

One of the key factors keeping the conference together during the summer’s realignment talks was the future of its television contract, which paled in comparison to that of the Big Ten’s situation with its own network and deal with ESPN.

Since that time, the conference has announced both this deal and Texas’ own network, in conjunction with ESPN, to get football and basketball games into more households.

“As far as exposure, it’s second to none,” Beebe said. “We are at a place comparable to any conference in the country. We’re in a very favorable position.”