MADISON, Wis. -- Charter Communications announced it has reached a deal with the Big Ten Network to bring college games to local cable subscribers.

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The multiyear deal allows the St. Louis-based cable company to carry the network's programming throughout Big Ten territory, including systems in Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Northern Illinois.

"Charter is pleased that an agreement 'in principle' to offer the Big Ten Network to our customers has been reached," said Charter spokesman John Miller in a statement. "We believe this agreement is in the best interests of all Charter customers and look forward to an exciting season of Big Ten sports. We will work closely with BTN to add the channel as soon as possible to our line-ups, hopefully in time for this Saturday's opening games."

Miller said the Big Ten Network will be located on Charter's expanded basic level of service for the upcoming Big Ten sports season. After that point, Charter said it will re-evaluate the best place to position the channel.

It's uncertain whether the agreement will be completed in time for Charter to carry Saturday's telecast of Wisconsin's football opener against Akron at Camp Randall.

"Our engineering staff is ready and motivated -- highly motivated -- to get those receivers installed in time for Saturday's game," said Miller. "I can't tell you for sure if they're going to make that time.

Miller said customers will not see a direct price increase on their cable bills but will likely see an overall increase, because of the many other channels that have been added.

The network will be on expanded basic cable for this season and could possibly move to a digital sports tier next year.

The news comes two days after Time Warner Cable announced that it had reached its own agreement with the Big Ten Network. The network broadcasts the games of certain Big Ten sports teams. Time Warner will have all the engineering in place in time for the Akron game, WISC-TV reported.

The Big Ten Network launched almost a year ago, but battles between the network and local cable companies have kept the sports games from appearing for subscribers. Many cable companies had reservations about picking up the brand-new network.

After a stalemate, a deal between Comcast and the Big Ten Network was reached earlier this summer.

After the Time Warner deal, Charter was the last major cable company in Wisconsin without the Big Ten Network.

Barry Orton, who is a UW-Madison telecommunications professor, said Tuesday that Charter has been under pressure to make an agreement with BTN.

"If Charter doesn't reach an agreement soon, this could be a nightmare for the cable company," Orton said. "They need to make a deal soon if they hope to have Badger football games on the air before the Big Ten season opener on Sept. 27 at Michigan."

Orton said Tuesday that if a deal was reached very soon, Charter customers would "probably" be able to watch the Badgers take on Akron Saturday.

"(Charter is) under tremendous pressure to actually make a deal along the same lines as Time Warner and Comcast. So I can't imagine they can resist that pressure too much longer," said Orton. "I think at this point, the odds are better than even that people in Wisconsin will be able to see the Badgers-Akron game on Saturday. Certainly, the odds are better than the odds for Akron winning."