AAC TV Deal could impact the future of college football rights

[TheColonyEagle]

NEWPORT, R.I. — The trappings of American inequity dot the landscape here, as even the 1-percenters can’t help but gawk at the looming mansions on the Cliff Walk owned by iconic American families. Amid this gilded setting, the American Athletic Conference has held its Media Days since the league’s inception five years ago. And it has spent that time balancing Rockefeller ambitions on a Bundy family budget, desperately seeking a way to launch itself out of college football’s middle class.

On the field, the American Athletic Conference has acquitted itself well since the football iteration of the Big East collapsed. The AAC has made clear its aspirational desires, launching a persistent “P6” campaign to include itself in the top echelon of Power Five conferences in college sports.

The AAC has shown in a small sample size that it can be intermittently competitive with the top leagues in college football. That includes two marquee bowl wins the past three seasons, with Houston toppling Florida State in the Peach Bowl after 2015 and undefeated UCF thumping Auburn in the same game last season.

But to change the narrative on the field, the next step for the Artist Formerly Known As The Big East is to change the financial model off it. For all of AAC commissioner Mike Aresco’s stumping for the sport’s model to change to a Power Six, there’s no chance of that transcending empty rhetoric until the league’s financial revenues look more Rockefeller than Bundy.

The league is wheezing through the final two seasons of a seven-year, $126 million television contract with ESPN that was essentially a hostage negation that doubled as a TV deal. The AAC, fresh off a spate of realignment departures, did the best it could at the time and signed on for short money to be more attractive this time around. For ESPN, it has proven a grand bargain for the quality and quantity of content. (Essentially, each major conference program in the Power Five gets more television revenue annually than all 12 teams in the AAC).........

 

https://sports.yahoo.com/aac-tv-deal-impact-future-college-football-rights-034901284.html

 

 

[TheColonyEagle]

I get the AAC's focus on the "P6" thing. However no one outside the AAC takes it seriously...but I'll give them credit for at least trying to distance themselves from the rest of the G5.

 

The next 5 years are so critical for UNT

 

Edited July 26, 2018 by TheColonyEagle

[RBP79]

I predict they will gain P5 status right when college football goes thru another reorganization and they will end up back in what was formally known as the G5..another bunch of universities whose egos are bigger than reality.

Edited July 26, 2018 by RBP79
Correction...

[oldguystudent]

I knew that SMU was grossly delusional as to their lot in the FBS pecking order.  I didn't realize it was endemic to the entire conference. 

I should've guessed with those ridiculous P6 downs markers they used last year. 

[TheColonyEagle]

You can’t deny UCF’s recent success. And Houston’s. Memphis and S Florida have shown flashes. They have 3-4 really good programs. 

However, the rest of the conference is squarely in the realm of a G5. 

[TheColonyEagle]

23 minutes ago, oldguystudent said:

I knew that SMU was grossly delusional as to their lot in the FBS pecking order.  I didn't realize it was endemic to the entire conference. 

I should've guessed with those ridiculous P6 downs markers they used last year. 

And once again....in true SMU style, their view of themselves falls squarely on the company they keep vs their own contribution. 

It really is amazing. Is there another program in the nation that is more of a “hanger on” than SMU? They have lived off that for a LONG time. Good for them for never having to prove anything themselves I guess....just ride coat tails.

 

Was last year their best year in the AAC? Did they ever sniff competing for a conference championship in CUSA?

 

**Edit...looks like they won the CUSA West in 2010. I'll stand corrected**

 

Edited July 26, 2018 by TheColonyEagle

[El Paso Eagle]

SMU is a prime example where "history" is very important in college football. SMU's history helps provide them with a perceived image. Like it or not, it has helped them in the way HS Coaches, recruits and their families look at SMU. That is why I am so happy to see the changes taking place in North Texas. We are finally on the road to putting the pieces in place to build a foundation that will be respected.

 

[outoftown]

So the article claims the AAC outperformed their contract on the field (which I personally think is true for all G5 conferences).

However, the more important question is: Did they outperform their contract in terms of the number of viewers?

[Hunter Green]

1 hour ago, El Paso Eagle said:

SMU is a prime example where "history" is very important in college football. SMU's history helps provide them with a perceived image. Like it or not, it has helped them in the way HS Coaches, recruits and their families look at SMU. That is why I am so happy to see the changes taking place in North Texas. We are finally on the road to putting the pieces in place to build a foundation that will be respected.

 

Couldn"t agree more. However, we squandered the last ten years to build what we have now. A real shame.

[untjim1995]

The Power Conferences will contract before they ever add anyone else--look at the Big XII/P5 networks basically telling all of those AAC/MWC teams that were interested in possibly joining the Big 12 to get it to 12 or 14 teams again--no thanks.

The only chance the AAC/MWC teams have to stay included is for the Power Leagues to continue to throw them a bone and let them play the worst Power Team to qualify for a BCS bowl.

[untjim1995]

1 hour ago, Hunter Green said:

Couldn"t agree more. However, we squandered the last ten years to build what we have now. A real shame.

We just didn't even try to care about athletics here until about 10 years ago. We basically quarter-assed it (at best) for decades--the dropping down to I-aa for 12 freaking years was much worse than a death penalty because it was self-induced and killed off generations of former fans and even worse, future fans, until the SBC run started getting some people to at least come and watch a game here.

We probably started way too late at caring about funding athletics, but the sheer numbers of alumni and students, plus the DFW market at least still offer us a chance to keep growing. We can certainly be one of the Top G5 programs in the country with the resources we have and the desire to try and win at athletics that the current administration and BOR have shown recently. The powers that be above the G5s, the P5s and their media and legislatures, they just control too much to let anyone else ever join their party. Its why I am completely convinced that the biggest winners in the last big realignment were Utah, Rutgers, TCU, Pitt, Syracuse, and Louisville. They got their spot at the big boy table and get to enjoy it for a long time (except for TCU if/when the Big XII falls apart). I will say that the CUSA call-ups from the SBC/WAC/FCS are big winners, as well, just from a placement up on the NCAA ladder.