Big 12 new big TV deal, can C-USA improve it's deal?

Mark Gommesen · May 8, 2012

"Though the deal has not been signed, the Big 12′s member presidents have verbally agreed to a TV deal worth a combined $2.6 billion with ESPN and FOX, CBSSports is reporting. Word of the deal first came on March 13 and was reported by both CBS and the Sports Business Journal. " http://collegefootba...v-deal/related/

With the new deal, the Big 12 would make $1.3 billion from ESPN and $1.2 billion from Fox. Each Big 12 school would make around $5 million more per year in the new ESPN deal compared to the old one. With the two deals combined, each Big 12 school will receive just under $20 million a year, while Pac-12 schools will average nearly $21 million per season.

The blockbuster deal is quite impressive considering the Big 12 lost Texas A&M and Missouri to the SEC, forcing it to add TCU from the Mountain West and West Virginia from the Big East.

In 2005, C-USA began a long-term television contract with CBS College Sports Network (then known as CSTV) to carry a variety of sports. The deal largely replaced the one it had with ESPN and ESPN Plus, though some C-USA football and men's basketball games are still carried by the ESPN networks. The college basketball men's championship game can be seen on CBS Sports. Beginning in 2011-12, CBS College Sports will be joined by FSN for football and select men's & women's basketball games. Some games, including the C-USA Football Championship game may be moved to Fox or FX.

A year ago, Conference USA signed a $43 mlllion deal with Fox to broadcast a mininmum of 20 football games per year including the league's title game through the 2015 season. At the time ESPN protested saying it believed it had the right of first refusal on such a deal with Conference USA.

C-USA has added a combination of established and emerging programs. Four of the five schools bring a market size ranked among the top 36 in the country and totaling over two million more TV households than the league held this past year. If ODU commits that wll bring an additional 718,750 households. Five of the six schools are in the fastest growing media markets. Three of the six schools are media markets without competition from other major Universities or Pro teams.

So what kind of deal should C-USA be seeking when renegotiating television contracts?

What is the value of the C-USA relative to the Big 12? 25%, 10% or less.

Would it make since to merge with the MWC in order to negotiate new media contracts?

Edited May 8, 2012 by Mark Gommesen

SMU2006 · May 8, 2012

I absolutely think CUSA could negotiate a better TV deal. Maybe 3-5M per school.

PlummMeanGreen · May 9, 2012

I absolutely think CUSA could negotiate a better TV deal. Maybe 3-5M per school.

Since our travel has been significantly reduced, $5 million per year for North Texas could really go a long ways.

Lets all keep in mind Boise State started their run of success with the Big Boys with far less budgets than the very Big Boys they were beating.

GMG!

PS: Still think that Boise/OU bowl game a few years ago was the best I'd ever seen.

Mark Gommesen · May 9, 2012

On Wednesday, the ACC and ESPN announced a new television deal. A person familiar with the agreement told The Associated Press that it’s worth $3.6 billion over the 15 years. !

UNTflyer · May 10, 2012

ESPN does not have a endless supply of money, The fact that the Big 12 and ACC are getting huge paydays concerns me.

Not exactly confident at this point that C-USA will be able to negotiate a significantly bigger deal.

forevereagle · May 10, 2012

ESPN does not have a endless supply of money, The fact that the Big 12 and ACC are getting huge paydays concerns me.

Not exactly confident at this point that C-USA will be able to negotiate a significantly bigger deal.

But could NBC look to get more into college football and have some money to throw at CUSA? Not sure, but could be a good deal.

Green Mean · May 10, 2012

But could NBC look to get more into college football and have some money to throw at CUSA? Not sure, but could be a good deal.

On top of that there is the Fox networks and even throw in the TNT/TBS network that could look at adding some college sports.

Mark Gommesen · May 10, 2012

But could NBC look to get more into college football and have some money to throw at CUSA? Not sure, but could be a good deal.

Currently CBS Sports Network has an arrangement where it shares the rights to some C-USA games with the NBC Sports network. Lately NBC Sports network ratings have been disappointing and might benefit from additional college football NBC's regional sports networks- Comcast Sportnet do have some overlap with the mid-Atlantic schools of the C-USA and the far west schools of the MWC. NBC has an exclusive contract with Notre Dame, which began in 1991. Since that time, NBC has carried nationally all of Notre Dame's home games, paying at least $9 million per season for broadcast rights. Recently, Notre Dame's ratings have been down significantly due to relatively poor play; Notre Dame games on NBC drew less than half the ratings that CBS and ABC averaged for their college football games. Should NBC decide to become a bigger player in college sports MWC/CUSA conference might be a great place to start. Currently CUSA and MWC have contracts with CBS Sportsnet. MWC contract is up for renewal. If NBCSports was interested in making a major move with both conferences. The MWC and CUSA could dissolve and merge and create a new legal entity, thus invalidating all existing media contracts and be able to negotiate freely or MWC/CUSA could form an alliance but still would be encumbered by existing media contracts but would have added clout.

untjim1995 · May 11, 2012

At least CUSA gets a payout of note. Think about the SBC deal with ESPN--we almost paid them to be on TV!!

akriesman · May 11, 2012

For those like me that wanted to see an actual list of TV contracts by conference, here is a link. Note that this list does not include the SBC, WAC or MAC, which leads me to believe that their is little to no payout for these conferences (as already mentioned elsewhere). The Big East payouts are interesting, especially for non-football schools.

http://collegesportsinfo.com/2011/10/03/2011-television-revenue-by-conference/

Mark Gommesen · May 11, 2012

For those like me that wanted to see an actual list of TV contracts by conference, here is a link. Note that this list does not include the SBC, WAC or MAC, which leads me to believe that their is little to no payout for these conferences (as already mentioned elsewhere). The Big East payouts are interesting, especially for non-football schools.

http://collegesports...-by-conference/

Great link The numbers are little outdated the ACC and the Big 12 have even improved their contracts. So what is the MWC/C-USA ...chopped liver?

Mark Gommesen · May 11, 2012

Major networks maybe starting to experience "sticker shock" from the major conferences and may wish to seek a quality product at a lower price. Creating a real opportunity for the mwc/cusa. http://collegesportsinfo.com/2011/02/17/source-espn-wont-pay-for-pac-12-football/

Mark Gommesen · May 11, 2012

http://www.cbssports...-about-big-east

Another unknown is how much the Big East's new media rights deal, which the league starts renegotiating on Sept. 1, will be worth.

Last year the Big East turned down a nine-year, $1.4 billion deal ($155 million per year), which would have been worth about $14.3 million a year to the full members and about $3.2 million to the non-football members.

If the Big East's new deal is worth the same amount per year ($155 million) each school would receive a smaller amount than the deal the league turned down last year because there are now more members. Full members would receive about $11.4 million per year, football-only members Boise State and San Diego State would receive about $8.4 million annually and non-football members about $3 million a year.

Former CBS Sports president Neil Pilson recently told the New York Times he thought the Big East's deal would exceed the $155 million per year deal the league turned down last year. However, industry sources told CBSSports.com that they believe the Big East's new media rights will be worth substantially less than $155 million per year. That's because when the Big East starts negotiating, about $8 billion will have been spent on recent college football deals, so there won't be as much money available..

Former Big 12 acting commissioner Chuck Neinas told USA Today Monday that the Big East is no longer a power conference, and consequently, shouldn't be paid like one.

Should Boise State and San Diego elect to stay in the MWC, It would made since for the MWC/CUSA to merge and arguably become the new power conference and began negotiating new media contracts before the Big East begins their negotiations September 1.

Edited May 11, 2012 by Mark Gommesen

Mark Gommesen · May 11, 2012

ESPN does not have a endless supply of money, The fact that the Big 12 and ACC are getting huge paydays concerns me.

Not exactly confident at this point that C-USA will be able to negotiate a significantly bigger deal.

I think that is a valid point. But, because the Big East has not begun negotiating its new media deal estimated to worth in excess of 150 million and with NBC sports looking to become a bigger player, major networks maybe looking at finding quality product at a better price.

DeepGreen · May 11, 2012

http://www.cbssports...-about-big-east

Should Boise State and San Diego elect to stay in the MWC, It would made since for the MWC/CUSA to merge and arguably become the new power conference and began negotiating new media contracts before the Big East begins their negotiations September 1.

That makes sense to me.

untjim1995 · May 11, 2012

Major networks maybe starting to experience "sticker shock" from the major conferences and may wish to seek a quality product at a lower price. Creating a real opportunity for the mwc/cusa. http://collegesports...ac-12-football/

Quality is a relative term when it comes to college sports. It can cover TV markets, winning, tradition, attendance, etc... The factors that lead to the big 5 conferences getting massive TV deals is that those leagues have the ultimate combination of all four concepts covered. A lot of it, too, involves political ties, cash, and location, but the "rich get richer" always applies here.

What is the hardest part to define as quality is conference members themselves. North Texas would love to be in a conference with SMU, but SMU literally wants nothing to do with that. However, SMU would love to be conference mates with TCU, who has made it clear that they have no interest in that, as TCU pretty quickly broke ties with all of the non-Big 12 SWC teams as confernence mates. Baylor didn't want TCU in the Big 12, but they didn't have anyone else to back them up on that, so Baylor had to deal with the fact that TCU is now in the conference that they have used against them in recruiting for the last 15+ years.

If the Big 12 kept A&M and Mizzou, much less Nebraska and Colorado, is there any doubt that the "quality" of that league would be much more than it is today, even though they just signed a record TV contract? The sets of eyeballs would have kept the Big 12 at a level similar to the "quality" of the big 10, Pac-12, ACC, and SEC.

Its funny how the pecking order builds up in college sports. No Big 12 institution would have considered TCU quality until they won the Rose Bowl and an opening came available that would strengthen the conference. Otherwise, the Texas schools in the Big 12 always looked down on TCU, SMU, UH, and Rice. UH and SMU would do anything for a Big 12 invite one day, but the Texas schools currently in the Big 12 look down on those two, even though they are in two huge markets. What one views as quality often gets seen as having little worth to another.