Revitalized Big East football taking aim at another big season


BY KEVIN McNAMARA

Journal Sports Writer

NEWPORT — That the most-watched college football conference in the country held its season kickoff at the Hotel Viking yesterday is more than a bit bizarre. It’s downright shocking.

A few years after being left for dead by many in the college football world, the Big East experienced a rejuvenating — and surprising — season of success in 2006. Besides the three teams ranked in the top dozen and the perfect 5-0 bowl record, perhaps the most stunning statistic of all came in the TV ratings. The two most-watched college games on ESPN all of last year didn’t come on a Saturday and didn’t involve powers Florida, Ohio State or Southern California. Instead, the nation tuned in to see West Virginia, Louisville and Rutgers.

“We had the highest ratings average of any conference on ESPN last year,” said the Big East’s Nick Carparelli, the associate commissioner in charge of football. “We had the second and third largest audiences for a regular-season game ever on ESPN. It was a great year TV-wise.”

Three years ago, Big East football was written off nationally after Miami and Virginia Tech left the conference for the ACC (Boston College followed in 2005). After a shaky season in 2004, the league has rebounded very well. In ’05, West Virginia rolled to an 11-1 season and had a big win over Georgia in the Sugar Bowl, a victory that Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese calls the most important in the history of the football league.

Last year, West Virginia, Louisville and Rutgers all got off to fast starts and a place in the top 10 in the national polls. Then, on successive Thursday nights, Louisville beat WVU, and Rutgers shocked the Cardinals. Both games drew ratings above 5.0 and nearly five million viewers on ESPN. Louisville eventually won a tight race for the conference title with a 6-1 record.

“Thursday night has become our version of Monday Night Football,” said Chuck Gerber, the executive vice president for college sports at ABC and ESPN, “and the Big East certainly bought into that. It offers national exclusivity with full national distribution. The exclusive window is priceless.”

The Big East certainly appreciates that fact. On Monday, Gerber spoke with the league’s eight head coaches and thanked them for their flexibility in scheduling in order to fit ESPN’s needs. This season, Big East teams will play games on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday to sit on ESPN’s marquee.

“The Big East has bought into off-night football. It’s a real benefit that helps grow programs. That kind of thinking is what made Louisville a national program back in its Conference USA days and it’ll help the Big East, too,” said Gerber.

Carparelli and Tranghese are hoping for a repeat of last season’s success, both on the field and on TV. Two of the league’s marquee games this season — Louisville at West Virginia, and Rutgers at Louisville — are both scheduled on Thursday nights on ESPN. The hope is that a third showdown, West Virginia at Rutgers on Saturday, Oct. 27, will be picked up nationally by ABC-TV.

The school that’s driven the ratings surge is Rutgers, the state university of New Jersey that’s always been a marked underachiever in football. Last year, the Scarlet Knights captured the fascination of the country’s largest TV market for the first time ever.

“I believed all along that New York City would become part of New Jersey if we did well,” said Rutgers coach Greg Schiano. “That’s the advantage of being [located] where we are.”

Last August, the Big East and ABC/ESPN signed long-term deals for both football and men’s and women’s basketball. The football deal, worth a reported $36 million annually, doesn’t kick in until next fall. The hoops deal, which starts this coming season, guarantees that all 144 conference games will be shown on ESPN’s family of networks (ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN Classic, ESPNRegional, ESPN360).

ESPN’s Gerber said he’s had a long business relationship with Tranghese and sees the strength of both the football and basketball sides of the Big East increasing.

“We were interested even after the [Big East-ACC] split because Mike committed to high-quality, BCS-level football and I was very impressed with the football coaches in the league,” said Gerber. “I’m a big believer that if you give a good coach some time and give a team some exposure, he can build a program. That’s happened in the Big East

The BEast is top TV rated conference. I wonder how the rest of the college football world is handing that?

bitcruncher Wrote:The BEast is top TV rated conference. I wonder how the rest of the college football world is handing that?

Let's not jump for joy just yet. On the strength of those Thursday night games, the Big East was the top-rated conference for ESPN.

When the Big East is amongst the top-rated conferences for ABC, then I'll be happy.

Cheers,
Neil

I would rather see the BEast stay with ESPN. Let ABC beg all day long and get ignored for their efforts by the BEast. It would be great to see ABC want to schedule us but be unable to. Turn about is fair play. ESPN stuck by us. We should stick by them.

The major networks really don't have a larger audience when it comes to football. They just try to schedule games that the fans want - in other words the same old teams they've shoved down our throats since the dawn of televised football. Football fans are going to go where their teams are - or where the most exciting games are. Right now, the BEast has the most exciting games.

bitcruncher Wrote:I would rather see the BEast stay with ESPN. Let ABC beg all day long and get ignored for their efforts by the BEast. It would be great to see ABC want to schedule us but be unable to. Turn about is fair play. ESPN stuck by us. We should stick by them.

The major networks really don't have a larger audience when it comes to football. They just try to schedule games that the fans want - in other words the same old teams they've shoved down our throats since the dawn of televised football. Football fans are going to go where their teams are - or where the most exciting games are. Right now, the BEast has the most exciting games.

You do realize that ABC and Espn are both owned by Disney, dont you, and that our fb contract entitles the league to some games on ABC?

So? One is commercial network TV, and one isn't. I don't care who owns them at the moment.

I don't particularly like commercial TV (the big 4 - ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox). A half hour show only has 13-14 minutes of actual show. The rest is commercials. Who needs that? I realize sports is a bit different, but for the money that they command for advertising, you'd think they would not interrupt a game with TV timeouts, and put the commercials on at halftime and during the change of quarter.

The football deal, worth a reported $36 million annually, doesn’t kick in until next fall.

While I wish that this were true, it must be an error.

Doomsday could be looming....

Big East Standings (2007)

Louisville 4-3 9-4
Rutgers 4-3 9-4
West Virginia 4-3 9-4
South Florida 4-3 9-4
Cincinnati 3-4 7-6
Pittsburgh 3-4 7-7
Connecticut 3-4 6-7
Syracuse 3-4 6-7

No top 25 teams just like the Mountain West.....

cuseroc Wrote:The football deal, worth a reported $36 million annually, doesn’t kick in until next fall.

While I wish that this were true, it must be an error.

Well, the money part is anyway. Supposedly 15 million a year for 5 years. The league only gets the 8 million again for 2007.

Let's hope the Big East comes close to replicating last year's ratings numbers.

Cheers,
Neil

Kit-Cat Wrote:Doomsday could be looming....

Big East Standings (2007)

Louisville 4-3 9-4
Rutgers 4-3 9-4
West Virginia 4-3 9-4
South Florida 4-3 9-4
Cincinnati 3-4 7-6
Pittsburgh 3-4 7-7
Connecticut 3-4 6-7
Syracuse 3-4 6-7

No top 25 teams just like the Mountain West.....

Nightmare scenario that could happen.

Of course, people will still tune in to see all the Heisman hopeful studs the league has this year. How many Heisman hopefuls does the MAC have again?

Cheers,
Neil

and the champion will still be in a BCS Bowl game as opposed to the MAC and MWC champion.

Kit-Cat Wrote:Doomsday could be looming....

Big East Standings (2007)

Louisville 4-3 9-4
Rutgers 4-3 9-4
West Virginia 4-3 9-4
South Florida 4-3 9-4
Cincinnati 3-4 7-6
Pittsburgh 3-4 7-7
Connecticut 3-4 6-7
Syracuse 3-4 6-7

No top 25 teams just like the Mountain West.....

Last I checked you only play 12 Regular Season games NOT 13. So the worse case is Four 9 Win Regular season teams.

Plus we already done so much the past two years with our Regular Season Ratings and Media Markets we are not going anywhere.

Maize Wrote:

Kit-Cat Wrote:Doomsday could be looming....

Big East Standings (2007)

Louisville 4-3 9-4
Rutgers 4-3 9-4
West Virginia 4-3 9-4
South Florida 4-3 9-4
Cincinnati 3-4 7-6
Pittsburgh 3-4 7-7
Connecticut 3-4 6-7
Syracuse 3-4 6-7

No top 25 teams just like the Mountain West.....

Last I checked you only play 12 Regular Season games NOT 13. So the worse case is Four 9 Win Regular season teams.

Plus we already done so much the past two years with our Regular Season Ratings and Media Markets we are not going anywhere.

That tells you something about the quality of education this moron is receiving at his chosen university. No wonder Marshall left the MAC!
:muttering:

Kit-Cat Wrote:Doomsday could be looming....

Big East Standings (2007)

Louisville 4-3 9-4
Rutgers 4-3 9-4
West Virginia 4-3 9-4
South Florida 4-3 9-4
Cincinnati 3-4 7-6
Pittsburgh 3-4 7-7
Connecticut 3-4 6-7
Syracuse 3-4 6-7

No top 25 teams just like the Mountain West.....

Did you recycle that same garbage prediction you made last year? What a stupid prediction, half the conference is 403 and the other half is 3-4. You do know that's impossible right? And the MWC had TWO Top 25 teams, that's 2 more then the MAC had last year.

I thought that sounded familiar.