Big East Must Consider Reorganizing for TV
The Business of Sport
BY EVAN WEINER
August 8, 2007
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/60078

Take a good look right now at how the college conferences are currently configured, because chances are pretty good that there will be a shuffling of schools within the next two years for one single reason: The ability to make more money off of college football from cable television. Inviting another school to the conference could mean two six-team divisions and a Big Ten championship game, which would mean more revenue into the conference.

The Big Ten Conference, which has 11 teams, may be looking to expand because it might need a bigger market presence for its new cable TV network, which begins airing on August 30. Nothing official has been announced yet from the Midwest-based conference, but its commissioner, Jim Delany, told a group of reporters from the Des Moines Register on July 25, "I think we need to look at it in the next year."

That declaration is about as straight an answer about expansion as you are going to get. But last Tuesday, Delany backtracked and said expansion is only a back burner issue. That doesn't mean Big Ten expansion is dead. It just may be in hibernation until the football season is done and the Big Ten can make an assessment of where its new network should be headed.

Rutgers University might be a school that Delany targets, although the school is not commenting about Delany's statement to the Des Moines Register. The Big Ten might also consider Missouri, Syracuse, or Pittsburgh. Rutgers would give the Big Ten a presence in the country's largest TV market — New York — but the new Rutgers football stadium seats only 40,000 people. That's a problem because visiting teams would take home less money as their share of the gate in comparison to, say, Michigan or Ohio State, two schools with much larger seating capacities. The Rutgers football stadium is expandable, but would New Jersey spend money to construction 20,000 to 30,000 more seats?

There is also an ethical question that needs to be answered. After the New Jersey school — now a part of the Big East — joined with four other Big East schools in 2003 to sue Miami, Boston College, and the Atlantic Coast Conference in an attempt to block Miami and Boston College's move to the ACC, can Rutgers move from the Big East Conference to the Big Ten? Virginia Tech was also a plaintiff in that case but that school jumped to the ACC after the lawsuit was filed. There is a precedent should Rutgers bail out of the Big East.

The Big Ten needs another school — particularly in a major market that does not feature Comcast as the major cable TV operator — to shore up its cable network. The network is having trouble signing the big cable operators and presently is reaching only about 20% of the conference area's cable subscribers.

The conference is demanding that Comcast, which is the primary cable TV operator in the eight states that house Big Ten schools, put the new network on a basic expanded tier, as that is where the most subscribers are. Comcast, which initially thought it might be a partner in the network before deciding it was too costly to operate, has declined, and has offered the Big Ten carriage on its digital tier. The conference has since declined Comcast's offer.

Charging about $1.10 per subscriber to show the Big Ten Network, the cable operators do not think it is worth passing a $13 annual increase on to their subscribers just for one network. The conference is also having problems completing a carriage deal with Mediacom in Iowa. Mediacom has 450,000 subscribers statewide. Time Warner has not signed a deal with the network either. The Big Ten Network has promised that each school will get $7 million a year from the channel. But the money won't be there without agreements from the multiple systems cable operators.

The Big Ten is acting like the New York Yankees and their YES Network in demanding that cable TV multiple systems operators pick up its network at a pretty high cost. But the conference is not an amateur college production. It is big time sports and when Delany tells a newspaper that his conference is interested in expanding in part to help its newly created network, then he should be taken seriously.

College sports conferences, like their pro counterparts, don't add teams just because they feel a need to get bigger. They do it to maximize revenues. The ACC's 2003 reorganization eventually gave them Miami, Virginia Tech, and Boston College from the Big East. This gave the ACC one more major market city, Boston, and one more midsize city, Miami, to go along with Washington–Baltimore and Atlanta.

The newly formed ACC got more TV money because of the movement of the schools. The Big East, which lost Boston and Miami, scrambled for replacements not only to fill TV markets but also to keep its Bowl Championship Series status. The Big East took five schools away from Conference USA, three of them to replace Miami, Virginia Tech, and Boston College in football, and two others to bring the number of schools in Big East basketball to 16. Football schools Cincinnati, Louisville, and South Florida were added to the conference, and the University of Connecticut, known more for its basketball program, was also added as a new Division 1-A football school. The moves also affected the Western Athletic Conference, the Mid-America Conference, the Sun Belt Conference, Mountain West, and the Atlantic 10, all of whom had to reorganize.

Why do colleges need more and more revenues? Why are colleges redoing stadiums, adding luxury boxes, club seats, and all those other so-called fan-friendly amenities — which really is a code for charging top dollar for restaurants and concessions? Parts of the answer lie in what colleges are now paying coaches. Alabama gave Nick Saban more than $4 million a year to leave the Miami Dolphins to coach the Crimson Tide.

There is an arms race taking place when it comes to coach's salaries. Money is also needed to pay monitors and tutors to keep an eye on players and make sure they show up to classes and do classroom work including taking tests. Insurance costs and debt services on stadium improvements and travel also need to be considered. The schools save a ton of money by not paying players, although college sports defenders point out that student athletes get a free education if they choose to take advantage of it.

The Big Ten, along with other college sports, ceased being an amateur-educational endeavor years ago. Of course, it could be argued that college football has always been about business. Back in 1932, the Marx Brothers lampooned college football in the movie "Horse Feathers" when Groucho Marx, as Professor Quincy Adams Wagstaff, the head of Huxley College, said in his opening remarks to his faculty, "And I say to you gentlemen that this college is a failure. The trouble is we're neglecting football for education."

In a lot of ways, nothing has changed since 1932.

It's funny. CUSA was hit almost as hard as the BEast, and it didn't merit one mention. That's a funny omission.

the article said that cusa lost 5 members... how is that not a mention..

I spaced. Chalk it up to about 3 hrs sleep in the last 2 days.

Eat my shorts, teach

bitcruncher Wrote:It's funny. CUSA was hit almost as hard as the BEast, and it didn't merit one mention. That's a funny omission.

I suppose you are interpreting this is some kind of put down of CUSA? I don't think so.

This is a NYC newspaper and I don't think they cover and/or have any sympathy for CUSA. My interpretation is that the author gave a good analysis for the BE lawsuit against BC and now the 180 degree turn by Rutgers or Syracuse if they are invited into BE. Also, the author mentioned that a conference change in one conference will impact many others. I thought that very fair and very honest assessment.

Newspaper readership has declined 50% since 1980. Newspapers run stories to sell newspapers.

Losing a Syracuse or Rutgers will create a psychological hole in BE, that cannot be replaced. Yes, BE will undoubtedly invite another CUSA team but the BE conference should now be called Mid-Atlantic Conference or Appalachian Conference or maybe even CUSA/North to go along with CUSA/East and CUSA/West...it's BE rationale and psychic will be pretty much gone....the BE will only have two teams north of the Mason Dixon line and east of Ohio/PA border...Connecticut and either Syracuse or Rutgers.

I previously predicted that if BE expands, BE would only expand by one. I got that right. I want to add a new prediction. I predict Big Ten will go to 9 conference games. I think there is more money there and also I don't see lesser western Big Ten schools wanting to pass on playing such schools at Michigan and Ohio State....these schools help lesser Big Ten schools sell season tickets....this is the same situation of the Northern PAC schools who want Southern Cal and UCLA coming in.

It is in BE's best interests that Big Ten take no BE school....but, if like the MWC goats, ridiculing CUSA turns you on....please, be my guest.

I still think the best move mike T, nd, and the hoop school's can make to save the league is to expand to 18 teams, 1 bball only and 1 all sports, than split into two bball divisions based on geography. Under those conditions, the best teams are Memphis and St.Louis U and i'd make these invites sometime next spring, maybe after memphis wins a hoop title. If the big 10 did make a move for a big east school, you got an easy replacement in central flordia.

Tallgrass Wrote:Yes, BE will undoubtedly invite another CUSA team but the BE conference should now be called Mid-Atlantic Conference or Appalachian Conference or maybe even CUSA/North to go along with CUSA/East and CUSA/West...it's BE rationale and psychic will be pretty much gone....the BE will only have two teams north of the Mason Dixon line and east of Ohio/PA border...Connecticut and either Syracuse or Rutgers.

"Big East" has name recognition, which is valuable perception-wise, but if a new name must be taken, the obvious best choice is "EAC" (Eastern Athletic Conference). The idea that EAC is a bad name because it sounds like "WAC" is stupid, Tigershark2ish shallow thinking.

Tallgrass Wrote:Newspaper readership has declined 50% since 1980. Newspapers run stories to sell newspapers.

Actually New York unlike most other metros hasn't seen that kind of drop, we have a very good readership rate that hasn't seen the declines of the rest of the country which can be directly attributed to our mass transit usage in the high density urban areas and on commuter rail lines radiating into/out of New York and Newark & Hudson County in NJ. So here they don't necessarily have to do such garbage to sell papers. Other than that I agree with your post.
(I'm at work or I'd have the time to get you some reference for this. I'll be sure to edit when I get a chance later today.)

brista21 Wrote:

Tallgrass Wrote:Newspaper readership has declined 50% since 1980. Newspapers run stories to sell newspapers.

Actually New York unlike most other metros hasn't seen that kind of drop, we have a very good readership rate that hasn't seen the declines of the rest of the country which can be directly attributed to our mass transit usage in the high density urban areas and on commuter rail lines radiating into/out of New York and Newark & Hudson County in NJ. So here they don't necessarily have to do such garbage to sell papers. Other than that I agree with your post.
(I'm at work or I'd have the time to get you some reference for this. I'll be sure to edit when I get a chance later today.)

NY Times has lost 30% of their NYC readers since 1993:
http://politicalcalculations.blogspot.co...times.html

NYTimes has done well in selling papers to 3rd party vendors that distribute them Nationally (mostly to Hotels, businesses, some home subscriptions, etc..).

Its been the tabloids in NYC (Daily News and The Post) that had done "well" over the recent years..

Quote:I previously predicted that if BE expands, BE would only expand by one. I got that right.

How did you get it right that the BE will expand by one, when the BE has not expanded yet? Just because a media source gueses that does not mean it will happen that way. You wont be able to say I told you so, until the BE actually invites someone.

FWIW, I am skeptical of this article. I think the author is guessing and speculating. Let me give an example (a small example, admittedly) regarding the Ft. Worth Bowl. The Ft. Worth and MWC Press a couple years ago announced a FOUR YEAR DEAL with the PAC to appear in the Ft. Worth Bowl. This year, it turns out, the deal was only for TWO YEARS, with the PAC having a 2 year option to extend which the PAC didn't pick up. I know this is a small and therefore kind of irrelevant example....but just how many articles were posted on this board regarding the "inevitable" expansion of BE football? And articles on the "inevitable" split of FB and BB Big East schools? These kinds of articles excite fans, either positively or negatively. I don't think many of these authors have a clue....because many conference leaders do not have a clue at this point in time.

At one time, if you saw something in print...you could infer there was a pretty good source behind it. Today, reading a newspaper is no better than being on a sports board or a sports blog. Myself, sometimes I gain a familiarity with a poster over time and trust them more than some sports writer.

grass forget about a cusa member being added unless a current BE football team leaves for the B10.(the lmost likely choice being ucf).Yes with alumni like venger memphis st will be likely to be still working its way up to being a university of phoenix level with jc special bb program in a decade.

cuseroc Wrote:

Quote:I previously predicted that if BE expands, BE would only expand by one. I got that right.

I have two predictions in one....IF big east expands...it would only be by one. In my followup to this prediction, in my posts I stated that I did not think BE would expand...nothing compelling to be gained was my rationale....BE has BCS status and bowls wouldn't change. Also, my thinking has been influenced by why in the world would you give up the tv markets of Chicago, Philly, DC, and NYC...plus the national platform of BE tourney in Madison Square Garden....unparalled publicity and recruiting!!!!???????

IMO, Big Ten will follow route of PAC.



How did you get it right that the BE will expand by one, when the BE has not expanded yet? Just because a media source gueses that does not mean it will happen that way. You wont be able to say I told you so, until the BE actually invites someone.

bluesox Wrote:I still think the best move mike T, nd, and the hoop school's can make to save the league is to expand to 18 teams, 1 bball only and 1 all sports, than split into two bball divisions based on geography. Under those conditions, the best teams are Memphis and St.Louis U and i'd make these invites sometime next spring, maybe after memphis wins a hoop title. If the big 10 did make a move for a big east school, you got an easy replacement in central flordia.

The problem is--would adding Memphis, or ECU, or UCF or any other CUSA program cause a Rutgers or Syracuse to want to remain a member of the Big East conference? Money is the issue. The other BCS conferences can offer more money--and if the B Televen gets a BE school such as Rutgers, ALOT more money. I just don't see how adding a school such as Memphis would generate enough revenue for the BE to make an SU or Rutgers turn down an invite where they'll make over $10million more per year. No, the hybrid can't just keep adding team after team after team to still be the 6th best BCS league with the 6th best payout. IF all schools really want to stay together, then they'll have to become proactive and raid other BCS conferences for cities and programs that could bring BE schools up to par money wise with the other BCS conferences.

If the B Televen can try and lure Rutgers or Syracuse, why can't the BE first try to lure PSU, ND, Maryland, Kentucky, UNC, BC or any combination of 4 BCS teams that would boost the revenues up to the same level as a Big Televen or ACC or SEC. If that were possilbe reasons for the BCS not to join diminish.

Gray Avenger Wrote:"Big East" has name recognition, which is valuable perception-wise, but if a new name must be taken, the obvious best choice is "EAC" (Eastern Athletic Conference). The idea that EAC is a bad name because it sounds like "WAC" is stupid, Tigershark2ish shallow thinking.

The problem with EAC is that the biased media would then put a "w" in front of it much the same way that they put an "L" in front of East.
A new conference name would need to be extremely carefuly chosen to ensure that media bashing of that sort cannot happen.

KnightLight Wrote:

brista21 Wrote:

Tallgrass Wrote:Newspaper readership has declined 50% since 1980. Newspapers run stories to sell newspapers.

Actually New York unlike most other metros hasn't seen that kind of drop, we have a very good readership rate that hasn't seen the declines of the rest of the country which can be directly attributed to our mass transit usage in the high density urban areas and on commuter rail lines radiating into/out of New York and Newark & Hudson County in NJ. So here they don't necessarily have to do such garbage to sell papers. Other than that I agree with your post.
(I'm at work or I'd have the time to get you some reference for this. I'll be sure to edit when I get a chance later today.)

NY Times has lost 30% of their NYC readers since 1993:
http://politicalcalculations.blogspot.co...times.html

NYTimes has done well in selling papers to 3rd party vendors that distribute them Nationally (mostly to Hotels, businesses, some home subscriptions, etc..).

Its been the tabloids in NYC (Daily News and The Post) that had done "well" over the recent years..

When I ride the Washington, DC subway where I live, there are many people working on their laptops rather than reading newspapers. Also, many people are on their cell phones or blackberry as Verizon has run an undergroundo connection in the subway system. When I see people reading a newspaper on the subway, many times it is alternative newspaper to Washington Post such as The City Paper and other types of newspapers appealing to younger folks.

People just aren't as literate, when you consider hard copy alone. Now, what we don't get from TV, we pick up off the net. The news comes quicker that way, although the quality of news coverage has declined through the shift in information gathering techniques.

The problem with the article is that while it cites reasons for the Big Ten and the ACC re-organizing their conferences, it makes no claim as to how best the Big East should re-organize itself in the ever changing college landscape.

The Big East actually knows what it should do to make itself itself better, but when the programs it needs to accomplish this either want no part of the league (Penn State) or only want to use the league (Notre Dame) to further its own goal of remaining independent for football, then the only thing the BEast can do, is continue to improve both academically and athletically and see if circumstances change the attitudes of those two programs or if the league can shine without either of them.

We are seeing many of these things being accomplished right NOW, in front of our very eyes. But what is needed most of all is time. And what will give the league the time it needs is for the Big Ten Network to continue to have difficulty getting on basic cable.

It's all a matter of time and timing. The next few years will be interesting to see how things develop.

Cheers,
Neil