The plan of Big Eas football and Notre Dame football shared on NBC and NBC Sports along with maybe splitting basketball with ESPN is perfect. And yes the people will find the channel to watch BCS games, we do it with Pac 12 and MWC games that are worth watching.

(08-03-2011 04:07 AM)CardinalJim Wrote:  

(08-03-2011 01:00 AM)ohio1317 Wrote:  I think the idea for the Big East if the money can work out would be to keep basketball with ESPN (the exposure they get there is good), give NBC Sports or Turner some football and keep a little with ESPN. When it can get the Thursday night games, the Big East should keep those (the Big East built them up afterall) as it should ABC games if it can. That's probably not all possible, but I think it would be the best approach for the conference.

Practically, maybe ABC/ESPN could get a set amount of games predetermined from the beginning of the year as either ESPN Thursday or ABC games and everything else football could go to NBC Sports/FOX/Turner.

Screw ESPN.....
We need to make a clean break. Walk away from them. If they don't come to us with guaranteed SEC type money...walk. Even if they come to us with the money we want we need guarantees that ESPN isn't simply buying our product to shelve it just to keep NBC / TBS out
CJ

Never burn bridges that you may need to cross back over the river in a different day...

I see 250 million for 14/20 BE

(08-02-2011 11:19 PM)BruinNation Wrote:  I'm a Pac 12 guy but also a national college football fan. For the life of me, I can't think of too many OTA football games from the Big East I've seen on ABC. ESPN has also sold you guys out on Thursdays as well. Comcast/NBC would treat you guys like kings. I'd love to see NBC Sports become a threat to ESPN. The NHL is one piece. Hopefully the Big East, NFL Thursdays and maybe an MLB package would help continue in that quest.

Bruin, welcome to the board, and to the discussion

It's nice to see someone from another conference who sees the same things we see, and doesn't characterize us as paranoid conspiracy theorists. In 2006, the Big East put Thursday nights on the map. Those games that year are still amongst the highest rated historically for that night. We got swiftly rewarded by having our exposure for that night systematically diminished.

It's no coincidence that the network is playing hardball by giving us crap time slots (in some cases, ones which cannibalize other league games). They've been "rearranging" our TV schedule since we said "Thanks but no thanks." It'll be hard for me to find my Bearcats on anything but a PC this year, but I can only hope it pays off handsomely.

I do think the chances of that are reasonable. If we do anything near what your league did, I'll be Congrats, BTW

(08-02-2011 01:36 PM)adcorbett Wrote:  

(08-02-2011 01:32 PM)SF Husky Wrote:  Funny some of the same stuff some of us been saying is being repeated by the NBC execs. For football, it is time for the BE to leave ESPN for better exposure.

But, the key is they are also drooling over Big East basketball. Most likely, you have to move both. And while I am all ion favor of that, don't think you can get NBC or someone to take BE football, but still get ESPN basketball exposure. They will want both or neither.

I agree. Anyone that deals with the BE is going to insist upon the BB package and frankly, that's what's best for the BE financially. BB can be used to leverage better money and coverage for the FB package (whereas the flip side is a much harder sell).

The assumption with dealing with NBC/Comcast is that this is going to be an NBC Sports Network-driven deal. No one should reasonably expect much (if any) OTA coverage on NBC with its heavy golf and ND commitments in the fall outside of maybe ND road games at BE sites. Now, NBCSN may very well be better than what ESPN is offering (and certainly can offer better time slots). I just think the expectations for NBC OTA coverage will need to be drastically reduced (if not eliminated entirely). The main value proposition for Comcast to deal with the BE is to build up NBCSN (and that's where BB becomes even more important as regular winter programming).

(08-03-2011 10:58 AM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  I just think the expectations for NBC OTA coverage will need to be drastically reduced (if not eliminated entirely).

I agree with you to an extent, in that it will not be their primary goal ot get stuff on NBC OTA. But consider, if NBC is paying for it already, it is more or less free programming for them to place it on their OTA network as well, because it is already paid for. Especially since NBCSN would only have so many time slots anyway(unless there is also a BEN). So even if they can get other programming cheap, cheap isn't better than free. So unless those programs can generate more ad money than BE sports (and I have no diea what they generate for national sports vs. local programming, you probably would see more on the OTA network as a compliment to NBCSN. Besides, if they want to rebuild their sports network, they have to use NBC OTA to promote NBC sports.

(08-03-2011 08:30 AM)dgrace4cards Wrote:  The plan of Big Eas football and Notre Dame football shared on NBC and NBC Sports along with maybe splitting basketball with ESPN is perfect. And yes the people will find the channel to watch BCS games, we do it with Pac 12 and MWC games that are worth watching.

The Big East is big enough to have more than one network. There are enough inventories to go around for both of them. Why stop with 12 fb, I think 14fb is doable.

(08-03-2011 11:08 AM)adcorbett Wrote:  

(08-03-2011 10:58 AM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  I just think the expectations for NBC OTA coverage will need to be drastically reduced (if not eliminated entirely).

I agree with you to an extent, in that it will not be their primary goal ot get stuff on NBC OTA. But consider, if NBC is paying for it already, it is more or less free programming for them to place it on their OTA network as well, because it is already paid for. Especially since NBCSN would only have so many time slots anyway(unless there is also a BEN). So even if they can get other programming cheap, cheap isn't better than free. So unless those programs can generate more ad money than BE sports (and I have no diea what they generate for national sports vs. local programming, you probably would see more on the OTA network as a compliment to NBCSN. Besides, if they want to rebuild their sports network, they have to use NBC OTA to promote NBC sports.

September is locked up for NBC because of golf (3 FedEx Cup events and then the Tour Championship all on consecutive weekends). It actually gets the PGA to move up the Saturday tee times when there's an ND conflict (which *really* shows how much NBC values the ND relationship), but that's really the only exception. NBC also has the Ryder Cup every other year in October, which eliminates another fall weekend. Add in the other ND games and there really isn't that much available on Saturday unless there's a belief that NBC wants regular national prime time BE games, which is a nice thought, but very unlikely. I could very well see NBC place a handful of marquee BE games on OTA (non-conference games vs. ND, the Backyard Brawl), yet I wouldn't expect that much of an increase of OTA coverage compared to what ABC/ESPN offer today. NBCSN, on the other hand, has tons of Saturday time slots for football compared to ESPN, so that's where the BE has the most to gain.

Does anybody really think the NBC deal would involve the OTA network? I don't think anyone really expects that outside of playing at ND, that you will be on the OTA network. But really how much is the BE on any ABC nationally? Sure once in a while, you get on ABC regional coverage. But outside of the BCS game.....I don't think the BE is really on national television too often anyway. NBC would be offering essentially what ESPN offers with better time slots. Instead of Wednesday night on cable, you are on playing Saturday night.

(08-03-2011 11:48 AM)The Brown Bull Wrote:  Does anybody really think the NBC deal would involve the OTA network? I don't think anyone really expects that outside of playing at ND, that you will be on the OTA network. But really how much is the BE on any ABC nationally? Sure once in a while, you get on ABC regional coverage. But outside of the BCS game.....I don't think the BE is really on national television too often anyway. NBC would be offering essentially what ESPN offers with better time slots. Instead of Wednesday night on cable, you are on playing Saturday night.

This is exactly what I believe and that's where the value of moving to Comcast/NBC would be (although like ad mentioned earlier, I personally like Turner better for a non-ESPN partner, but who knows if that choice is going to be available) - better Saturday time slots on NBCSN compared to midweek time slots on ESPN. However, I have seen more than a few comments believing/hoping that there would be a large OTA presence on NBC, which is what I believe is unrealistic.

(08-03-2011 11:45 AM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  I could very well see NBC place a handful of marquee BE games on OTA (non-conference games vs. ND, the Backyard Brawl), yet I wouldn't expect that much of an increase of OTA coverage compared to what ABC/ESPN offer today.

I was thinking more basketball than football on NBC OTA. Football, assuming one spotlight weekday game, and if there is a conference network (don't know that there will be, but I think they are heading that way), there would not really be enough games to supply NBC AND the two cable networks, when they are more or less both deidcated to your games. I don't think OTA on NBC is eaven feasible other than once or two saturdays. I meant NBC would have basketball games OTA, during a time when they have few other sports, especially since they cost very little to NBC, and has a rather built in audience.

(08-03-2011 08:41 AM)Wilkie01 Wrote:  

(08-03-2011 04:07 AM)CardinalJim Wrote:  

(08-03-2011 01:00 AM)ohio1317 Wrote:  I think the idea for the Big East if the money can work out would be to keep basketball with ESPN (the exposure they get there is good), give NBC Sports or Turner some football and keep a little with ESPN. When it can get the Thursday night games, the Big East should keep those (the Big East built them up afterall) as it should ABC games if it can. That's probably not all possible, but I think it would be the best approach for the conference.

Practically, maybe ABC/ESPN could get a set amount of games predetermined from the beginning of the year as either ESPN Thursday or ABC games and everything else football could go to NBC Sports/FOX/Turner.

Screw ESPN.....
We need to make a clean break. Walk away from them. If they don't come to us with guaranteed SEC type money...walk. Even if they come to us with the money we want we need guarantees that ESPN isn't simply buying our product to shelve it just to keep NBC / TBS out
CJ

Never burn bridges that you may need to cross back over the river in a different day...

True. If the BE is going to get big dollars, then it needs ESPN to provide a legitimate bid. Otherwise, Comcast would low-ball the BE just as badly as ESPN has done before. The BE (and really, any other college conference or pro sports league) needs as many bidders as possible if they want to get the maximum price and the best exposure.

I would imagine that figures various configurations of The BEast will be discussed as well. And I would imagine that would go a long way towards determining the direction of any expansion...

(08-03-2011 08:41 AM)Wilkie01 Wrote:  Never burn bridges that you may need to cross back over the river in a different day.

I'm sorry, the only bridges ESPN has built for Big East football lead to Tuesday, Wednesday or Friday match-ups. If we get a prime-time contest it's on ESPN3. I'll burn those d@mn bridges everyday.

If NBC can give us games directly after Notre Dame on Saturdays I'll take it.
CJ

(08-03-2011 12:26 PM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  True. If the BE is going to get big dollars, then it needs ESPN to provide a legitimate bid. Otherwise, Comcast would low-ball the BE just as badly as ESPN has done before. The BE (and really, any other college conference or pro sports league) needs as many bidders as possible if they want to get the maximum price and the best exposure.

Of course we need them to bid. Somebody needs to make it clear to them that if the try to low-ball us on football, we walk with basketball. Like the article said yesterday: anything less than a PAC or SEC payday, we should walk. If yesterday proved anything to ESPN, despite their efforts the last decade to undermine The Big East, other broadcast entities see The Big East as a marketable conference worth paying for.
CJ

(08-03-2011 04:42 PM)CardinalJim Wrote:  I'm sorry, the only bridges ESPN has built for Big East football lead to Tuesday, Wednesday or Friday match-ups. If we get a prime-time contest it's on ESPN3. I'll burn those d@mn bridges everyday.

If NBC can give us games directly after Notre Dame on Saturdays I'll take it.

Not that I disagree with your sentiment, but I'm glad you're not doing the negotiating. Negotiations need diplomacy man!

CJ would just send in seal team 6 with his demands and wait to see the white flag raised

(08-03-2011 05:08 PM)adcorbett Wrote:  CJ would just send in seal team 6 with his demands and wait to see the white flag raised

That's not a bad idea. The Navy may even volunteer them in exchange for a promise to NOT ask Navy to join the Big East.