12-20-2012, 11:58 AM
The core thought has been get large enough and TV will rain money upon you. Get the biggest markets and by osmosis, TV will rain even more money on you.
Here is the reality.
CUSA with a number of major markets and some decent brand names went on the open market and garnered $14 gross (rights fees plus productions costs). If they remain at 14 the net TV value per school will be around $800,000 to $900,000.
If CUSA went to 20 the gross per school would at best remain constant, unless they were to add a school with a proven value in excess of that amount. For example we know BYU has an established value of around $4 million for their home games so you take those home games plus four conference road games and it can lift the value of a league TV deal.
If acting jointly were capable of producing the numbers some have claimed, then the commissioners of the MAC, Sun Belt, CUSA and MWC would throw their TV rights into one pool and use the market value of their combined package to get a big TV deal and then distribute the money based on a formula that pays based on the number of appearances and type of appearance. TV's selection of games of would determine who gets how much of the kitty.
That isn't happening and by all accounts no one thinks it would produce a windfall.
If having 55 schools under one TV deal with payments on an eat what you kill basis isn't going to produce fat money then you can figure a 20 or 22 or 24 team deal where the money is shared equally won't either.
Here is the reality.
CUSA with a number of major markets and some decent brand names went on the open market and garnered $14 gross (rights fees plus productions costs). If they remain at 14 the net TV value per school will be around $800,000 to $900,000.
If CUSA went to 20 the gross per school would at best remain constant, unless they were to add a school with a proven value in excess of that amount. For example we know BYU has an established value of around $4 million for their home games so you take those home games plus four conference road games and it can lift the value of a league TV deal.
If acting jointly were capable of producing the numbers some have claimed, then the commissioners of the MAC, Sun Belt, CUSA and MWC would throw their TV rights into one pool and use the market value of their combined package to get a big TV deal and then distribute the money based on a formula that pays based on the number of appearances and type of appearance. TV's selection of games of would determine who gets how much of the kitty.
That isn't happening and by all accounts no one thinks it would produce a windfall.
If having 55 schools under one TV deal with payments on an eat what you kill basis isn't going to produce fat money then you can figure a 20 or 22 or 24 team deal where the money is shared equally won't either.