https://www.sltrib.com/sports/byu-cougar...-new-deal/
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The Salt Lake Tribune has learned that discussions have intensified the past few weeks, perhaps so BYU can make a news splash on June 18 when it holds its media day — earlier than any program in the country, as usual — to kick off the 2019 football season.
This year’s theme will be “150 Years of College Football: BYU’s Impact on the Game,” and will play up the fact that ESPN’s first live regular-season broadcast was the BYU-at-Pittsburgh game on Sept. 1, 1984, the season that ended with BYU winning the national championship.
Contacted late last week, ESPN confirmed that it is extremely interested in continuing the partnership.
“ESPN has a great relationship with BYU and its athletics department,” said Kurt Dargis, ESPN senior director of programming and acquisitions. “We expect that affiliation to continue beyond this [football] season and are engaged in those discussions.”
Responding to a Tribune request on how those negotiations are coming along, BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe said
there are no foreseeable snags or complications that could derail the deal.
“We are having a good dialogue with ESPN about a new regular-season contract and a bowl game agreement,” Holmoe said via email. “Those contract discussions are currently ongoing.
We are going to be with ESPN. It is just a matter of working through some details of the new deal.”
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I don't know if either side will disclose details, but if it has the same boost we are seeing in other contracts, then it should be higher than the American (per school).
There is an excellent collection of home opponents the next 6 years, although the 2024 and 2025 schedules are very incomplete -- 2024 needs some help. In general the home scheduel is far more attrative than in the past, in part because Holmoe is starting to get the P5 return games in bunchers now. So ESPN has quite a number of games they are very likely to put on ESPN or ESPN2. Note, I expect the FCS games will be only shown on BYUtv. Opponents in parenthesis are expected, not announced or under contract AFAIK.
2020
09/12 - Michigan State
10/02 - Utah State
10/10 - Missouri
10/17 - Houston
11/14 - San Diego State
11/21 - North Alabama (FCS)
2021
09/11 - Utah
09/18 - Arizona State
09/24 - USF
10/09 - Boise State
10/30 - Virginia
11/13 - Idaho State (FCS)
2022
09/10 - Baylor
09/24 - Wyoming
09/30 - Utah State
10/15 - Arkansas
11/12 - Dixie State (FCS)
11/19 - East Carolina
2023
09/02 - Tennessee
09/16 - Utah
10/14 - Boise State
11/04 - UNLV
TBA - Stanford
TBA - (FCS school)
2024
09/14 - Hawaii
10/12 - Georgia Southern
TBA
TBA
TBA - (Utah State)
TBA - (FCS school)
2025
09/13 - Stanford
09/20 - Minnesota
11/01 - Virginia
TBA
TBA - (Boise State)
TBA - (FCS school)
(06-10-2019 02:13 PM)Stugray2 Wrote: [ -> ]I don't know if either side will disclose details, but if it has the same boost we are seeing in other contracts, then it should be higher than the American (per school).
There is an excellent collection of home opponents the next 6 years, although the 2024 and 2025 schedules are very incomplete -- 2024 needs some help. In general the home scheduel is far more attrative than in the past, in part because Holmoe is starting to get the P5 return games in bunchers now. So ESPN has quite a number of games they are very likely to put on ESPN or ESPN2. Note, I expect the FCS games will be only shown on BYUtv. Opponents in parenthesis are expected, not announced or under contract AFAIK.
2020
09/12 - Michigan State
10/02 - Utah State
10/10 - Missouri
10/17 - Houston
11/14 - San Diego State
11/21 - North Alabama (FCS)
2021
09/11 - Utah
09/18 - Arizona State
09/24 - USF
10/09 - Boise State
10/30 - Virginia
11/13 - Idaho State (FCS)
2022
09/10 - Baylor
09/24 - Wyoming
09/30 - Utah State
10/15 - Arkansas
11/12 - Dixie State (FCS)
11/19 - East Carolina
2023
09/02 - Tennessee
09/16 - Utah
10/14 - Boise State
11/04 - UNLV
TBA - Stanford
TBA - (FCS school)
2024
09/14 - Hawaii
10/12 - Georgia Southern
TBA
TBA
TBA - (Utah State)
TBA - (FCS school)
2025
09/13 - Stanford
09/20 - Minnesota
11/01 - Virginia
TBA
TBA - (Boise State)
TBA - (FCS school)
The schedules are definitely improved. It's a much better lineup than the series of WAC games that were on the future schedules when the original independence TV deal was announced.
We also start the annual Thanksgiving games in California this year (@SDSU) through 2024 (alternating between Stanford and USC from 2020 to 2024). Those games give us a good finish to the season - both competitively and for travel. Plus, there are other solid late-season games like Virginia (twice), NC State, Boise State, and San Diego State.
BYU is likely to add the Utah game to the 2025 lineup, which will give us 5 great home games, Stanford, Minnesota, Virginia, Boise State, and Utah.
I'm anxious to see exactly how BYU's access to the 16 bowls owned and operated by ESPN Events plays out. There should be some decent opportunities if BYU manages to win 9 or 10 games...but it will be interesting to see which bowls might be used to arrange better matchups. My guess is that First Responders' and Armed Forces would be the most likely landing spots for a good BYU team against a decent P5 or higher-level AAC opponent.
(06-10-2019 02:07 PM)10thMountain Wrote: [ -> ]Good job by the Cougars
Curious, I believe the Cougars made more per season than most AAC teams did in the last contract. Wonder what the reaction will be if BYU ends up with same or more $ per season? I believe the target number would at least $7 Mil per season, Not bad for televising 5-6 games on ESPN along with including them in an ESPN bowl every year they qualify.
Not really any news here.
Of course ESPN would like to televise BYU games. They like to television billions of college games.
The issue is, at what price? So until we see the new numbers, we don't know how well it turned out for BYU.
(06-10-2019 02:36 PM)msm96wolf Wrote: [ -> ] (06-10-2019 02:07 PM)10thMountain Wrote: [ -> ]Good job by the Cougars
Curious, I believe the Cougars made more per season than most AAC teams did in the last contract. Wonder what the reaction will be if BYU ends up with same or more $ per season? I believe the target number would at least $7 Mil per season, Not bad for televising 5-6 games on ESPN along with including them in an ESPN bowl every year they qualify.
I suspect it will be similar. It could be for slightly more---but the ratings indicate it should be generally in the same ballpark as the AAC deal (which would represent a modest increase over the current amount). I dont expect an AAC size leap--mainly because the AAC vastly outperformed the expectations. In other words, the reason the AAC jumped so much was because it was so undervalued to begin with. The BYU deal was pretty fairly valued. When one considers the the BYU deal has somewhat under performed ratings expectations the last several years---I wouldnt expect there would be a lot of upward pressure on the valuation....but who knows?
I’m glad to hear this for our friends at BYU.
Assume the American schools average $7M per year from ESPN.
Assume 80% of that is for football.
Therefore $5.6M per football school, or $67M aggregate per year, is for football.
ESPN agreed to televise 40 American games per year.
So the American will receive $1.675M per televised football game.
Should BYU receive the same, for say 5 games per year, then they should average ~$8.4M per year under it's new deal.
I'd love to see BYU in some type of bowl tie in with the AAC. Maybe the AAC can play BYU 2 or 3 times in the next cycle in a bowl.
(06-10-2019 03:10 PM)quo vadis Wrote: [ -> ]Not really any news here.
Of course ESPN would like to televise BYU games. They like to television billions of college games.
The issue is, at what price? So until we see the new numbers, we don't know how well it turned out for BYU.
Yeah, not really any news. Although, we have basically confirmed that BYU will continue to get good exposure and fan access, which are the primary goals for the program. And, we have some anticipation now of a better bowl scenario.
But, yeah, we want more details!
(06-10-2019 06:15 PM)YNot Wrote: [ -> ] (06-10-2019 03:10 PM)quo vadis Wrote: [ -> ]Not really any news here.
Of course ESPN would like to televise BYU games. They like to television billions of college games.
The issue is, at what price? So until we see the new numbers, we don't know how well it turned out for BYU.
Yeah, not really any news. Although, we have basically confirmed that BYU will continue to get good exposure and fan access, which are the primary goals for the program. And, we have some anticipation now of a better bowl scenario.
But, yeah, we want more details!
Yeah but you already have that now so it's not really news in any sense of the word.
Good news as BYU was in a down spell over the length of the last contract.
(06-10-2019 06:17 PM)RutgersGuy Wrote: [ -> ]Yeah but you already have that now so it's not really news in any sense of the word.
There were people predicting BYU would not get another deal and would be forced to beg their way back into the MWC (as unlikely as that seemed given ESPN picked up the option for 2019).
(06-11-2019 01:56 PM)f1do Wrote: [ -> ] (06-10-2019 06:17 PM)RutgersGuy Wrote: [ -> ]Yeah but you already have that now so it's not really news in any sense of the word.
There were people predicting BYU would not get another deal and would be forced to beg their way back into the MWC (as unlikely as that seemed given ESPN picked up the option for 2019).
Yeah...but I think most knew that was never happening.
(06-11-2019 02:14 PM)Attackcoog Wrote: [ -> ] (06-11-2019 01:56 PM)f1do Wrote: [ -> ] (06-10-2019 06:17 PM)RutgersGuy Wrote: [ -> ]Yeah but you already have that now so it's not really news in any sense of the word.
There were people predicting BYU would not get another deal and would be forced to beg their way back into the MWC (as unlikely as that seemed given ESPN picked up the option for 2019).
Yeah...but I think most knew that was never happening.
I don't think anyone predicted that BYU would not "get another deal". ESPN will sign a deal with just about anyone. If they were to go independent, Kennessaw State could get a deal with ESPN to televise their home football games. The deal would just pay no money, would require that KS pay almost all - maybe all - the production costs, and all the games would be on ESPN+.
So the issue wasn't whether BYU would get a deal, but rather what kind of deal. How much money, for how long, and with what exposure. That's what we need to know, and as of now we have zero information about that.
(06-11-2019 01:56 PM)f1do Wrote: [ -> ] (06-10-2019 06:17 PM)RutgersGuy Wrote: [ -> ]Yeah but you already have that now so it's not really news in any sense of the word.
There were people predicting BYU would not get another deal and would be forced to beg their way back into the MWC (as unlikely as that seemed given ESPN picked up the option for 2019).
I never bought that, but also ESPN says that about every entity they have under contract before negotiations begin. They said the same exact thing about the Big East while they were slicing off portions to sell to the ACC.
Not sure why everyone blames ESPN about the Big East. They were offered a nice contract renewal and the Big East thought it could do better. Ninja Swofford basically started the collapse of the Big East. It only slipped because Wakes basketball coachSkip Prosser was looking at Pitt, and the word was leaked about ACC wanting Miami, Syracuse and BC at the time to go to 12 for a CCG. Thus stopping Prosser from considering Pitt. That is when all the dominoes started to fall.
I could see BYU home games being on Friday nights 9/8c on ESPN2.