College football conference pay rising; MAC to share in $75 million pot

Financial windfall for conferences will far outstrip the old BCS

USA TODAY Sports

The Mid-American Conference will share $75 million in the plan with four other conferences.

HOOVER, ALA. — According to official estimates, the Power Five conferences will almost double their financial haul in the College Football Playoff’s first season as compared to the final year of the Bowl Championship Series, with each league drawing a baseline amount of approximately $50 million in the first year of a 12-year contract.

The other five FBS-level leagues will split $75 million — but that’s more than five times greater than their combined payday in 2013.

“It’s good for everybody,” Bill Hancock, the College Football Playoff’s executive director, told USA TODAY Sports. “There’s more money for everybody.”

The total TV revenue from ESPN hasn’t been disclosed, and Hancock declined comment, but USA TODAY Sports previously reported it will average at least $470 million annually over the life of the contract. Ticket and merchandising sales and sponsorship deals could add $40 million-50 million annually.

Hancock provided USA TODAY Sports with estimates of the revenue distribution for the 2014 season.

In the final year of the BCS, the baseline distribution to the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, SEC and American was $27.897 million. Conference USA, the Mid-American, Mountain West and Sun Belt split $13.168 million. In 2014-15, the base share for the Power Five is $50 million. The so-called Group of Five (including the American) will divide $75 million.

Other revenues include:

• As part of the base payout, each conference will receive $300,000 for each school that meets the NCAA’s required APR for participation in a bowl game. (For example, if 10 teams met the requirement, a conference would receive $3 million.)

• Conferences will receive $4 million for every team selected for a non-playoff bowl (in 2014, the Cotton, Fiesta and Peach bowls).

Revenue from the playoff does not include individual contracts conferences have with the bowls.

Dukeman, it is not how far we are falling it is how far we have fallen.

Interesting that increased revenue numbers come out approximately 2 months after we make our decision to not participate in big boy tackle football. Surely, Carr would have told us that there was 5 times more money involved than orginally thought. Certainly, Alger, JB and King were plugged in (not). In the short to medium term, these conferences are not going to be interested in adding additional teams. Doing so would be dilutive to existing conference members. We all need to accept and get used to JMU remaining FCS because that's where we are going to be for awhile.

(07-21-2014 07:48 AM)Dukeman Wrote:  College football conference pay rising; MAC to share in $75 million pot

Financial windfall for conferences will far outstrip the old BCS

USA TODAY Sports

The Mid-American Conference will share $75 million in the plan with four other conferences.

HOOVER, ALA. — According to official estimates, the Power Five conferences will almost double their financial haul in the College Football Playoff’s first season as compared to the final year of the Bowl Championship Series, with each league drawing a baseline amount of approximately $50 million in the first year of a 12-year contract.

The other five FBS-level leagues will split $75 million — but that’s more than five times greater than their combined payday in 2013.

“It’s good for everybody,” Bill Hancock, the College Football Playoff’s executive director, told USA TODAY Sports. “There’s more money for everybody.”

The total TV revenue from ESPN hasn’t been disclosed, and Hancock declined comment, but USA TODAY Sports previously reported it will average at least $470 million annually over the life of the contract. Ticket and merchandising sales and sponsorship deals could add $40 million-50 million annually.

Hancock provided USA TODAY Sports with estimates of the revenue distribution for the 2014 season.

In the final year of the BCS, the baseline distribution to the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, SEC and American was $27.897 million. Conference USA, the Mid-American, Mountain West and Sun Belt split $13.168 million. In 2014-15, the base share for the Power Five is $50 million. The so-called Group of Five (including the American) will divide $75 million.

Other revenues include:

• As part of the base payout, each conference will receive $300,000 for each school that meets the NCAA’s required APR for participation in a bowl game. (For example, if 10 teams met the requirement, a conference would receive $3 million.)

• Conferences will receive $4 million for every team selected for a non-playoff bowl (in 2014, the Cotton, Fiesta and Peach bowls).

Revenue from the playoff does not include individual contracts conferences have with the bowls.

So, back to the financial argument of why the Sun Belt will not work.

Is Splitting $ 15 Mill ( or more ) with the conference, along with $ 1 -$2 Mill more Just for JMU from FBS OOC payout games not enough to cover some additional flight and hotel expenses for our other sports ???

These are only the Direct revenue sources, and I've not included the Millions that will come from increased alumni giving to athletics and the Foundation, ticketing, corporate sponsorships, apparel and other misc. sales associated with FBS football.

I don't have a Masters in accounting, but seems the financial argument against it is NOT there.

We had an opportunity to get on the FBS train and we told them we were not interested. As the windfall from the FBS Playoff increases, entry will only get more difficult as FBS conferences protect their revenue.

Is it too Late for JMU ??

Certainly, I would hope our President, COO/CFO, and AD are back on the phone asking for a second chance....

Guys - here's the contact information if you need it :

Karl Benson
Commissioner
504-556-0888
benson@sunbeltsports.org

Yeah with my crude math, I see another 3M of revenue in JMU's pocket compared to being in Fcs. This is the conference payout and increased ooc pay days.
I just don't see how 3M isn't enough to cover additional plane flights. I guess they feel like not shipping the tennis team to Arlington TX is worth more than those millions of dollars.

Yup- let's get on the f'ing bus already! We might get asked to move closer to the front but not if we are still refusing to get on if we have to sit in the back. What a wasted year! No balls and no accountability with this admin and pres

Part of the additional revenue is going to go into stipends and additional benefits once autonomy passes. Still, it seems that the best play is to get into FBS if you can because they extra revenue is far more than needed to provide the benefits. More importantly, if you are in an FCS or non-football conference that elects not to provide stipends it will make it next to impossible to compete for recruits in many sports.

If ODU and App. St. offer basketball, baseball, track , etc. stipends and benefits and the CAA elects not to do so then how do you convince a kid to tunr down the money?

Even with additional money on the table the sun belt will always be a nonstarter. In addition to most of the schools being inferior academic institutions the travel results in athletes missing too much class time. I have a good friend who coached basketball at Western Kentucky back when it was in the sun belt. He said the kids were always exhausted and struggling with school work. The problem was that for a lot of games they could not get a flight back at night after the game. In order to get a cheap flight they would fly out the next morning at 7AM which meant leaving a hotel well before 5AM. this is all after playing the night before where everyone would be too wound up to go to sleep until well after midnight. This would not be an issue for football but for soccer, baseball and basketball it would be brutal. Hopefully academics plays a part in any decision.

(07-21-2014 01:49 PM)Bogey Wrote:  Even with additional money on the table the sun belt will always be a nonstarter. In addition to most of the schools being inferior academic institutions the travel results in athletes missing too much class time. I have a good friend who coached basketball at Western Kentucky back when it was in the sun belt. He said the kids were always exhausted and struggling with school work. The problem was that for a lot of games they could not get a flight back at night after the game. In order to get a cheap flight they would fly out the next morning at 7AM which meant leaving a hotel well before 5AM. this is all after playing the night before where everyone would be too wound up to go to sleep until well after midnight. This would not be an issue for football but for soccer, baseball and basketball it would be brutal. Hopefully academics plays a part in any decision.

My friend who coaches for a different SB school tells a different story. The student athletes do just fine.

That sounds like a copout.

If we want FBS, then the travel/academic arguments are a non-starter. There is no regional east coast FBS league outside the ACC.

You can't have it both ways. If JMU trots out the travel/academic argument, they just need to come out and say that JMU is fully committed to FCS/CAA.

(07-21-2014 01:49 PM)Bogey Wrote:  Even with additional money on the table the sun belt will always be a nonstarter. In addition to most of the schools being inferior academic institutions the travel results in athletes missing too much class time. I have a good friend who coached basketball at Western Kentucky back when it was in the sun belt. He said the kids were always exhausted and struggling with school work. The problem was that for a lot of games they could not get a flight back at night after the game. In order to get a cheap flight they would fly out the next morning at 7AM which meant leaving a hotel well before 5AM. this is all after playing the night before where everyone would be too wound up to go to sleep until well after midnight. This would not be an issue for football but for soccer, baseball and basketball it would be brutal. Hopefully academics plays a part in any decision.

Most athletes at the college level spent the better part of 6 + years in middle / high school traveling god-forsaken distances every weekend and into Monday's for "travel" tournaments ( in a car with mom or dad).This is specific to all the sports you mention - Soccer / Baseball / basketball - might as well throw in softball as well. many travel teams practice late at night during school weeks. These athletes have a more flexible schedule and academic advising assistance in college.
If they haven't learned to manage their time in high school, its not going to happen in college .
Sun Belt Travel can be manageable , and quite honestly, would be easier on them than the path they had to take to get to into college on an athletic scholarship.

Don't be off-put by the responses you received from your reasonable post Bogey, they were predictable and from the same group of rabid JMU fans who think varsity college athletes (and their institutions) should dismiss any and all academic concerns over conference affiliation and travel time away from campus. Those rapid fans are wrong of course, but you'll never convince them otherwise.

(07-21-2014 01:49 PM)Bogey Wrote:  Even with additional money on the table the sun belt will always be a nonstarter. In addition to most of the schools being inferior academic institutions the travel results in athletes missing too much class time. I have a good friend who coached basketball at Western Kentucky back when it was in the sun belt. He said the kids were always exhausted and struggling with school work. The problem was that for a lot of games they could not get a flight back at night after the game. In order to get a cheap flight they would fly out the next morning at 7AM which meant leaving a hotel well before 5AM. this is all after playing the night before where everyone would be too wound up to go to sleep until well after midnight. This would not be an issue for football but for soccer, baseball and basketball it would be brutal. Hopefully academics plays a part in any decision.

Bogey - in bold above, you just described the daily/weekly grind of everybody on this board that does not work for JMU and earns more than $100K (not what is used to be) a year.

The admin is full of incompetence and they will lie everyday and twice on Sunday about conference affiliation, for example, "no invite." Poor ol' Jeff & John must have been forced by the Sunbelt commissioner to take a late flight during conference negotiations and they missed their wake up calls and you and I get to pay for it...JB is a squatter, does not care, Alger will be gone in a number of years...we are lifetime CAA squatters laughed at by state peers ODU, GMU and VCU.

No admin accountability at JMU.

(07-21-2014 02:55 PM)Longhorn Wrote:  Don't be off-put by the responses you received from your reasonable post Bogey, they were predictable and from the same group of rabid JMU fans who think varsity college athletes (and their institutions) should dismiss any and all academic concerns over conference affiliation and travel time away from campus. Those rapid fans are wrong of course, but you'll never convince them otherwise.

Body - you're a Duke, I got your back...Don't be fooled, the same people that are making travel and academic excuses for the admin are the very same posters that said "read between the lines" years ago when us rabid misguided fans wanted to know why JMU had not commissioned a FBS feasibility study around the time as Appy....their religion seems to change monthly.

(07-21-2014 01:49 PM)Bogey Wrote:  Even with additional money on the table the sun belt will always be a nonstarter. In addition to most of the schools being inferior academic institutions the travel results in athletes missing too much class time. I have a good friend who coached basketball at Western Kentucky back when it was in the sun belt. He said the kids were always exhausted and struggling with school work. The problem was that for a lot of games they could not get a flight back at night after the game. In order to get a cheap flight they would fly out the next morning at 7AM which meant leaving a hotel well before 5AM. this is all after playing the night before where everyone would be too wound up to go to sleep until well after midnight. This would not be an issue for football but for soccer, baseball and basketball it would be brutal. Hopefully academics plays a part in any decision.

Everything you just talked about would apply to any FBS conference for JMU except the ACC and maybe the AAC. So, you think we should give the ACC a call?

I fly almost every single week and my wife is a flight attendant, the last flight coming into all airports is around midnight (except for some very rare flights). They don't start arriving again until around 5:30am. This is mainly due to noise ordinances and people don't care to be arriving at their final destination at 3:00am. The airlines simply do not sell tickets that allow this to happen. I've stated it in terms of arrivals rather than departures for an understanding of why departures are timed the way they are.

A 7:00pm MBB game is not going to be over until 9:30. It is a very rare venue where we could start that game and be home that night flying commercial. Especially since we would almost always have a connecting flight unless Ronald Reagan National Airport were to be our norm. If we fly from anywhere else, Charlottesville, Dulles, Richmond, Roanoke, SHD (LOL), there will be connections, which makes it even less likely to catch a flight the night of a game.

You do not have this issue with charter flights. As they can, and they do, land at all times of the night. But I don't believe we charter too many for the smaller teams i.e. MBB. Its just not economical. Those students just learn to deal with it.

It is a little easier on teams who have campuses near a HUB airport i.e. Charlotte, Philadelphia, DC, or NY. They don't have to worry about connections so much. Or teams which have their competition close enough to bus. But the MAC, CUSA, and the SB will have almost identical flight issues for the Olympic sports at JMU. The MAC and CUSA are marginally better, but certainly not overwhelmingly.

Once again, almost all of the different sports have between 1/4 and 1/3 of the games played against OOC opponents and these OOC games should generally be bus trips.

If we want to ask the girls softball team how they felt after that long road trip last year, go ahead. You'll have a hard time finding a player who wishes they hadn't done it. Though, the MBB team also made some long OOC trips this year, we sucked, so they will probably say they wish they'd stayed closer to home. Winning has more to do with their attitude than the travel, IMHO.

(07-21-2014 05:43 PM)BleedingPurple Wrote:  

(07-21-2014 01:49 PM)Bogey Wrote:  Even with additional money on the table the sun belt will always be a nonstarter. In addition to most of the schools being inferior academic institutions the travel results in athletes missing too much class time. I have a good friend who coached basketball at Western Kentucky back when it was in the sun belt. He said the kids were always exhausted and struggling with school work. The problem was that for a lot of games they could not get a flight back at night after the game. In order to get a cheap flight they would fly out the next morning at 7AM which meant leaving a hotel well before 5AM. this is all after playing the night before where everyone would be too wound up to go to sleep until well after midnight. This would not be an issue for football but for soccer, baseball and basketball it would be brutal. Hopefully academics plays a part in any decision.

Everything you just talked about would apply to any FBS conference for JMU except the ACC and maybe the AAC. So, you think we should give the ACC a call?

I fly almost every single week and my wife is a flight attendant, the last flight coming into all airports is around midnight (except for some very rare flights). They don't start arriving again until around 5:30am. This is mainly due to noise ordinances and people don't care to be arriving at their final destination at 3:00am. The airlines simply do not sell tickets that allow this to happen. I've stated it in terms of arrivals rather than departures for an understanding of why departures are timed the way they are.

A 7:00pm MBB game is not going to be over until 9:30. It is a very rare venue where we could start that game and be home that night flying commercial. Especially since we would almost always have a connecting flight unless Ronald Reagan National Airport were to be our norm. If we fly from anywhere else, Charlottesville, Dulles, Richmond, Roanoke, SHD (LOL), there will be connections, which makes it even less likely to catch a flight the night of a game.

You do not have this issue with charter flights. As they can, and they do, land at all times of the night. But I don't believe we charter too many for the smaller teams i.e. MBB. Its just not economical. Those students just learn to deal with it.

It is a little easier on teams who have campuses near a HUB airport i.e. Charlotte, Philadelphia, DC, or NY. They don't have to worry about connections so much. Or teams which have their competition close enough to bus. But the MAC, CUSA, and the SB will have almost identical flight issues for the Olympic sports at JMU. The MAC and CUSA are marginally better, but certainly not overwhelmingly.

Once again, almost all of the different sports have between 1/4 and 1/3 of the games played against OOC opponents and these OOC games should generally be bus trips.

If we want to ask the girls softball team how they felt after that long road trip last year, go ahead. You'll have a hard time finding a player who wishes they hadn't done it. Though, the MBB team also made some long OOC trips this year, we sucked, so they will probably say they wish they'd stayed closer to home. Winning has more to do with their attitude than the travel, IMHO.

Well put.

(07-21-2014 03:49 PM)Purplehazed Wrote:  

(07-21-2014 02:55 PM)Longhorn Wrote:  Don't be off-put by the responses you received from your reasonable post Bogey, they were predictable and from the same group of rabid JMU fans who think varsity college athletes (and their institutions) should dismiss any and all academic concerns over conference affiliation and travel time away from campus. Those rapid fans are wrong of course, but you'll never convince them otherwise.

Body - you're a Duke, I got your back...Don't be fooled, the same people that are making travel and academic excuses for the admin are the very same posters that said "read between the lines" years ago when us rabid misguided fans wanted to know why JMU had not commissioned a FBS feasibility study around the time as Appy....their religion seems to change monthly.

You're just insufferable. You don't have anybody's back, excepting your own. Your hyperbolic, hypercritical aspersions denigrating your alma mater begs the question, why the Hell do you even post on this board? It's simply amazing that JMU, an incompetently run university in your opinion, should have graduated such a paragon of rational, reasoned thought such as yourself.

I understand the frustration of not being in FBS right now and I get it that the SunBelt is a path. It's not the right path if you think about what our vision should be. We should be focused on cranking out the best manager, lawyer, nurse, engineer, musician, scientist, teacher, speech therapist, etc. It's more important to me to help the current students be the best employees and future leader than whether we get to FBS now by way of the SunBelt or if we are a little more patient and we land in the MAC or CUSA with a peer from the CAA. We are an academic institution first and foremost. Sports should never dictate the vision of a university.

Sports compliments the mission and can be instrumental in a number ways to expediting the vision. Sports is important because of the engagement and linkage it brings to the university. Current students and alums from all backgrounds rally in one place (football and basketball) to support the school together. Sports is important in the relationship building cycle and sports can lead to more giving of time, talent and money in other parts of the university. If JMU gets a donor to give to sports there is a good chance to grow that donor into giving to academics. Sports gives the passion platform and good development people can parlay that passion into helping more students with more programs. When we focus more on relationship building to develop a better graduate we will be on the right road to being a great university.

The SunBelt does not seem to be viable at this time for JMU if we care (which we do) about developing the best graduate. It's easy to say that many of us have brutal travel schedules and we function well with little sleep and therefore the 18-22 year old young adults should be able to suck it up and play sports and excel in class. I thought I was very organized and driven from 1981-1984 when I was a student at JMU. I graduated early from JMU by taking classes during the Summer. It seemed like a great idea 30 years ago but looking back, maybe I should have stayed 1 more semester. I worked 30-40 hours a week at McDonalds and Dukes Grill while taking 18 credit hours. I thought I was extremely busy back then. I viewed my life through very young eyes. I work much harder and longer now and that has happened through years of seasoning and maturity. Our young men and women student athletes need the best option to function as students. The SunBelt does not provide the best option for our students.

Additionally, our reputation will take a hit if we are in the SunBelt. The CAA has a much better academic reputation than the SunBelt. The MAC and CUSA have better academic reputations. It is important to be aligned with sister institutions for faculty and student engagement. The MAC gives us the best academic and athletic base.

Don't get me wrong. I was hoping to be in a transition year by now in CUSA or the MAC. I'm disappointed to still be playing in the CAA in 2014. I'm confident that we are positioning ourselves for a FBS move based on public statements being made by the leadership and by the fact that we hired an FBS coach. We did not hire a coach to keep us in FCS. Just follow Coach Withers on Twitter and see what he's tweeting. Everything points to FBS.

The academic excuse is just that. 200 athletes who typically graduate at a higher rate than the general student population are not going to hurt your academic reputation. Some of the athletes who travel the most have the highest APR scores. Every FBS conference faces a lot of travel for the sports outside of football. West Virginia sends their athletes to Oklahoma and Texas to compete. Athletics are essentially a marketing tool for most universities. That is why schools are willing to send their athletes from Boise to the east coast to further their potential exposure.

I don't care if it is the MAC, CUSA or the SBC but if you don't get on the boat soon the opportunity may be gone for a long time. With the new rules coming soon, a delay could really hurt your sports outside of football.

HH&C, I respect you because you don't attack people. You simply tell it the way you see it, that's a great ability you have to stay emotionally under control. However, I really wish we could get away from the overtones that the MAC and CUSA are going to be any easier for our kids with regards to travel. There is so little difference in the time away from Harrisonburg for any conference we could possibly end up in, that it shouldn't be a part of the equation. There is simply no way to take a time account and predict any discernible difference.

As for the academic issue, that's been discussed to death. I can see that the Sunbelt has a lower academic reputation than we might accept, but that is mainly in reputation from the past and not where they are today. There have been upgrades. I don't believe, that in three years (the time it would take for us to become totally integrated into a FBS conference), that any HS student looking for the best place to study will think the SB is any less than CUSA, nor will the academic reputation that a graduating senior at JMU might have, is lessened due to his degree being from a SB school versus the MAC or CUSA. I specifically used CUSA with regards to the high school student, and not the MAC, because I do not think we will ever receive a significant number of applications from "Rust Belt" high school students.

Furthermore, I will now be totally, yet pleasantly shocked, if the Mac or CUSA come calling during the next five years. I do not believe we can think about waiting that long. Prior to Appy and GA Southern entering the SB, I had no use for it. It was not a fit at all. At the time ODU entered the CUSA, I just knew we were next and believe that we could have gotten an invite over ODU and Charlotte had we really pursued it. At best, it would have been a toss up between the three of us for two slots, but we didn't even care to put on a "Dog and Pony" show. I place that on Rose.

If you can lay out two or three possible ways for me to have any hope of a call from the MAC or CUSA, then I can climb on board your train. Until then, I will go with the best chance we have, the SB. Even after we snubbed our nose a few months ago, I believe we still have that door closer to being opened than anywhere.