C-USA's craptastic television deal is due to two factors. The conference was the first to renegotiate their TV rights after the last wave of conference realignment, and was a test case for just how hard a G5 conference could be screwed down. G5 schools negotiating after that had a better idea of what might happen and positioned themselves to avoid it as far as possible. Also our last two conference commissioners have been weak. Britton Banowsky was pretty spineless, although UAB owes him a debt for making our return to football in the conference much less painful than it might have been. The current commisioner, Judy MacLeod, is an outright disaster.

ESPN is such a power broker that turning away from them has many hidden costs, such as help in scheduling quality OOC games in basketball. As an outsider, I have seen a lot of snickering at the MAC's off night scheduling in football, but, yes, you're on ESPN and we're on three different TV providers, and their commentators are generally trash and some fans don't have access to one or another of them. That is supposed to be fixed in upcoming seasons, but I'm cynical about that. I'll believe that when I see it.

ESPN signed these deals when they were peaking. Now ESPN ratings are dropping and Streaming will be the wave of future for Smaller conferences. When the Contract is over, we will probably have very few games on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU. The MAC will need to create their own media outlet.

Wouldn't surprise me if the MAC even takes a haircut next time. It's going to be interesting but as long as ESPN has all these channels (ESPN/2/U) they'll need filler which some combination of MAC/CUSA/Fun Belt/MWC will be happy to oblige. The need for filler is the reason why this Boca Bowl and the other ESPN-owned bowls exist in the first place, to the point where "Bowl Week" has become Bowl Month. Almost all the pre-December 30 bowls are owned by ESPN. It's a made for TV world but hey, it beats seeing your 10 win team get snubbed.

I think one more money game would more than recover the money from ESPN. The only question is the exposure - and any hidden impacts as mentioned. It doesn't appear that the exposure has resulted in better recruiting rankings vs. the other conferences, or better results in OOC games.

(12-04-2018 11:33 AM)NIU007 Wrote:  I think one more money game would more than recover the money from ESPN. The only question is the exposure - and any hidden impacts as mentioned. It doesn't appear that the exposure has resulted in better recruiting rankings vs. the other conferences, or better results in OOC games.

Exposure comes when we beat or are very competitive with the money games.

Funny. Somewhere in one of these threads I said that UAB didn't have that stud defensive player, that it was pure team defense.

Take a look at this and the NCAA defensive team stats. SMH.

https://twitter.com/ConferenceUSA/status...9659606016

(12-04-2018 03:37 PM)UAB Band Dad Wrote:  Funny. Somewhere in one of these threads I said that UAB didn't have that stud defensive player, that it was pure team defense.

Take a look at this and the NCAA defensive team stats. SMH.

https://twitter.com/ConferenceUSA/status...9659606016

I think some of these players got there because their names are awesome.
- Oshane Ximines
- EJ Ejiya
- Sage Lewis

We have a disruptive nose guard named Anthony Rush, appropriately named as your QB will soon attest.

Xavier Ubosi, WR, is our big play threat, averages 22 yards per reception.

UAB’s offense looks every bit as ****** as ours. Might be the first game in two years where NIU has the better QB playing.

(12-05-2018 05:46 PM)UAB Band Dad Wrote:  We have a disruptive nose guard named Anthony Rush, appropriately named as your QB will soon attest.

Xavier Ubosi, WR, is our big play threat, averages 22 yards per reception.

I think UAB has a really cool mascot and logo. It reminds me of the Barcelona Dragons of NFLEurope.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barcelona_Dragons

(12-12-2018 04:06 PM)Huskie_Jon Wrote:  

(12-05-2018 05:46 PM)UAB Band Dad Wrote:  We have a disruptive nose guard named Anthony Rush, appropriately named as your QB will soon attest.

Xavier Ubosi, WR, is our big play threat, averages 22 yards per reception.

I think UAB has a really cool mascot and logo. It reminds me of the Barcelona Dragons of NFLEurope.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barcelona_Dragons

Yeah, I like that its unique too.

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