the 7mil vs 3mil thing, is fun for bragging rights but in the bigger picture of things we have budgets of 60mil, the difference 3 or 7 wont make or break anyone

the biggest part for them is separating from ESPN...people dont realize the domino effect of being on espn.....
late nights on fs1 ..regular hours on cbssports/fs2 ..the max their games might be rated (not counting boise games which is seprate ) might be 200k, and the majority will be loyalist

it hard to be build program momentum without eyes...being on espn's main channels is what made us ...the demise of the pac 12 started when they went to smaller networks ...

houston vs oregon (@houston/aac controlled) was over 1mill views...houston vs oreogon (@oregon/pac 12 controlled) was on the pac 12 network with almost no one watching it

if your programs are doing good who will see it....fans to create buzz? recruits to fall in love with your program? when your progrma does good, it wont mean as much without many eyes

(12-16-2019 08:09 PM)jedclampett Wrote:  

(12-16-2019 07:35 PM)spenser Wrote:  Expect ESPN to now pitch us a good number to take one of their better teams as number 12. That way ESPN can control their rights, without paying for the lesser teams, and weakening FS1 and CBS.

Air Force or Colorado State, who does ESPN want to take Uconns spot. A full share doubles their pay, but ESPN could really tank FS1 and MWC by taking multiple and having them take a phases in starting at 75% share and 25% going to the AAC.

That would be a rosy scenario, and I hope it's on target, but there's another way to look at it.

MWC institutions could also see less incentive in departing the conference for the AAC with these media income increases, since the gap between the AAC and MWC pay packages will decrease with their new deal.

Another potential concern would be that it's possible that each MWC member has already signed a new broadcasting agreement with CBS and Fox. It would seem unlikely that any MWC school that was a signatory to their new media deal would have done so if they were interested in leaving the MWC.

Negative, the current difference is around $800k per year. If you use the 35M ave for the MWC then you must use 83M for the AAC as contracts are graduated. So,the new contracts will ave. a difference of not quite $3.5M per year. Of course the contract length has not yet been announced so the MWC may escalate faster, but the gap will still be increasing not decreasing.

ETA: Good contract for the MWC. Hats off!

(12-16-2019 07:43 PM)Knightrogen Wrote:  

(12-16-2019 07:35 PM)spenser Wrote:  Expect ESPN to now pitch us a good number to take one of their better teams as number 12. That way ESPN can control their rights, without paying for the lesser teams, and weakening FS1 and CBS.

Air Force or Colorado State, who does ESPN want to take Uconns spot. A full share doubles their pay, but ESPN could really tank FS1 and MWC by taking multiple and having them take a phases in starting at 75% share and 25% going to the AAC.

Is it illegal for ESPN to act that way?

Yes it is... ESPiN Never gets "INVOLVED" in conference realignment maters...

(12-16-2019 08:21 PM)Knightrogen Wrote:  

(12-16-2019 08:09 PM)jedclampett Wrote:  

(12-16-2019 07:35 PM)spenser Wrote:  Expect ESPN to now pitch us a good number to take one of their better teams as number 12. That way ESPN can control their rights, without paying for the lesser teams, and weakening FS1 and CBS.

Air Force or Colorado State, who does ESPN want to take Uconns spot. A full share doubles their pay, but ESPN could really tank FS1 and MWC by taking multiple and having them take a phases in starting at 75% share and 25% going to the AAC.

That would be a rosy scenario, and I hope it's on target, but there's another way to look at it.

MWC institutions could also see less incentive in departing the conference for the AAC with these media income increases, since the gap between the AAC and MWC pay packages will decrease with their new deal.

Another potential concern would be that it's possible that each MWC member has already signed a new broadcasting agreement with CBS and Fox. It would seem unlikely that any MWC school that was a signatory to their new media deal would have done so if they were interested in leaving the MWC.

Yes, but the only reason is timing. Why weren't MWC schools taking interest in AAC? Because they were negotiating their new TV Contract. And they wanted to wait and see the new $$. Now everything is set in stone, they could begin to talk to American. Why not? They can double their pay check and we are in a much better Basketball League also. Let's wait and see...

UConn signed on to the new deal between ESPiN and The AAC and then promptly left the conference before the new contract goes into effect.

So, if any current member of the MW decides it's time for a change, the new media deal will not have an effect in them making that decision.

If Boise got separate deal for 4.8, who is worth 7

Honestly---thats better than I thought they would do and its a bit more than Thompson originally believed they would get. He had said on multiple occasions that they would not get as much as Hawaii was getting from their Oceanic Pay-per-View deal (2.3 million a year).

Its interesting that FOX has now snaked ESPN out of the rights to 13 FBS schools over the last 12 months. They got the rights to UConn last summer when the Big East expanded. Now they took around 15 games of western late night inventory (and all the Boise games) from ESPN. They took the Big East Catholic schools in 2013 and then half of ESPN's Big10 inventory just a few years ago. As far as western inventory---ESPN still has half the Pac12 inventory plus BYU.

So---just a few days ago we learned that ESPN was talking with the AAC about their TV deal now that UConn is gone. The question now is---Does ESPN take this loss of inventory lying down....or might the current AAC talks be about western expansion? The Mouse could then quickly reclaim anywhere from 6 to 18 games of western inventory by financing a 1 to 3 team AAC western grab.

(12-16-2019 08:55 PM)Attackcoog Wrote:  Honestly---thats better than I thought they would do and its a bit more than Thompson originally believed they would get. He had said on multiple occasions that they would not get as much as Hawaii was getting from their Oceanic Pay-per-View deal (2.3 million a year).

Something doesn't add up. The Hawaii threshhold was $2.3M. But they ARE NOT sharing in a deal paying $35M per year to the league????

(12-16-2019 09:03 PM)CougarRed Wrote:  

(12-16-2019 08:55 PM)Attackcoog Wrote:  Honestly---thats better than I thought they would do and its a bit more than Thompson originally believed they would get. He had said on multiple occasions that they would not get as much as Hawaii was getting from their Oceanic Pay-per-View deal (2.3 million a year).

Something doesn't add up. The Hawaii threshhold was $2.3M. But they ARE NOT sharing in a deal paying $35M per year to the league????

Hawaii has their own deal, in essence they are "STATE TEAM", similar to the Green Bay Packers of the NFL being a "CITY" owned team.

Neither BYU or any MWC team will pursue AAC membership until there is an AAC binding agreement in place. Why join AAC if it is perceived that AAC might lose a team or teams to B12? The B12 contract has to play out and renewed without any B12 expansion before the AAC is in a position to attract BYU or a MWC school. My guess is AAC stays at 11 teams for the next six years or so.

(12-16-2019 07:45 PM)spenser Wrote:  

(12-16-2019 07:43 PM)Knightrogen Wrote:  

(12-16-2019 07:35 PM)spenser Wrote:  Expect ESPN to now pitch us a good number to take one of their better teams as number 12. That way ESPN can control their rights, without paying for the lesser teams, and weakening FS1 and CBS.

Air Force or Colorado State, who does ESPN want to take Uconns spot. A full share doubles their pay, but ESPN could really tank FS1 and MWC by taking multiple and having them take a phases in starting at 75% share and 25% going to the AAC.

Is it illegal for ESPN to act that way?

No they have done it multiple times affecting every conference

That's a giant yes.

(12-16-2019 09:12 PM)Out West Wrote:  Neither BYU or any MWC team will pursue AAC membership until there is an AAC binding agreement in place. Why join AAC if it is perceived that AAC might lost a team or teams to B12? The B12 contract has to play out and renewed without any B12 expansion before the AAC is in a position to attract BYU or a MWC school. My guess is AAC stays at 11 teams for the next six years or so.

The AAC has a waiver for only two years and an extension is unlikely. The AAC will probably be forced to add a football team.

(12-16-2019 07:21 PM)CardinalJim Wrote:  The positive is it opens up more time slots on the ESPN networks for ESPN properties.

But many of those time slots are late night, and more valuable to us if we add one or more MWC properties in the Mountain time zone.

2019 MWC ESPN time slots expressed in CST (potentially attractive slots for current 11 in bold)

Friday
8 PM ESPN2
8 PM ESPN2
8:30 PM ESPN2
8:30 PM ESPN2

Saturday
9:15 PM ESPN2
9:15 PM ESPN2
7 PM ESPNU
9:30 PM ESPN2
9 PM ESPN2
9:15 PM ESPN2
9:15 PM ESPNU
6:30 PM ESPNU
9:15 PM ESPN2
9 PM ESPN2
9:30 PM ESPNU
9:15 PM ESPN
3 PM ESPNU
6 PM ESPN2
9:15 PM ESPN2
9:30 ESPN2

I am sure ESPN's first choice would be to get more Pac 12 games (from Fox) to fill these slots.

(12-16-2019 09:10 PM)GoOwls111 Wrote:  

(12-16-2019 09:03 PM)CougarRed Wrote:  

(12-16-2019 08:55 PM)Attackcoog Wrote:  Honestly---thats better than I thought they would do and its a bit more than Thompson originally believed they would get. He had said on multiple occasions that they would not get as much as Hawaii was getting from their Oceanic Pay-per-View deal (2.3 million a year).

Something doesn't add up. The Hawaii threshhold was $2.3M. But they ARE NOT sharing in a deal paying $35M per year to the league????

Hawaii has their own deal, in essence they are "STATE TEAM", similar to the Green Bay Packers of the NFL being a "CITY" owned team.

Read the article. Thompson says "Hawaii will remain outside the agreement unless the other 10 schools start earning more than the $2.3 million a year it receives from Spectrum Sports for exclusive pay-per-view rights on the islands for eight games each season."

Implying that if the league makes more than $2.3M per year, then Hawaii will participate....

(12-16-2019 08:55 PM)Attackcoog Wrote:  Honestly---thats better than I thought they would do and its a bit more than Thompson originally believed they would get. He had said on multiple occasions that they would not get as much as Hawaii was getting from their Oceanic Pay-per-View deal (2.3 million a year).

Its interesting that FOX has now snaked ESPN out of the rights to 13 FBS schools over the last 12 months. They got the rights to UConn last summer when the Big East expanded. Now they took around 15 games of western late night inventory (and all the Boise games) from ESPN. They took the Big East Catholic schools in 2013 and then half of ESPN's Big10 inventory just a few years ago. As far as western inventory---ESPN still has half the Pac12 inventory plus BYU.

So---just a few days ago we learned that ESPN was talking with the AAC about their TV deal now that UConn is gone. The question now is---Does ESPN take this loss of inventory lying down....or might the current AAC talks be about western expansion? The Mouse could then quickly reclaim anywhere from 6 to 18 games of western inventory by financing a 1 to 3 team AAC western grab.

Boise isn't part of this deal and Hawaii gets the extra over what the average deal would be. So its 600k or so to Hawaii, the rest divided by 10 so a little over/under 3m for the non Boise schools. Boise will keep most of its money and kick in some for the league so probably somewhere between 4.5 and 5 for Boise a couple extra 100k to the other schools.

The question here is do the schools retain their third tier rights? For schools like San Diego St, UNLV and maybe New Mexico or CSU that would mean a nice bump for that package to local or regional broadcast as well as kick off time control. SDSU could probably get in to spitting distance of Boise maybe CSU too.

(12-16-2019 09:21 PM)CougarRed Wrote:  

(12-16-2019 09:10 PM)GoOwls111 Wrote:  

(12-16-2019 09:03 PM)CougarRed Wrote:  

(12-16-2019 08:55 PM)Attackcoog Wrote:  Honestly---thats better than I thought they would do and its a bit more than Thompson originally believed they would get. He had said on multiple occasions that they would not get as much as Hawaii was getting from their Oceanic Pay-per-View deal (2.3 million a year).

Something doesn't add up. The Hawaii threshhold was $2.3M. But they ARE NOT sharing in a deal paying $35M per year to the league????

Hawaii has their own deal, in essence they are "STATE TEAM", similar to the Green Bay Packers of the NFL being a "CITY" owned team.

Read the article. Thompson says "Hawaii will remain outside the agreement unless the other 10 schools start earning more than the $2.3 million a year it receives from Spectrum Sports for exclusive pay-per-view rights on the islands for eight games each season."

Implying that if the league makes more than $2.3M per year, then Hawaii will participate....

But Hawaii is only football only, no basketball or other sports. Is that still the case?

(12-16-2019 09:16 PM)Tiger1983 Wrote:  

(12-16-2019 09:12 PM)Out West Wrote:  Neither BYU or any MWC team will pursue AAC membership until there is an AAC binding agreement in place. Why join AAC if it is perceived that AAC might lost a team or teams to B12? The B12 contract has to play out and renewed without any B12 expansion before the AAC is in a position to attract BYU or a MWC school. My guess is AAC stays at 11 teams for the next six years or so.

The AAC has a waiver for only two years and an extension is unlikely. The AAC will probably be forced to add a football team.

Some help please on this! I think it was posted on this board that AAC could play with 11 teams with two divisions, one with 6 teams and one with 5 teams, and still have a conference championship game. Is this correct?

Scheduling problems in this 5/6 divisional setup would probably not be any worse than scheduling probems with no divisions 11 team AAC. The Sun Belt has two divisions of 5 teams as a reference.

If a 5/6 Divisions are done, it would only be for four years. I would rather wait it out than take a lesser school.

I would be willing to give up the Conference Championship game for four years than to take a lesser school. Adding a quality team or teams like BYU just might get P6 for AAC.

ACCN had a lot of games for it's 1st yr.
ESPN will start bringing them back

I think that the mountain boys are spreading misinformation about the AAC deal with ESPN. From what I can determine thus far it looks like the yearly amount of contract is $83 million dollars split by 11 schools ($7.5 million per full members) since UConn left, which is likely to be reduced. After going back to review reported details of the initial reports of the AAC contract with ESPN it looks like the schools are only paying the production costs for the Olympic sports. Unless I am misreading the press release the schools do not cover football costs.:

"...The deal guarantees the conference a sizable increase in exposure across ESPN’s family of linear networks, including more than 1,650 games on some combination of ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPNU. It will also vastly alter the landscape of video production on the campuses of The American’s 12 institutions. with schools taking over production of many of the Olympic events running on ESPN+, the new direct-to-consumer, subscription-based streaming service. As outlined in the deal, that’s live coverage of well more than 11,000 events.

How many events each school will produce will be determined on an annual basis, with the host institution responsible for production. It’s expected that all member schools will be running at full force by the start of the 2020-21 academic year.

“Knowing that we would likely have a large presence on ESPN+ and that we would have certain production requirements, we have been in close touch not only with ESPN but with independent consultants, and we’re working on the necessary infrastructure,” said American Athletic Conference Commissioner Mike Aresco during a media conference call on Wednesday. “All of our schools have bought in to that. They know they are going to have to build up infrastructure and that is something that is ongoing. We’re very confident that we’ll be in good shape there. We’ve got some lead time in this deal... .”

"...This is a similar model to the one ESPN currently has in place with the SEC and ACC (sans the conference–linear-network aspect) but is more like the deal the media giant has with The Ivy League, where ESPN+ serves as the de facto “conference network” for fans. ESPN offers insight from its full-time staff to oversee production build-outs and train conference and athletic-department staff on live event production. The network also offers a sizable graphics-package template so that programming is consistent across all platforms and with the ESPN brand... ."

https://www.sportsvideo.org/2019/03/27/a...n-efforts/

mwc got paid.

I don't have all my numbers at my fingertips - spreadsheet version control problems.

But mwc got 42% of AAC money vs 29.6% of AAC viewers '17-18.
And mwc got 17.5% of B12 money vs 8.4% of B12 viewers '17-'18.

AAC got 42% of B12 money vs 28.3% of B12 viewers '17-'18.

VERY incomplete data suggests that sticking with ESPN instead of getting into a competitive bidding situation left as much as $20M per year total, $1.8M per school per year on the table.

(12-16-2019 07:18 PM)Tiger1983 Wrote:  One does not cross the Mouse and escape unscathed.

Welcome to oblivion....

The Mouse knows what is best for you