' Wrote:Be careful about taking BYU sources for that.
The ESPN deal you keep talking about is football only, they also have a deal through the WCC for olympic sports that's signed to ESPN.
The football side of the deal is an ala carte deal. BYU is paid on a per home game basis depending on who they are playing (p5) and on what channel that game is broadcast. The total deal could exceed the AAC deal but only if the right games are scheduled and put on the highest level channel (ABC). Otherwise in a general year they will make slightly less or more than the current AAC pay out.
The WCC portion of the deal is considerably less than the AAC olympic pay out.
Neither case, as SLH pointed out, really effect BYU's bottom line enough to be much more that a tiny thumb on the scale. Their home revenue in both basketball and football is the larger chunk of their revenue.
BYU draws well against AAC teams, how chasing a conference championship would effect that is unknown but looking at other teams it usually boosts attendance.
BYU's pride is and has been the issue.
Haven't read through the last few pages here, so forgive me if this was addressed already, but this is not entirely true.
1) Yes, the BYU football deal is essentially *per game*. ESPN contracts at least four BYU home games a year, with an option for more, an option that has been picked up multiple times (including last year). The deal requires that at least three of those four games be aired on ABC, ESPN or ESPN2. BYU has played multiple games on ESPN's flagship every year of the deal, I believe.
2) The current deal, which was just extended to 2026, *does not require multiple ABC games to exceed the AAC deal*. The biggest reason for this is exactly what you mentioned...it matters who you play, and BYU's future schedules control the rights to multiple P5 home games a season.
Lets play out an example. We know exactly what the going rate to broadcast a typical Pac-12 game is in 2022. It's about $6.1 million dollars, since that is what ESPN/Fox pay to broadcast the 45 Tier 1 Pac-12 games, with Big Ten and SEC games worth even more. In 2021, BYU controls the TV rights to three of those games (PLUS an ACC game). Typically, BYU will control home rights to 3 P5 games a year. ESPN isnt paying BYU 6 million for the rights to those games, but the number for P5s in the new deal, I've heard, is closer to 2Mil a game, a huge win for both parties. Then you can see where 9M a season becomes a reasonable number.
You also have to remember that those numbers are going to skyrocket even more. The Pac-12, Big Ten and Big 12 will all go to market and sign new Tier 1 deals well before the AAC goes to market again, and BYU will go to market again in 2025-2026, meaning BYU's future home inventory (Stanford, Utah, Ole Miss, etc)
will get only more valuable.
Add the fact that BYU would likely have to pay fees to get out of future scheduled games to join the AAC (most of these contracts, many i've personally reviewed) have no-penalty clauses for P5 conference membership but not for the AAC), and it's pretty clear...BYU would lose tier1 TV money, especially by 2026/2027, by joining the AAC...UNLESS BYU's membership trigged a massive revision of the existing contract, OR the AAC agreed to unequal revenue sharing.
There are other factors to consider as well...the current WCC arrangement gives byuTV broadcast rights for some Olympic sports and rebroadcast rights for other games that perhaps the AAC wouldn't want to do....and BYU's recruiting footprint isn't anywhere hear the AAC's.
Could BYU potentially be persuaded to join the AAC? Maaaaybe. It would almost certainly require significant concessions that I doubt member schools would want.
FWIW, tracking this stuff is my job.