(01-10-2020 09:20 AM)goodknightfl Wrote:  For it to work for ESPN, and AAC teams they will have to pay a premium for any MWC adds, maybe bumping up average to 8 mil per school. AAC would have more travel cost, and the MWC schools would need enough extra to be worth their jump.
I doubt that 1 school works, likely would need 3. AF, Col State, and one more, makes the most sense. With Memphis and Tulane moving east.

At that point it starts looking less cost effective for ESPN. Adding 3 teams to the AAC at 8 million a team is 24 million. Adding the 1 million to each existing AAC team (to get them all to 8 million each) would cost another 11 million. Total cost there is 35 million (minus the 7 million they originally planned to pay UConn---so its really 28 million). They could have simply purchased the MW first or second tier rights for less than that price.

What might be better would be for ESPN to pay for one new team---AF or Colorado St (7 million---which they were already planning to pay to UConn) and then pay a 500K late night bonus for a package of games that kick at 9-10pm ET. Your central time AAC schools and Colorado St would likely voluntarily provide 10 or so late night games to largely alleviate the late night inventory shortage caused by losing the MW. Total cost of something like this plan would be a total of only 12 million----and if you consider the 7 million they were already paying UConn---the net cost falls to just 5 million. That said, you have a good point about the pay out. Its very possible the MW contract got close enough to the AAC deal that the AAC payout premium is simply no longer large enough to motivate a AF/CSU type school to jump conferences.