I don't think so...

Big East:
UConn, Louisville, Memphis, Cincy, Notre Dame, Georgetown, Villanova, Marquette
ACC:
Syracuse, Pitt, Duke, UNC

Big East MUCH deeper. Also- the fact that the Big East tourney runs Tuesday thru Saturday- they get a prime Saturday Night title game slot. ACC competes with all the other leagues for their slots....

(02-08-2012 04:16 PM)10thMountain Wrote:  I think the main thing here is that right now, we have no idea what the final figures will be.

The ACC, NBE, B12 and SEC all have contracts to renegotiate because of realignment. Being the conservative lot they are, I imagine the presidents will sit back and wait to see who really does/does not come out ahead before deciding to make any big moves.

Actually- correction. ACC and SEC have contracts to renegotiate. The big difference between them and Big East/Big 12- those 2 can go out on the open market where the huge increases will happen. Night and day difference there.

(02-08-2012 04:04 PM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  $20 million of the $33 million per year that the Big East gets right now from ESPN is for basketball, so the inflation of just the basketball portion alone should take them over the current $33 million total.

That should be the starting point for anyone who wants to guess at the new Big East contract amount. Break it down into football and basketball components, and assume that we're talking about including all football and men's hoops rights like the ACC's deal with ESPN.

Basketball might have slightly less value than the BE did with WVU/Pitt/Cuse, but there is so much inventory (b/c so many teams) and many good teams remaining, so that $20 million/year for hoops should increase quite a bit. For football alone, it might be more realistic to guess that the new BE football lineup can get, because of massive inflation of all rights fees, a bit more than the $13 million/year that the recent version of BE football with WVU/Pitt/Cuse got. Just as a guess: Quadruple the hoops money and increase football to $20 million/year, and that gets the BE to $100 million/year.

A huge, out-of-control bidding war might increase those numbers even more, but I think Frank is right and we should be skeptical about the possibility of a big-dollar bidding war.

(02-08-2012 04:16 PM)stever20 Wrote:  I don't think so...

Big East:
UConn, Louisville, Memphis, Cincy, Notre Dame, Georgetown, Villanova, Marquette
ACC:
Syracuse, Pitt, Duke, UNC

Big East MUCH deeper. Also- the fact that the Big East tourney runs Tuesday thru Saturday- they get a prime Saturday Night title game slot. ACC competes with all the other leagues for their slots....

NC State and Virginia are on the upswing.

(02-08-2012 04:01 PM)stever20 Wrote:  Well, first off, you still have Big East hoops- which is still in the top 3 conferences in the country. Big East tourney at MSG probably the premier conference tournament in the country. Added Texas to the current Big East. Also, for football- Boise- who is a media darling right now in football. Also- the market for live sports is a LOT smaller now than it was 5-6 years ago. The only other media property open in the next 2 years is the BCS package. For a channel like NBCSC- it's critical they get a major property. And- ESPN I would not count out at all. Big East hoops a large part of their history.

Yes but C-USA literally signed a new deal last year. I don't think from last year at this time to now Houston, SMU, UCF, and Memphis became worth 8 to 10 million a piece. All these markets that are supposed to be so valuable to networks were worth slightly over 1 million dollars to us less than a year ago. Something doesn't exactly pass the smell test on this one.

(02-08-2012 03:45 PM)RobUCF Wrote:  This article seems to contradict itself.

First, he states that the deal won't be worth more that the $1 - $2 million per year per team that Pitt and Syracuse for ACC members. So, the max would be 14 teams x $2 million = $28 million.

Later in the article he states "The Big East-to-West TV carrier(s) may pay a lot more than $35 million, but it/they won’t overpay."

So, it's less than $28 million but may be alot more than $35 million?

Two things. First, the author Dennis Dodd isn't saying that Big East football is going to be worth less than Syracuse and Pitt in the ACC, "One industry analyst who texted [DD]" said that.

Second, you're undercounting the bump. According to SBJ, the existing ACC members should get a $1-2M bump (from $13M). Say $1.5M, times 12 is $18M. Then add Syracuse and Pitt's shares, 2 x $14.5=$29. So SportsBusinessJournal.com is valuing Syracuse and Pitt to the ACC at $18M + $29M = $47M.

ESPN is supposed to be paying BYU $1-2M per home game. Call ESPN's rate for a national cable game $2M per. Looking just at the Big East league games, how many games would ESPN/2/U actually show? Figure 8 Boise State games, and then it's hard to count more than 8 games that merit bumping their weakest SEC or ACC game (all of which they already own) to ESPN3. Go ahead and try it yourself--pretend you're the Big East's salesman and list the high-value games.

The Big East football package could easily come in at $32M plus whatever they can scrape up from selling the games to regional sports networks. Rutgers and UConn will do pretty well there, since there are multiple possible bidders (SNY, MSG, YES, WOR for Rutgers, NESN for UConn) and they are the only college football properties in their markets. The rest, I think, are facing single-bidder markets unless local TV stations get involved. Louisville might be the best of the rest, since they are No. 1 in their market, but that market's not big. USF and Houston will have some value from the size of their markets, but they're overshadowed. Cincinatti, UCF, Memphis and San Diego State are overshadowed AND in small markets. Navy isn't popular enough nationally to merit national cable coverage, and isn't concentrated enough anywhere to pull much local TV money.

So Big East football could easily be worth less than the $47M that SportsBusinessJournal is valuing Syracuse and Pitt to the ACC at.

The industry exec is from ESPN. ESPN is pimping The ACC as they always do. His opinion isn't worth the paper it's written on. Unless of course in comes in a round roll and I can wipe my arse with it....

ESPN is still butt hurt that The Big East refused to take it's low ball offer. In retaliation ESPN instructs The ACC, per Flipper at BC, to invite Syracuse and Pitt. Surprise, surprise (in my best Gomer Pyle from ACC Mayberry, North Carolina voice) all of a sudden Syracuse and Pitt are the most valuable teams in college sports.

ESPN is in for a rude awakening come September 1st. The Big East is going to tell them to go get screwed, wait two months and sign a monster deal with NBC Sports that includes Notre Dame.

Let's see ESPN cover college basketball without mentioning The Big East.
CJ

(02-08-2012 04:22 PM)Its The Talons Wrote:  

(02-08-2012 04:16 PM)stever20 Wrote:  I don't think so...

Big East:
UConn, Louisville, Memphis, Cincy, Notre Dame, Georgetown, Villanova, Marquette
ACC:
Syracuse, Pitt, Duke, UNC

Big East MUCH deeper. Also- the fact that the Big East tourney runs Tuesday thru Saturday- they get a prime Saturday Night title game slot. ACC competes with all the other leagues for their slots....

NC State and Virginia are on the upswing.

I think he's talking more about the strength of the programs. ACC basketball has always been two kings, two rooks (NC State and Maryland), and a bunch of pawns. They've added another king (cuse) and another rook (pitt), but you'd have a hard time convincing anyone that Pitt (your 4th best program) is any better than the 8th-10th best BE program.

The Big East is still the premier basketball conference and will bring the dollars accordingly.

(02-08-2012 04:48 PM)CardinalJim Wrote:  The industry exec is from ESPN. ESPN is pimping The ACC as they always do. His opinion isn't worth the paper it's written on. Unless of course in comes in a round roll and I can wipe my arse with it....

Well, ESPN is going to be the one cutting the checks. So what they say about the numbers on the check might be relevant.

Quote:ESPN is still butt hurt that The Big East refused to take it's low ball offer. In retaliation ESPN instructs The ACC, per Flipper at BC, to invite Syracuse and Pitt.

ESPN's not butthurt anymore. Turns out, bathing in the blood of the Big East football conference is like morphine.

Quote:Surprise, surprise (in my best Gomer Pyle from ACC Mayberry, North Carolina voice) all of a sudden Syracuse and Pitt are the most valuable teams in college sports.

You're worth what the market says you're worth. And since ESPN sets the market....

Quote:ESPN is in for a rude awakening come September 1st. The Big East is going to tell them to go get screwed, wait two months and sign a monster deal with NBC Sports that includes Notre Dame.

Well, NBC already has the rights to Notre Dame football. So why are they going to give the rest of the Big East a cashbath?

Quote:Let's see ESPN cover college basketball without mentioning The Big East.
CJ

They'll cover it. They just won't hype it.

One thing bringing in Memphis does is it reduces the chances of ESPN luring the basketball schools to split off with a $3M per school offer and leaving the rest for NBC or CBS Sports.

(02-08-2012 04:48 PM)CardinalJim Wrote:  The industry exec is from ESPN. ESPN is pimping The ACC as they always do. His opinion isn't worth the paper it's written on. Unless of course in comes in a round roll and I can wipe my arse with it....

ESPN is still butt hurt that The Big East refused to take it's low ball offer. In retaliation ESPN instructs The ACC, per Flipper at BC, to invite Syracuse and Pitt. Surprise, surprise (in my best Gomer Pyle from ACC Mayberry, North Carolina voice) all of a sudden Syracuse and Pitt are the most valuable teams in college sports.

ESPN is in for a rude awakening come September 1st. The Big East is going to tell them to go get screwed, wait two months and sign a monster deal with NBC Sports that includes Notre Dame.

Let's see ESPN cover college basketball without mentioning The Big East.
CJ

Yeah right - so it's Notre Dame and the 11 leprechauns who all this time have been hiding their pots of gold from their Conference USA mates.

(02-08-2012 04:47 PM)johnbragg Wrote:  ESPN is supposed to be paying BYU $1-2M per home game.

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/sports/5262...s.html.csp

Quote:the Cougars are estimated to receive between $800,000 and $1.2 million per home game televised by ABC or ESPN.

Presumably BYU gets a lot less money for playing New Mexico State on ESPNU than they do for playing TCU on ESPN.

Whatever the number, 8 Boise State games sounds about right, as does your comment about ESPN not having room to add more college football on ESPN/ESPN2. They'd probably squeeze in a fair number of football games as an accommodation if they keep the basketball rights, though.

NBC Sports wants back into college sports in a bad way. They already have a relationship with Notre Dame. The idea that NBC has floated to The Big East is a pairing of Big East with Notre Dame in Double and Triple headers on NBC and the new sports channel. It would mean a typical Saturday would be a Noon Big East game followed by a 3PM Notre Dame game while wrapping the day up with a 7PM Big East game. Seems like a workable plan. I would expect that The Big East will happily accept this just to get away from ESPN.
CJ

Big East now has better markets than before, basketball is solid, better football than before, & a football championship game coming...No reason why the Big East can't get good money....If they don't want to pay then we should form the Big East Network with NBC as a partner.

(02-08-2012 05:15 PM)CardinalJim Wrote:  NBC Sports wants back into college sports in a bad way. They already have a relationship with Notre Dame. The idea that NBC has floated to The Big East is a pairing of Big East with Notre Dame in Double and Triple headers on NBC and the new sports channel. It would mean a typical Saturday would be a Noon Big East game followed by a 3PM Notre Dame game while wrapping the day up with a 7PM Big East game. Seems like a workable plan. I would expect that The Big East will happily accept this just to get away from ESPN.
CJ

I'm sure that NBC has sketched out a schedule along those lines. However, the question is how much they're going to pay for Big East football. And the answer is going to be, "Not a whole lot more than ESPN would offer." Maybe $100M a year for the whole Big East package, football, basketball and whatever non-revenue sports NBC decides to show. Oh, and NBC is going to want to take over CBS' Big East games as part of that package, too.

The key paragraph in that article is that

Houston
Boise
UConn
Rutgers

are the top 4 TV properties in the new leauge.

(02-08-2012 05:23 PM)johnbragg Wrote:  

(02-08-2012 05:15 PM)CardinalJim Wrote:  NBC Sports wants back into college sports in a bad way. They already have a relationship with Notre Dame. The idea that NBC has floated to The Big East is a pairing of Big East with Notre Dame in Double and Triple headers on NBC and the new sports channel. It would mean a typical Saturday would be a Noon Big East game followed by a 3PM Notre Dame game while wrapping the day up with a 7PM Big East game. Seems like a workable plan. I would expect that The Big East will happily accept this just to get away from ESPN.
CJ

I'm sure that NBC has sketched out a schedule along those lines. However, the question is how much they're going to pay for Big East football. And the answer is going to be, "Not a whole lot more than ESPN would offer." Maybe $100M a year for the whole Big East package, football, basketball and whatever non-revenue sports NBC decides to show. Oh, and NBC is going to want to take over CBS' Big East games as part of that package, too.

I don't care if it is for less. As long as The Big East tells ESPN to go get phucked I'll be happy.
CJ

(02-08-2012 03:45 PM)RobUCF Wrote:  This article seems to contradict itself.

First, he states that the deal won't be worth more that the $1 - $2 million per year per team that Pitt and Syracuse for ACC members. So, the max would be 14 teams x $2 million = $28 million.

Later in the article he states "The Big East-to-West TV carrier(s) may pay a lot more than $35 million, but it/they won’t overpay."

So, it's less than $28 million but may be alot more than $35 million?

If Pitt and Syracuse each get $14 million =$28M plus the additional $2M for each of the other 12 schools=$24M for a total of $52M.
$52M is a lot more than $35M.

Gee, I guess I've been right all along

What were the specifics of the deal the BE turned down from ESPN? Number of years and total dollars. Thanks.

(02-09-2012 08:50 AM)b0ndsj0ns Wrote:  What were the specifics of the deal the BE turned down from ESPN? Number of years and total dollars. Thanks.

SportsBusinessJournalDaily.com said during the talks:
"Sources indicate the early numbers range from $110 million to $130 million annually, but conference sources describe those figures as a starting point for any negotiation." http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journ...-East.aspx

Gary Parrish of CBSSPorts.com in October said:
http://www.cbssports.com/story/15715357/...-thinks-so"
"...because there's been speculation for months that the Big East sealed its fate last May when it rejected a nine-year, $1.4 billion television contract from ESPN." That would be $155M a year.