Conference / team records, history of negotiations, future realignment, tournament time/venues, football - basketball, TV deal details, other stuff ----

HERE >>>>

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketba...um=twitter

Most interesting two Q&As IMO ->

CBSSports.com: Is this league going to put more emphasis/priority on football than basketball?

MA: I wouldn't say "priority." What I would say is there will be an emphasis on getting better in football. This league needs to be a powerful football conference as well as basketball. I think we have a pretty firm foundation in basketball; we're note going to neglect basketball by any means. But we know the potential for this league is in football. Basketball is interesting. There is a lot of revenue for basketball, but it's in the tournament. Regular season, while important, it doesn't have the importance as in football. We know, though, that football has to be an emphasis for our schools. We know football will drive more revenue down the road, without question, so we do things in football that other conferences won't do. We'll play Thursday and Fridays. We're sensitive to high school football, and SMU and Cincinnati on Friday might not work. But we provide windows that are hard to fill for ESPN. The SEC doesn't play many Thursdays, but we're willing to play a fair number. But is basketball going to take a hit? No way. Eventually an identity will be based on what we do. PR can't replace performance.

CBSSports.com: Can you expound on the details of TV for college basketball and football? You've said 113 basketball games will be part of the ESPN package. Are some/a lot of those games cloaked in going to ESPN3, or will nearly all be on television?

MA: All 113 will be on TV, though some of them can be sublicensed to networks that have, for instance, over 74 million homes. They'll do a deal perhaps with other networks. In football, 58 out of 66 this year and will be more in future years. Only a handful of football of games will be on ESPN3 or regionals.

Is a "digital network" like the CBSCS under C-USA?

(05-31-2013 11:54 AM)Tiger1983 Wrote:  Is a "digital network" like the CBSCS under C-USA?

If it's the last Q/A you're referring to I'd guess he's talking about an on-line network --- otherwise why not just say 'TV' has he did in other answers. But it is confusing, to me at least, since all TV analog switched to TV digital a couple of years back. I mean both CBS (the broadcaster) and CBSCS (the cable) are both digital now as I understand - hence the need for all those converter boxes.

I'm pretty sure when Aresco says "digital network," he is referring to the league creating something like CUSA has with "All Access," only I hope it's a helluva lot more reliable. Not sure what their plans are for it, but I would think mainly non-revenue sports and special features.