"Based on conversations with league officials," Old Dominion's AD Wood Selig anticipates the C-USA's new TV contracts' per-school payout will be $600,000 to $700,000 less that the previous contract's $1 million benefit, according to an article published today in the Virginian-Pilot newspaper. This is less than the half-million-dollar-per-school decline bandied about in January.

Quote:ODU's estimate indicates that C-USA's yearly TV revenue would be about $6 million – a sharp drop from the $14 million in contracts the league signed with Fox Sports and the CBS Sports Network in 2011.

ODU athletic director Wood Selig called the decline "a huge hit," adding, "We've got to work to get the value of Conference USA back up."

ODU's budget, which was finalized at last week's Board of Visitors meeting, included a decline of $1.4 million in revenue over 2015-2016 and a projected deficit of $1.6 million. In response to a Freedom of Information Act request from The Virginian-Pilot, Selig indicated ODU has budgeted for a $600,000 to $700,000 reduction in TV revenues. "That was our best estimate," based on conversations with league officials, he said."

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Sources at two C-USA schools indicated Thursday that ESPN has become a late but serious bidder for the league's TV rights. The nation's dominant sports TV network has proposed televising an unspecified number of Thursday and Friday night football games.

League officials previously said they were negotiating with Fox Sports, the CBS Sports Network and the American Sports Network, whose contracts with C-USA expire at the end of June. Five C-USA games have already been moved to a Thursday or Friday night for TV, a sign that the league likely has a finalized an agreement with at least one TV partner.

ODU agreed to move a game to Friday night in 2014, but because of the large number of night classes on campus, has declined requests to play on Thursday. The big attraction to playing on a weekday is exposure; there is little competition from other TV games.

C-USA associate commissioner Courtney Morrison Archer would not comment on specifics of TV negotiations but said the league hopes to announce new TV contracts by mid-May.

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C-USA's TV revenue has in essence been subsidized by the seven schools that left the league in 2013 and 2014, including including East Carolina, Memphis and Houston. Because of the change in membership, Fox and the CBS Sports Network paid C-USA less than than the full value of their contracts. C-USA used exit fees from seven schools to supplement TV revenues and cushion the blow.

That money is now gone and said Selig, "We're going to find out what our new market value is with TV revenue with our current membership."

Televised college sports revenue is largely sucked up the Power 5 leagues. In the case of the ACC, the league paid enormous sums in TV rights fees to both Virginia Tech ($19.3 million) and Virginia ($15.4 million) in 2014-2015.

The so-called Group of Five mid-major conferences make far less. The American Athletic Conference pays about $2 million per school in TV revenue and the Mountain West about $1.64 million. The Mid-American Conference, which pays about $670,000 per school, could move ahead of Conference USA. The Sun Belt Conference receives about $100,000 per school, although that payout will increase with Idaho and New Mexico State leaving the league in 2017.

Selig said a recently-concluded deal between the Big Ten and Fox that pays the league $250 million per year for half of the league's premium games "tells me there's still a lot of money in TV for the right property."

We gotta get out of this place
If it's the last thing we ever do
We gotta get out of this place
'cause girl, there's a better life for me and you

(04-28-2016 05:51 PM)Orange County Owl Wrote:  We gotta get out of this place
If it's the last thing we ever do
We gotta get out of this place
'cause girl, there's a better life for me and you

cosine

There goes the endowment

(04-28-2016 08:43 PM)Da.Owl Wrote:  There goes the endowment

At a half million per year we might burn through it in less than 11,000 years!

(04-28-2016 08:45 PM)loki_the_bubba Wrote:  

(04-28-2016 08:43 PM)Da.Owl Wrote:  There goes the endowment

At a half million per year we might burn through it in less than 11,000 years!

http://pilotonline.com/sports/college/ol...a97ed.html

Quote:Conference USA’s football and basketball TV profile will kick up a notch in 2016-17, commissioner Judy MacLeod told the Norfolk Sports Club on Monday.

“The TV exposure,” she said, “will be fantastic.”

But the money won’t, and she acknowledged that remains a vexing problem for C-USA and other mid-major leagues.

The Big Ten recently concluded a deal with Fox Sports that will pay out $250 million per year for half of the league’s most appealing content. C-USA, meanwhile, appears likely to earn about $6 million per year through deals set to be signed later this month.

The chasm between the haves and have nots in college athletics, MacLeod acknowledges, “is probably only going to get bigger.”

She said a meltdown in cable TV revenues also is a major concern as young people cut the cord on traditional content providers and move toward streaming entertainment.

“Right now, the television market is horrible,” she said. “ESPN eliminated 300 jobs and Fox Sports is doing away with a lot of its regional staffs.

“The way people consume content is rapidly changing. We have young people who work in our office who don’t have cable or DirecTV. The pool of money that’s there is going to the big guys. The Big Ten and the SEC are must-see TV.”

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