JRsec
Super Moderator
Posts: 38,352
Joined: Mar 2012
Reputation: 8043
I Root For: SEC
Location:
|
RE: What if the SEC and the Big 12 combined media rights?
(06-26-2019 12:17 PM)Win5002 Wrote: (06-25-2019 11:52 PM)JRsec Wrote: (06-25-2019 11:10 PM)AllTideUp Wrote: (06-25-2019 04:29 PM)JRsec Wrote: (06-25-2019 04:02 PM)AllTideUp Wrote: There's been scuttlebutt about the idea of the Big 12 and the PAC 12 combining their media rights to form a more advantageous deal. Seems plausible enough and it would be interesting, but I have to believe if there's a serious potentiality here that the SEC or the Big Ten would respond in some fashion.
So with that in mind, let me throw this out there...
What if the SEC proposed a combined media rights deal with the Big 12?
The two leagues already partner on other matters and this sort of deal strikes me as both profitable and safe.
I'd like to hone in on that last part. College administrators are notorious for being slow to change and risk averse. Well, expansion is anything but safe. It involves risk and it certainly involves change. Especially if we're dealing with the prospect of adding schools like Texas and Oklahoma, the change might well be significant and the risks grow as opposed to all the more recent additions we've made.
But safety has a price tag, right? If you can make a lot more money with minimal change then there's a good chance that's the avenue you take. If status quo brings static rewards then maybe you're more willing to go outside your comfort zone.
So anyway, the SEC's Tier 1 deal will expire with CBS in 2024. The entirety of Big 12 rights will expire with their GOR in 2025. It's a convenient time to make a splash.
Let me offer examples of the sort of structure you might see or what might be required if this sort of deal every were to occur.
1. I think we'd need to re-establish lost rivalries on an annual or virtually annual basis. The Texas and Texas A&M game needs to come back. The Kansas and Missouri game needs to come back. There are other match-ups like Arkansas and TCU or Kentucky and West Virginia that make a ton of sense. In addition to games like that, we'd need to see regular bouts between the heavyweights of each conference. At the very least, we would need some sort of cycle whereby schools played each other not necessarily on rotation, but in a fashion that ensured interesting match-ups were regular.
2. I think we'd have to stick with 8 conference games and require that each school play one Big 12 game every season unless we're talking about the schools that already have annual non-conference games like Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Kentucky. We'd certainly need them in the rotation at times, but maybe not every season. 14 and 10 don't match-up perfectly anyway.
Piggybacking on that, I think the Big 12 would have to drop down to 8 league games to make room. There's a variety of ways to accomplish that. Perhaps they expand by 2 so they can split into divisions? It makes their conference championship more valuable and it also offers more opportunities for combined games that increase the inventory of the shared package.
3. I think it would require broader distribution of the SEC Network into states where Big 12 teams reside. That means we have full penetration into TX as well as a presence in OK, KS, IA, and WV. Having WV in the fold would also give us some subs in Western PA along with the DC metro area.
We would need to have a combined package to market on ESPN+ as well. A lot of games would be available for that platform and that would be valuable as well.
----------------------------------------
All in all, this is a way to acquire value from the Big 12 without going to the trouble of taking any of their schools.
I'd also add that I think any windfall we receive from a new media deal would make us more attractive to the ACC schools we might want. I think another perk of this arrangement is that the ACC schools would fall a little further behind monetarily, and thus be more inclined to move. Their integration, however, would be much more seamless should we expand in that direction.
There's still a lot of value to be had over there if we were to add Florida State, Clemson, NC State, and Virginia Tech. I think we'd have far less headaches with that group than with any bloc that was centered around Texas and Oklahoma.
One last perk is that we wouldn't have to worry about the Big Ten snagging any members of the Big 12 and padding their bottom line. As long as we have that sort of tight nit alliance with the Big 12 then the powers that be should be happy. We would be more profitable.
Thoughts?
If the PAC can't sign one with the Big 12 they'll probably open up discussions with the Big 10 again.
Since Kentucky has Louisville for a 9th P game Tennessee could easily fill the bill for WVU.
So if the SEC signs this, and rivalry renewals are a must, I think it works. To divide the extra revenue the Big 12 should get 10 shares of the contracted revenue for the shared rights and the SEC 14. And that's for the shared games only.
Since there are only 4 SEC schools with year end rivalries against the ACC we actually do match up with the Big 12 perfectly.
Should the PAC sign one with the Big 10 then I think it clearly puts the ACC back in 5th place.
It's certainly workable and stands to be profitable, but only if the big rivalries return.
I foresee schools playing more than one P5 opponent in non-conference in the near future. Some of the schools in the East with annual ACC opponents are already doing it. I think that creates some flexibility.
Assuming this is the sort of thing that defines the next round of media contracts then I think it will more or less have to work that way. For example, Texas and Oklahoma already have some games scheduled with SEC schools over the next decade or so.
If an arrangement could be put together then I think we could see everyone playing 10 Power schools soon...8 league games and 2 non-conference match-ups. That leaves a couple of extra slots for cupcake games to fill out home schedules. That basically gives everyone 7 home games excluding the schools that have an annual game at a neutral site.
I don't disagree, but that will happen for the next contract period after this one. This one will be marked by either additions or something like the shared contract you're talking about. That may include a 9th P game as a guarantee. But we won't jump to 10 now when we can wait and use that as bargaining chip for a raise in the contract renewal after this one, unless it is part of a massive contract with CBS.
If the SEC & Big 12 were going to do this, why not figure out an acceptable final number of power football teams whether its 60 or 64 and all of CFB negotiate as one. Although, if there is enough desire for content by networks, tech companies, 72 wouldn't be a bad number.
Teams at the top of the list to consider dropping would be WF, OSU, WSU, OSU and maybe Baylor and probably in that order if you look at attendance and content. BYU deserves to be included IMO.
Then only schedule games within power league teams and that content would be pretty compelling. The sport could also combine to 4 power leagues then and have a true playoff with the 4 conference champs and the conference championships could be decided by having conference semi-finals.
We could easily do this except for 1 prohibitive obstacle. We are in the age of athletic departments being set up independently from the academic part of the school, but the egghead academics still somehow feel violated if their school plays in a sports league with a school that is not an academic peer. The absurdity of this is that academic associations are wholly independent of athletics. But as long as the PAC and Big 10 continue to confuse the two we will have the mess we have.
Taking the top 72 earners and forming 4 conferences of 3 divisions each with 6 schools to a division and having conference semis consisting of the 3 division winners and the best at large and playing it off for a national champion should have been done already.
If you want to be exclusive make it the top 64 or 48.
But as long as we operate with fake amateurism, think of the university's academic mission impacting athletics, and vice versa, the illogical bog we are in presently will continue. And as for B.Y.U. if we are a country of tolerance we should be able to accept people who have a different value system and respect that as long as they don't demand our value system to change. Tolerance goes both ways, but right now the most intolerant of all conferences is the Whacky PAC.
|
|