(08-09-2019 09:21 AM)Captain Bearcat Wrote: One point this whole discussion misses.... The new AAC contract is more exposure than the Big East contract.
Sure, AAC schools will have to pay to produce dozens of games in non-revenue sports for ESPN+. But that's because they're guaranteed dozens of games on ESPN+. That's exposure that the Big East contract simply doesn't provide.
When Butler was in the Horizon, they streamed their non-ESPN games on the Horizon League's website. Cincinnati currently streams all softball and baseball games on a 3rd party website, and Cincinnati pays the production costs. Butler and Cincinnati paid for those production costs because it was worth it for the exposure. But a lot more people will watch if it's on ESPN+ than some nameless website.
The whole purpose of college sports is to advertise the school. Any school in the country would gladly pay $1 million for 50 2-hour specials broadcasting live from their campus to anyone with ESPN+.
Another comment about TV exposure:
The average Big East school has more basketball exposure than the average AAC school. But UConn was the "feature" team in the AAC a lot more often than it will be in the Big East. The Big East 2 games on Fox every Saturday after football season. What % of those will be UConn? They're among equals in the Big East.
Let's look at coverage of regular season conference games last year:
Georgetown: 3 Networks (CBS or FOX), 9 FS1, 3 CBSSports, 2 regional FSN
St. John's: 4 Networks (CBS or FOX), 11 FS1, 3 CBS Sports, 1 regional FSN
Butler: 2 Networks (FOX), 10 FS1, 3 CBS Sports, 3 regional FSN
UConn: 2 ESPN, 3 ESPN2, 5 ESPNU/ESPNews, 8 CBS Sports
Georgetown & St. John's had better coverage than UConn, but UConn had slightly better coverage than Butler. UConn's brand is probably more similar to Georgetown, but Georgetown was a much better team than UConn last year. Overall, edge to the Big East.
Let's compare the 2 conference kings last year:
Villanova: 7 Networks (CBS or FOX), 9 FS1, 2 CBS Sports
Cincinnati: 2 CBS, 3 ESPN, 6 ESPN2, 2 ESPNews, 5 CBS Sports
Again, the Big East had better exposure. But it wasn't that much different.