https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/college...v-ratings/

This was a painstaking amount of work to put this list together, edit it down for a G5 comparison. Below are the results for all G5 teams. These are the raw numbers, so do with these as you wish, feel free to discuss.

Week 1 ESPN SMU vs Texas St 1.23M
Week 1 ESPN BYU vs Navy 1.15M
Week 1 ESPN Arkansas St vs Memphis 1.03M
Week 1 ESPN EKU vs Marshall 980k

Week 2 Fox Arkansas St vs Kansas St 1.79M
Week 2 ESPN Louisiana vs Iowa St 1.68M
Week 2 ESPN2 Tulane vs Southern Alabama 512k
Week 2 ESPN2 UTSA vs Texas St 476k
Week 2 ESPN2 Charlotte vs App State 408k
Week 2 FS1 Coastal Carolina vs Kansas 375k

Week 3 ABC UCF vs Georgia Tech 3.06M
Week 3 ESPN Tulsa vs Oklahoma State 1.73M
Week 3 ABC Navy vs Tulane 1.35M
Week 3 CBS App State vs Marshall 1.25M
Week 3 USA USF vs Notre Dame 957k
Week 3 ESPN Troy vs Middle Tennessee 642k
Week 3 ESPN Coastal Carolina vs Campbell 509k
Week 3 ESPN2 Louisiana vs Ga State 422k
Week 3 ESPN2 La Tech vs Southern Miss 282k
Week 3 ESPN2 UTSA vs SFA 248k
Week 3 ESPNU Liberty vs WKU 117k

Week 4 ESPN Army vs Cincinnati 1.08M
Week 4 ABC UCF vs East Carolina 998k
Week 4 ESPN Troy vs BYU 795k
Week 4 ESPN UAB vs Southern Alabama 497k
Week 4 ESPN2 Georgia Southern vs Louisiana 246k

Week 5 ESPN2 La Tech vs BYU 505k
Week 5 ESPN2 Tulsa vs UCF 435k
Week 5 ESPN2 Memphis vs SMU 315k
Week 5 ESPN2 Arkansas St vs Coastal Carolina 133k

Week 6 ESPN Tulsa vs Houston 418k
Week 6 ESPN2 UTSA vs BYU 317k
Week 6 ESPN2 ULM vs Liberty 133k
Week 6 ESPN2 UTEP vs La Tech 129k

Week 7 ABC UCF vs Memphis 1.9M
Week 7 ESPN BYU vs Houston 1.16M
Week 7 ESPN SMU vs Tulane 832k
Week 7 ESPN Coastal Carolina vs Louisiana 721k
Week 7 ESPN Georgia St vs Arkansas St 698k
Week 7 ESPN2 Navy vs East Carolina 261k
Week 7 ESPN2 UMASS vs Georgia Southern 130k

Week 8 ESPN Texas State vs BYU 716k
Week 8 ESPN Tulsa vs USF 561k
Week 8 FS1 Utah St vs Boise St 549k
Week 8 ESPN2 Cincinnati vs SMU 485k
Week 8 ESPN Arkansas St vs App State 384k
Week 8 ESPN2 Tulane vs UCF 296k
Week 8 FS1 Air Force vs SJSU 222k

Week 9 ESPN WKU vs BYU 788k
Week 9 ESPN Memphis vs Cincinnati 679k
Week 9 ESPN South Alabama vs Georgia Southern 441k
Week 9 ESPN2 East Carolina vs Tulsa 331k
Week 9 FS1 Nevada vs UNLV 293k
Week 9 FS1 Hawaii vs Wyoming 259k
Week 9 ESPN2 Navy vs SMU 218k

Week 10 ABC Houston vs Cincinnati 1.39M
Week 10 ESPN Ohio vs Central Michigan 711k
Week 10 FS1 BYU vs Boise St 680k
Week 10 FS1 Utah St vs Nevada 257k
Week 10 ESPN2 Buffalo vs NIU 199k

Week 11 ESPN Toledo vs WMU 722k
Week 11 ESPN2 Cincinnati vs East Carolina 720k
Week 11 ESPN Miami Oh vs Buffalo 642k
Week 11 FS1 Colorado St vs Boise St 292k
Week 11 ESPN2 SMU vs Tulsa 283k
Week 11 ESPN2 Army vs Tulane 218k
Week 11 ESPN2 Kent St vs Bowling Green 192k
Week 11 FS2 UNLV vs SJSU 145k

Week 12 ESPN Cincinnati vs UCF 1.58M
Week 12 ESPN Akron vs Kent St 957k
Week 12 CBS San Diego State vs Nevada 859k
Week 12 ESPN App State vs Coastal Carolina 848k
Week 12 ESPN Tulane vs Tulsa 532k
Week 12 ESPN2 Western Michigan vs Central Michigan 482k
Week 12 FS1 New Mexico vs Air Force 271k
Week 12 ESPN2 Arkansas State vs Texas State 172k

Week 13 FS1 New Mexico vs Utah State 708k
Week 13 ESPN UCF vs USF 529k
Week 13 ESPN2 Troy vs App State 173k

Week 14 ESPNU BYU vs Coastal Carolina 1.21M
Week 14 ESPN Louisiana vs App State 1.01M
Week 14 ESPN2 Tulsa vs Navy 424k

Week 15 CBS Army vs Navy 4.92M
Week 15 ESPN2 San Diego State vs BYU 606k
Week 15 FS1 La Tech vs TCU 290k
Week 15 ESPN2 Houston vs Memphis 239k
Week 15 FS1 Fresno State vs New Mexico 194k

Week 16 ABC Cincinnati vs Tulsa 1.88M
Week 16 FOX SJSU vs Boise State 1.42M
Week 16 ESPN Ball State vs Buffalo 875k

Peach Bowl ESPN Georgia vs Cincinnati 8.73M
Liberty Bowl ESPN Army vs WVU 3.74M
Cure Bowl ESPN Liberty vs Coastal Carolina 2.62M
Armed Forces Bowl ESPN Mississippi St vs Tulsa 2.25M
Camella Bowl ESPN Marshall vs Buffalo 2.11M
1ST Responder Bowl ABC UTSA vs Louisiana 2.08M
New Mexico Bowl ESPN Hawaii vs Houston 1.9M
Arizona Bowl CBS Ball St vs SJSU 1.77M
Boca Raton Bowl ESPN UCF vs BYU 1.55M
Montgomery Bowl ESPN Memphis vs FAU 1.27M
New Orleans Bowl ESPN La Tech vs Georgia Southern 923k
Mobile Bowl ESPN WKU vs Georgia State 923k
Idaho Potato Bowl ESPN Tulane vs Nevada 914k
Myrtle Beach Bowl ESPN North Texas vs App State 637k

They didn't list any CBSSports games? We played a few more times on there and the rest were streaming BS. CBSSports is as valid as ESPNU as a linear channel. I see no CBSsports and I know they have games every single weekend. Also fox regionals (Stadium/Bally) aren't listed. Also linear tv that should have some ratings. Others listed are below 200k so I doubt it's a no viewer thing. Anyway nice job.

(06-15-2021 10:39 PM)MUther Wrote:  They didn't list any CBSSports games? We played a few more times on there and the rest were streaming BS. CBSSports is as valid as ESPNU as a linear channel. I see no CBSsports and I know they have games every single weekend. Also fox regionals (Stadium/Bally) aren't listed. Also linear tv that should have some ratings. Others listed are below 200k so I doubt it's a no viewer thing. Anyway nice job.

Nope, no CBS Sports.

Without doing averages, my initial thoughts compiling this data were this.

- Clear ratings boost playing a P5, so potentially need to scrub those games if you want a true apples to apples comp.

- The Sun Belt does really well. You could make a case both the Belt and CUSA are due for a major contract upgrade.

- Maction is a good deal for ESPN, they pull decent mid week attention.

- According to this raw data, if AAC schools are worth 7mill a year per school, Sun Belt and CUSA teams are probably realistically worth 3.5 to 5 mill per school on the low end if a good negotiator had this data.

- A merger of the best CUSA and Sun Belt schools could net a contact close to the AAC deal.

(06-15-2021 10:59 PM)rileylives Wrote:  Without doing averages, my initial thoughts compiling this data were this.

- Clear ratings boost playing a P5, so potentially need to scrub those games if you want a true apples to apples comp.

- The Sun Belt does really well. You could make a case both the Belt and CUSA are due for a major contract upgrade.

- Maction is a good deal for ESPN, they pull decent mid week attention.

- According to this raw data, if AAC schools are worth 7mill a year per school, Sun Belt and CUSA teams are probably realistically worth 3.5 to 5 mill per school on the low end if a good negotiator had this data.

- A merger of the best CUSA and Sun Belt schools could net a contact close to the AAC deal.

Viewers of rated games (CBSSN is not in the Nielsen ratings, so most of Navy's home games for example aren't listed) for conference controlled inventory:

SEC: 119,033,000
ACC: 103,687,000
B1G: 91,188,000
B12: 77,830,000
P12: 44,092,000
AAC: 21,294,000
SBC: 10,224,000
mwc: 6,149,000
MAC: 4,780,000
CUSA: 2,668,000

ALL SunBelt and CUSA viewers combined trail AAC viewers 21.3 million to 12.9 million

(06-15-2021 10:59 PM)rileylives Wrote:  Without doing averages, my initial thoughts compiling this data were this.

- Clear ratings boost playing a P5, so potentially need to scrub those games if you want a true apples to apples comp.

- The Sun Belt does really well. You could make a case both the Belt and CUSA are due for a major contract upgrade.

- Maction is a good deal for ESPN, they pull decent mid week attention.

- According to this raw data, if AAC schools are worth 7mill a year per school, Sun Belt and CUSA teams are probably realistically worth 3.5 to 5 mill per school on the low end if a good negotiator had this data.

- A merger of the best CUSA and Sun Belt schools could net a contact close to the AAC deal.

You are not a businesses owner are you? You do not base VAULE on what is a clear anomaly. The 2020 season is a *season in every which way you want to look at it. That also goes for TV ratings. A lot of those games had no P5 vs P5 to compete with so of course the ratings would be higher.

SEC did not start play till week 5 and the Big10 till week 7 or 8. So not only did we not have to compete for viewers. A lot more espn and espn2 games with some primetime slots. Especially espn games which have a build in ghost viewership that is most likely higher than the total amount of viewers for G5 games shown on the U

If you want to compare the SBC and CUSA to the AAC then you need to go to 2019 and look at the numbers. You will also need to compare timeslots vs timeslots. The site you looked at has a column for the amount of viewership +/-

There are people a lot smarter than you or I that ran these numbers and know what espn can get back as a return. If espn thought they could get a 50% return (vs the AAC) they would have put a bid in for CUSA content. ESPN understands that for 1 million dollars a school they could have bought CUSA....1/7 the cost of the AAC.

SBC/MAC/CUSA all pull in close to the same ratings on a normal year. There was no value in buying CUSA because for the slots CUSA would use. ESPN had already bought and paid for more than enough content to fill those slots.

You might not like that and a lot of the other fans from the 5 schools that got left behind might not like it. But the value was in the schools that bolted to form a new conference. The same thing applies to when Louisville, TCU and Cincinnati left CUSA.

The 5 schools that got left behind got a lot of their value from those schools that bolted. Not just, dollars, but also value in recruiting. Hard to accept but for the most part...

that is the reality of it and all you have to do is look at UNCC basketball to see this play out. UNCC clearly benefited a lot more than their "value" when they played in conference with well known basketball schools.

Believe what you want but if you want apples to apples on ratings you will need to look at another season and not the *season of 2020

(06-16-2021 12:28 AM)slhNavy91 Wrote:  

(06-15-2021 10:59 PM)rileylives Wrote:  Without doing averages, my initial thoughts compiling this data were this.

- Clear ratings boost playing a P5, so potentially need to scrub those games if you want a true apples to apples comp.

- The Sun Belt does really well. You could make a case both the Belt and CUSA are due for a major contract upgrade.

- Maction is a good deal for ESPN, they pull decent mid week attention.

- According to this raw data, if AAC schools are worth 7mill a year per school, Sun Belt and CUSA teams are probably realistically worth 3.5 to 5 mill per school on the low end if a good negotiator had this data.

- A merger of the best CUSA and Sun Belt schools could net a contact close to the AAC deal.

Viewers of rated games (CBSSN is not in the Nielsen ratings, so most of Navy's home games for example aren't listed) for conference controlled inventory:

SEC: 119,033,000
ACC: 103,687,000
B1G: 91,188,000
B12: 77,830,000
P12: 44,092,000
AAC: 21,294,000
SBC: 10,224,000
mwc: 6,149,000
MAC: 4,780,000
CUSA: 2,668,000

ALL SunBelt and CUSA viewers combined trail AAC viewers 21.3 million to 12.9 million

I broke it down to each game played by conference vs G5 . I did not count games that had a P5 playing. I also left off the Army/Navy game because this is a national game. But I do think in a normal season the AAC would be A LOT closer to their total and average than CUSA and the SBC. Lets start at week 1 and the only game that would be shown on ESPN is most likely BYU vs Navy. Its also the only game out of the 4 that would draw close to that number. The other 3 games would be in the 90k to 300k and on espn2, U, espnnews

Week 1 ESPN SMU vs Texas St 1.23M
Week 1 ESPN BYU vs Navy 1.15M
Week 1 ESPN Arkansas St vs Memphis 1.03M
Week 1 ESPN EKU vs Marshall 980k

(06-16-2021 12:53 AM)WKUYG Wrote:  

(06-15-2021 10:59 PM)rileylives Wrote:  Without doing averages, my initial thoughts compiling this data were this.

- Clear ratings boost playing a P5, so potentially need to scrub those games if you want a true apples to apples comp.

- The Sun Belt does really well. You could make a case both the Belt and CUSA are due for a major contract upgrade.

- Maction is a good deal for ESPN, they pull decent mid week attention.

- According to this raw data, if AAC schools are worth 7mill a year per school, Sun Belt and CUSA teams are probably realistically worth 3.5 to 5 mill per school on the low end if a good negotiator had this data.

- A merger of the best CUSA and Sun Belt schools could net a contact close to the AAC deal.

You are not a businesses owner are you? You do not base VAULE on what is a clear anomaly. The 2020 season is a *season in every which way you want to look at it. That also goes for TV ratings. A lot of those games had no P5 vs P5 to compete with so of course the ratings would be higher.

SEC did not start play till week 5 and the Big10 till week 7 or 8. So not only did we not have to compete for viewers. A lot more espn and espn2 games with some primetime slots. Especially espn games which have a build in ghost viewership that is most likely higher than the total amount of viewers for G5 games shown on the U

If you want to compare the SBC and CUSA to the AAC then you need to go to 2019 and look at the numbers. You will also need to compare timeslots vs timeslots. The site you looked at has a column for the amount of viewership +/-

There are people a lot smarter than you or I that ran these numbers and know what espn can get back as a return. If espn thought they could get a 50% return (vs the AAC) they would have put a bid in for CUSA content. ESPN understands that for 1 million dollars a school they could have bought CUSA....1/7 the cost of the AAC.

SBC/MAC/CUSA all pull in close to the same ratings on a normal year. There was no value in buying CUSA because for the slots CUSA would use. ESPN had already bought and paid for more than enough content to fill those slots.

You might not like that and a lot of the other fans from the 5 schools that got left behind might not like it. But the value was in the schools that bolted to form a new conference. The same thing applies to when Louisville, TCU and Cincinnati left CUSA.

The 5 schools that got left behind got a lot of their value from those schools that bolted. Not just, dollars, but also value in recruiting. Hard to accept but for the most part...

that is the reality of it and all you have to do is look at UNCC basketball to see this play out. UNCC clearly benefited a lot more than their "value" when they played in conference with well known basketball schools.

Believe what you want but if you want apples to apples on ratings you will need to look at another season and not the *season of 2020

Please don’t upset people with the truth, it’s painful.

(06-16-2021 12:53 AM)WKUYG Wrote:  

(06-15-2021 10:59 PM)rileylives Wrote:  Without doing averages, my initial thoughts compiling this data were this.

- Clear ratings boost playing a P5, so potentially need to scrub those games if you want a true apples to apples comp.

- The Sun Belt does really well. You could make a case both the Belt and CUSA are due for a major contract upgrade.

- Maction is a good deal for ESPN, they pull decent mid week attention.

- According to this raw data, if AAC schools are worth 7mill a year per school, Sun Belt and CUSA teams are probably realistically worth 3.5 to 5 mill per school on the low end if a good negotiator had this data.

- A merger of the best CUSA and Sun Belt schools could net a contact close to the AAC deal.

You are not a businesses owner are you? You do not base VAULE on what is a clear anomaly. The 2020 season is a *season in every which way you want to look at it. That also goes for TV ratings. A lot of those games had no P5 vs P5 to compete with so of course the ratings would be higher.

SEC did not start play till week 5 and the Big10 till week 7 or 8. So not only did we not have to compete for viewers. A lot more espn and espn2 games with some primetime slots. Especially espn games which have a build in ghost viewership that is most likely higher than the total amount of viewers for G5 games shown on the U

If you want to compare the SBC and CUSA to the AAC then you need to go to 2019 and look at the numbers. You will also need to compare timeslots vs timeslots. The site you looked at has a column for the amount of viewership +/-

There are people a lot smarter than you or I that ran these numbers and know what espn can get back as a return. If espn thought they could get a 50% return (vs the AAC) they would have put a bid in for CUSA content. ESPN understands that for 1 million dollars a school they could have bought CUSA....1/7 the cost of the AAC.

SBC/MAC/CUSA all pull in close to the same ratings on a normal year. There was no value in buying CUSA because for the slots CUSA would use. ESPN had already bought and paid for more than enough content to fill those slots.

You might not like that and a lot of the other fans from the 5 schools that got left behind might not like it. But the value was in the schools that bolted to form a new conference. The same thing applies to when Louisville, TCU and Cincinnati left CUSA.

The 5 schools that got left behind got a lot of their value from those schools that bolted. Not just, dollars, but also value in recruiting. Hard to accept but for the most part...

that is the reality of it and all you have to do is look at UNCC basketball to see this play out. UNCC clearly benefited a lot more than their "value" when they played in conference with well known basketball schools.

Believe what you want but if you want apples to apples on ratings you will need to look at another season and not the *season of 2020

This is good work for comparing the 2020 season, The season happened, people watched, and these numbers have some value and merit. It was however an anomaly, but people did watch and were entertained enough to come back throughout the season. Cant erase it like it never happened.

as for the TV contract values, 2020 should not be used as a measuring stick alone, the AAC got what they did because they were valued at that level at the time, now going into 2021 the Sun Belt and CUSA should be able to show we are more valuable than what we got a few years ago. There is a time piece that cant be ignored, we are both living on older contracts of perceived value, with different lengths of contracts.

(06-16-2021 12:53 AM)WKUYG Wrote:  

(06-15-2021 10:59 PM)rileylives Wrote:  Without doing averages, my initial thoughts compiling this data were this.

- Clear ratings boost playing a P5, so potentially need to scrub those games if you want a true apples to apples comp.

- The Sun Belt does really well. You could make a case both the Belt and CUSA are due for a major contract upgrade.

- Maction is a good deal for ESPN, they pull decent mid week attention.

- According to this raw data, if AAC schools are worth 7mill a year per school, Sun Belt and CUSA teams are probably realistically worth 3.5 to 5 mill per school on the low end if a good negotiator had this data.

- A merger of the best CUSA and Sun Belt schools could net a contact close to the AAC deal.

You are not a businesses owner are you? You do not base VAULE on what is a clear anomaly. The 2020 season is a *season in every which way you want to look at it. That also goes for TV ratings. A lot of those games had no P5 vs P5 to compete with so of course the ratings would be higher.

SEC did not start play till week 5 and the Big10 till week 7 or 8. So not only did we not have to compete for viewers. A lot more espn and espn2 games with some primetime slots. Especially espn games which have a build in ghost viewership that is most likely higher than the total amount of viewers for G5 games shown on the U

If you want to compare the SBC and CUSA to the AAC then you need to go to 2019 and look at the numbers. You will also need to compare timeslots vs timeslots. The site you looked at has a column for the amount of viewership +/-

There are people a lot smarter than you or I that ran these numbers and know what espn can get back as a return. If espn thought they could get a 50% return (vs the AAC) they would have put a bid in for CUSA content. ESPN understands that for 1 million dollars a school they could have bought CUSA....1/7 the cost of the AAC.

SBC/MAC/CUSA all pull in close to the same ratings on a normal year. There was no value in buying CUSA because for the slots CUSA would use. ESPN had already bought and paid for more than enough content to fill those slots.

You might not like that and a lot of the other fans from the 5 schools that got left behind might not like it. But the value was in the schools that bolted to form a new conference. The same thing applies to when Louisville, TCU and Cincinnati left CUSA.

The 5 schools that got left behind got a lot of their value from those schools that bolted. Not just, dollars, but also value in recruiting. Hard to accept but for the most part...

that is the reality of it and all you have to do is look at UNCC basketball to see this play out. UNCC clearly benefited a lot more than their "value" when they played in conference with well known basketball schools.

Believe what you want but if you want apples to apples on ratings you will need to look at another season and not the *season of 2020

(06-16-2021 03:34 AM)WKUYG Wrote:  I broke it down to each game played by conference vs G5 . I did not count games that had a P5 playing. I also left off the Army/Navy game because this is a national game. But I do think in a normal season the AAC would be A LOT closer to their total and average than CUSA and the SBC. Lets start at week 1 and the only game that would be shown on ESPN is most likely BYU vs Navy. Its also the only game out of the 4 that would draw close to that number. The other 3 games would be in the 90k to 300k and on espn2, U, espnnews

Week 1 ESPN SMU vs Texas St 1.23M
Week 1 ESPN BYU vs Navy 1.15M
Week 1 ESPN Arkansas St vs Memphis 1.03M
Week 1 ESPN EKU vs Marshall 980k

Okay- here are 2020 and 2019 side by side for all 10 FBS conference.
Total regular season, then conference controlled inventory, then intraconference.

Conference controlled cuts out away games, and also games like Army-Navy. However, it still includes a non-contract-bowl conference's home games vs contract-bowl conferences. Why? Because that is what the conference is selling. For example, Navy at ND is ND's to sell, and they sell that to NBC; but ND at Navy in even-numbered years WERE included in the AAC primary media rights deal with ESPN. Home game vs a "P5" - you shouldn't scrub that because the conference is getting paid for that.
If you're trying to make an argument about the inherent drawing power, then look at the intraconference games. But that also doesn't reflect the totality of what the networks are buying.

You have a good point about comparing like timeslot/network games...but quickly get to a point of small samples, or even no comparisons. At some point I was trying to compare Friday night ESPN2 games to another conference....they didn't have any. Or mwc's late kicks - we get a game or two kicking at 9pm ET vs 10:30pm ET for those mwc games, and by the time you slot them into Thurs-Fri-Sat and ESPN-ESPN2...low value to that.

Conf '20 ALLregszn..'19 ALLregszn
SEC: 119,033,000...219,851,000
ACC: 103,687,000....81,635,000
B1G: 91,188,000....183,389,000
B12: 77,830,000......96,221,000
P12: 44,092,000......93,312,000
AAC: 33,697,000......51,527,000
SBC: 18,635,000........4,833,000
mwc: 6,755,000.......13,368,000
CUSA: 5,949,000........7,138,000
MAC: 4,780,000.........8,336,000

Conf '20 conf vwrs '19 conf vwrs
SEC: 119,033,000....196,381,000
ACC: 103,687,000.....61,379,000
B1G: 91,188,000....174,949,000
B12: 77,830,000......87,875,000
P12: 44,092,000......73,410,000
AAC: 21,294,000......28,612,000
SBC: 10,224,000.........2,282,000
mwc: 6,149,000.........8,677,000
MAC: 4,780,000.........2,532,000
CUSA: 2,668,000..........167,000

Conf '20 intraconf '19 intraconf
SEC: 119,033,000....158,355,000
ACC: 99,670,000.....40,241,000
B1G: 91,188,000....146,407,000
B12: 71,557,000.....79,756,000
P12: 44,092,000.....60,061,000
AAC: 16,656,000.....19,660,000
mwc: 5,469,000.......6,129,000
SBC: 5,248,000.......1,912,000
MAC: 4,780,000.......2,532,000
CUSA: 411,000...........25,000

(06-16-2021 12:28 AM)slhNavy91 Wrote:  

(06-15-2021 10:59 PM)rileylives Wrote:  Without doing averages, my initial thoughts compiling this data were this.

- Clear ratings boost playing a P5, so potentially need to scrub those games if you want a true apples to apples comp.

- The Sun Belt does really well. You could make a case both the Belt and CUSA are due for a major contract upgrade.

- Maction is a good deal for ESPN, they pull decent mid week attention.

- According to this raw data, if AAC schools are worth 7mill a year per school, Sun Belt and CUSA teams are probably realistically worth 3.5 to 5 mill per school on the low end if a good negotiator had this data.

- A merger of the best CUSA and Sun Belt schools could net a contact close to the AAC deal.

Viewers of rated games (CBSSN is not in the Nielsen ratings, so most of Navy's home games for example aren't listed) for conference controlled inventory:

SEC: 119,033,000
ACC: 103,687,000
B1G: 91,188,000
B12: 77,830,000
P12: 44,092,000
AAC: 21,294,000
SBC: 10,224,000
mwc: 6,149,000
MAC: 4,780,000
CUSA: 2,668,000

ALL SunBelt and CUSA viewers combined trail AAC viewers 21.3 million to 12.9 million

When I get the time, I think I will take the average and not the cumulative total. That's going to give us a more accurate reflection of viewership. And I think I have an idea to do just that. Just no time.

Looking strictly at the totals is a skewed way of viewing this. For example, there are great numbers with Cincinnati vs Georgia, but logic would say many of those viewers are tuning into Georgia not Cincinnati as an example.

The reason 2020 is important wkuyg is because of exposure. We will never get that kind of exposure again, games on CBS and conventional ESPN. Our contract precludes us from having those types of matchups. So in this form, 2020 is probably the most accurate reflection of a comparison we will find.

This also gives us a glimpse of a comp when a CUSA matchup plays on ESPN versus the MAC and so forth.

If I may be clear, the reason I'm putting these numbers is to show an accurate reflection of only CUSA. I am strictly wanting to find where the CUSA value is. Are we undervalued, correctly valued or overvalued? Only in relation against G5 programs.

And really I would like to isolate and take out the games where a G5 plays against a P5, but I'll do that later.

(06-16-2021 08:07 AM)rileylives Wrote:  

(06-16-2021 12:28 AM)slhNavy91 Wrote:  

(06-15-2021 10:59 PM)rileylives Wrote:  Without doing averages, my initial thoughts compiling this data were this.

- Clear ratings boost playing a P5, so potentially need to scrub those games if you want a true apples to apples comp.

- The Sun Belt does really well. You could make a case both the Belt and CUSA are due for a major contract upgrade.

- Maction is a good deal for ESPN, they pull decent mid week attention.

- According to this raw data, if AAC schools are worth 7mill a year per school, Sun Belt and CUSA teams are probably realistically worth 3.5 to 5 mill per school on the low end if a good negotiator had this data.

- A merger of the best CUSA and Sun Belt schools could net a contact close to the AAC deal.

Viewers of rated games (CBSSN is not in the Nielsen ratings, so most of Navy's home games for example aren't listed) for conference controlled inventory:

SEC: 119,033,000
ACC: 103,687,000
B1G: 91,188,000
B12: 77,830,000
P12: 44,092,000
AAC: 21,294,000
SBC: 10,224,000
mwc: 6,149,000
MAC: 4,780,000
CUSA: 2,668,000

ALL SunBelt and CUSA viewers combined trail AAC viewers 21.3 million to 12.9 million

When I get the time, I think I will take the average and not the cumulative total. That's going to give us a more accurate reflection of viewership. And I think I have an idea to do just that. Just no time.

Looking strictly at the totals is a skewed way of viewing this. For example, there are great numbers with Cincinnati vs Georgia, but logic would say many of those viewers are tuning into Georgia not Cincinnati as an example.

(06-16-2021 08:10 AM)rileylives Wrote:  The reason 2020 is important wkuyg is because of exposure. We will never get that kind of exposure again, games on CBS and conventional ESPN. Our contract precludes us from having those types of matchups. So in this form, 2020 is probably the most accurate reflection of a comparison we will find.

This also gives us a glimpse of a comp when a CUSA matchup plays on ESPN versus the MAC and so forth.

(06-16-2021 08:18 AM)rileylives Wrote:  If I may be clear, the reason I'm putting these numbers is to show an accurate reflection of only CUSA. I am strictly wanting to find where the CUSA value is. Are we undervalued, correctly valued or overvalued? Only in relation against G5 programs.

And really I would like to isolate and take out the games where a G5 plays against a P5, but I'll do that later.

If you're looking for CUSA's value, CUSA home games vs a "P5" are part of that value. mwc teams can get home-and-homes vs PAC12, so whoever is buying their rights is factoring in those games.
It doesn't matter to the network partner if the viewers are there for the home team or not. ND at Navy every other year was a portion of what the AAC was selling to ESPN - it doesn't matter if 100% of those viewers were tuning in for Notre Dame rather than Navy, the AAC was able to sell all those viewers to ESPN.
That's what the "conference-controlled inventory" is.

And you can do averages, but ultimately, the conference's product is the sum total. The network doesn't say "you're worth $X per school." The network is talking about total numbers by network or streaming, timeslot by timeslot. The ESPN-AAC deal doesn't say anywhere "$7 million per school per year." The deal says 40 football games on linear ABC/ESPN/ESPN2/ESPNU -- 20 of those on the top three, 5 on ABC -- and remaining 20+ on ESPN+; it has x number of games on Thursdays ESPN/ESPN2 and y number of games on Fridays ESPN/ESPN2.

MAC gets a little premium for being willing to provide live sports content on Tuesday/Wednesday night; SunBelt a little less so.

You have a good point about seizing on 2020 numbers for CUSA -- "normal" exposure is not good (as the 2019 numbers show).
Conference primary media rights (for all 10) have a pretty direct correlation to viewership of conference controlled football inventory - generally speaking $2-$3 per viewer (again, MAC is high for filling otherwise empty nights; mwc is high by that metric). CUSA using 2019 numbers is off the chart because the NFLNetwork games are the only conference inventory in the calculation.

With the added exposure of 2020, looking at reported average annual value of $5,600,000....CUSA would be $2.09 per viewer of conference-controlled rated games -- right in line with the range of values.

(06-16-2021 08:44 AM)slhNavy91 Wrote:  

(06-16-2021 08:07 AM)rileylives Wrote:  

(06-16-2021 12:28 AM)slhNavy91 Wrote:  

(06-15-2021 10:59 PM)rileylives Wrote:  Without doing averages, my initial thoughts compiling this data were this.

- Clear ratings boost playing a P5, so potentially need to scrub those games if you want a true apples to apples comp.

- The Sun Belt does really well. You could make a case both the Belt and CUSA are due for a major contract upgrade.

- Maction is a good deal for ESPN, they pull decent mid week attention.

- According to this raw data, if AAC schools are worth 7mill a year per school, Sun Belt and CUSA teams are probably realistically worth 3.5 to 5 mill per school on the low end if a good negotiator had this data.

- A merger of the best CUSA and Sun Belt schools could net a contact close to the AAC deal.

Viewers of rated games (CBSSN is not in the Nielsen ratings, so most of Navy's home games for example aren't listed) for conference controlled inventory:

SEC: 119,033,000
ACC: 103,687,000
B1G: 91,188,000
B12: 77,830,000
P12: 44,092,000
AAC: 21,294,000
SBC: 10,224,000
mwc: 6,149,000
MAC: 4,780,000
CUSA: 2,668,000

ALL SunBelt and CUSA viewers combined trail AAC viewers 21.3 million to 12.9 million

When I get the time, I think I will take the average and not the cumulative total. That's going to give us a more accurate reflection of viewership. And I think I have an idea to do just that. Just no time.

Looking strictly at the totals is a skewed way of viewing this. For example, there are great numbers with Cincinnati vs Georgia, but logic would say many of those viewers are tuning into Georgia not Cincinnati as an example.

(06-16-2021 08:10 AM)rileylives Wrote:  The reason 2020 is important wkuyg is because of exposure. We will never get that kind of exposure again, games on CBS and conventional ESPN. Our contract precludes us from having those types of matchups. So in this form, 2020 is probably the most accurate reflection of a comparison we will find.

This also gives us a glimpse of a comp when a CUSA matchup plays on ESPN versus the MAC and so forth.

(06-16-2021 08:18 AM)rileylives Wrote:  If I may be clear, the reason I'm putting these numbers is to show an accurate reflection of only CUSA. I am strictly wanting to find where the CUSA value is. Are we undervalued, correctly valued or overvalued? Only in relation against G5 programs.

And really I would like to isolate and take out the games where a G5 plays against a P5, but I'll do that later.

If you're looking for CUSA's value, CUSA home games vs a "P5" are part of that value. mwc teams can get home-and-homes vs PAC12, so whoever is buying their rights is factoring in those games.
It doesn't matter to the network partner if the viewers are there for the home team or not. ND at Navy every other year was a portion of what the AAC was selling to ESPN - it doesn't matter if 100% of those viewers were tuning in for Notre Dame rather than Navy, the AAC was able to sell all those viewers to ESPN.
That's what the "conference-controlled inventory" is.

And you can do averages, but ultimately, the conference's product is the sum total. The network doesn't say "you're worth $X per school." The network is talking about total numbers by network or streaming, timeslot by timeslot. The ESPN-AAC deal doesn't say anywhere "$7 million per school per year." The deal says 40 football games on linear ABC/ESPN/ESPN2/ESPNU -- 20 of those on the top three, 5 on ABC -- and remaining 20+ on ESPN+; it has x number of games on Thursdays ESPN/ESPN2 and y number of games on Fridays ESPN/ESPN2.

MAC gets a little premium for being willing to provide live sports content on Tuesday/Wednesday night; SunBelt a little less so.

You have a good point about seizing on 2020 numbers for CUSA -- "normal" exposure is not good (as the 2019 numbers show).
Conference primary media rights (for all 10) have a pretty direct correlation to viewership of conference controlled football inventory - generally speaking $2-$3 per viewer (again, MAC is high for filling otherwise empty nights; mwc is high by that metric). CUSA using 2019 numbers is off the chart because the NFLNetwork games are the only conference inventory in the calculation.

With the added exposure of 2020, looking at reported average annual value of $5,600,000....CUSA would be $2.09 per viewer of conference-controlled rated games -- right in line with the range of values.

I appreciate and respect your input. When I get time (life is hella busy right now,) I may attempt to make sense of it all. For now, it's just raw data.

I do think when it's all said and done, CUSA is undervalued, with proper leadership, CUSA could strike a better deal.

Your point on P5...unfortunately, CUSA doesn't have many home P5 game comps to show for...

(06-15-2021 10:26 PM)rileylives Wrote:  https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/college...v-ratings/

This was a painstaking amount of work to put this list together, edit it down for a G5 comparison. Below are the results for all G5 teams. These are the raw numbers, so do with these as you wish, feel free to discuss.

Week 1 ESPN SMU vs Texas St 1.23M
Week 1 ESPN BYU vs Navy 1.15M
Week 1 ESPN Arkansas St vs Memphis 1.03M
Week 1 ESPN EKU vs Marshall 980k

Week 2 Fox Arkansas St vs Kansas St 1.79M
Week 2 ESPN Louisiana vs Iowa St 1.68M
Week 2 ESPN2 Tulane vs Southern Alabama 512k
Week 2 ESPN2 UTSA vs Texas St 476k
Week 2 ESPN2 Charlotte vs App State 408k
Week 2 FS1 Coastal Carolina vs Kansas 375k

Week 3 ABC UCF vs Georgia Tech 3.06M
Week 3 ESPN Tulsa vs Oklahoma State 1.73M
Week 3 ABC Navy vs Tulane 1.35M
Week 3 CBS App State vs Marshall 1.25M
Week 3 USA USF vs Notre Dame 957k
Week 3 ESPN Troy vs Middle Tennessee 642k
Week 3 ESPN Coastal Carolina vs Campbell 509k
Week 3 ESPN2 Louisiana vs Ga State 422k
Week 3 ESPN2 La Tech vs Southern Miss 282k
Week 3 ESPN2 UTSA vs SFA 248k
Week 3 ESPNU Liberty vs WKU 117k

Week 4 ESPN Army vs Cincinnati 1.08M
Week 4 ABC UCF vs East Carolina 998k
Week 4 ESPN Troy vs BYU 795k
Week 4 ESPN UAB vs Southern Alabama 497k
Week 4 ESPN2 Georgia Southern vs Louisiana 246k

Week 5 ESPN2 La Tech vs BYU 505k
Week 5 ESPN2 Tulsa vs UCF 435k
Week 5 ESPN2 Memphis vs SMU 315k
Week 5 ESPN2 Arkansas St vs Coastal Carolina 133k

Week 6 ESPN Tulsa vs Houston 418k
Week 6 ESPN2 UTSA vs BYU 317k
Week 6 ESPN2 ULM vs Liberty 133k
Week 6 ESPN2 UTEP vs La Tech 129k

Week 7 ABC UCF vs Memphis 1.9M
Week 7 ESPN BYU vs Houston 1.16M
Week 7 ESPN SMU vs Tulane 832k
Week 7 ESPN Coastal Carolina vs Louisiana 721k
Week 7 ESPN Georgia St vs Arkansas St 698k
Week 7 ESPN2 Navy vs East Carolina 261k
Week 7 ESPN2 UMASS vs Georgia Southern 130k

Week 8 ESPN Texas State vs BYU 716k
Week 8 ESPN Tulsa vs USF 561k
Week 8 FS1 Utah St vs Boise St 549k
Week 8 ESPN2 Cincinnati vs SMU 485k
Week 8 ESPN Arkansas St vs App State 384k
Week 8 ESPN2 Tulane vs UCF 296k
Week 8 FS1 Air Force vs SJSU 222k

Week 9 ESPN WKU vs BYU 788k
Week 9 ESPN Memphis vs Cincinnati 679k
Week 9 ESPN South Alabama vs Georgia Southern 441k
Week 9 ESPN2 East Carolina vs Tulsa 331k
Week 9 FS1 Nevada vs UNLV 293k
Week 9 FS1 Hawaii vs Wyoming 259k
Week 9 ESPN2 Navy vs SMU 218k

Week 10 ABC Houston vs Cincinnati 1.39M
Week 10 ESPN Ohio vs Central Michigan 711k
Week 10 FS1 BYU vs Boise St 680k
Week 10 FS1 Utah St vs Nevada 257k
Week 10 ESPN2 Buffalo vs NIU 199k

Week 11 ESPN Toledo vs WMU 722k
Week 11 ESPN2 Cincinnati vs East Carolina 720k
Week 11 ESPN Miami Oh vs Buffalo 642k
Week 11 FS1 Colorado St vs Boise St 292k
Week 11 ESPN2 SMU vs Tulsa 283k
Week 11 ESPN2 Army vs Tulane 218k
Week 11 ESPN2 Kent St vs Bowling Green 192k
Week 11 FS2 UNLV vs SJSU 145k

Week 12 ESPN Cincinnati vs UCF 1.58M
Week 12 ESPN Akron vs Kent St 957k
Week 12 CBS San Diego State vs Nevada 859k
Week 12 ESPN App State vs Coastal Carolina 848k
Week 12 ESPN Tulane vs Tulsa 532k
Week 12 ESPN2 Western Michigan vs Central Michigan 482k
Week 12 FS1 New Mexico vs Air Force 271k
Week 12 ESPN2 Arkansas State vs Texas State 172k

Week 13 FS1 New Mexico vs Utah State 708k
Week 13 ESPN UCF vs USF 529k
Week 13 ESPN2 Troy vs App State 173k

Week 14 ESPNU BYU vs Coastal Carolina 1.21M
Week 14 ESPN Louisiana vs App State 1.01M
Week 14 ESPN2 Tulsa vs Navy 424k

Week 15 CBS Army vs Navy 4.92M
Week 15 ESPN2 San Diego State vs BYU 606k
Week 15 FS1 La Tech vs TCU 290k
Week 15 ESPN2 Houston vs Memphis 239k
Week 15 FS1 Fresno State vs New Mexico 194k

Week 16 ABC Cincinnati vs Tulsa 1.88M
Week 16 FOX SJSU vs Boise State 1.42M
Week 16 ESPN Ball State vs Buffalo 875k

Peach Bowl ESPN Georgia vs Cincinnati 8.73M
Liberty Bowl ESPN Army vs WVU 3.74M
Cure Bowl ESPN Liberty vs Coastal Carolina 2.62M
Armed Forces Bowl ESPN Mississippi St vs Tulsa 2.25M
Camella Bowl ESPN Marshall vs Buffalo 2.11M
1ST Responder Bowl ABC UTSA vs Louisiana 2.08M
New Mexico Bowl ESPN Hawaii vs Houston 1.9M
Arizona Bowl CBS Ball St vs SJSU 1.77M
Boca Raton Bowl ESPN UCF vs BYU 1.55M
Montgomery Bowl ESPN Memphis vs FAU 1.27M
New Orleans Bowl ESPN La Tech vs Georgia Southern 923k
Mobile Bowl ESPN WKU vs Georgia State 923k
Idaho Potato Bowl ESPN Tulane vs Nevada 914k
Myrtle Beach Bowl ESPN North Texas vs App State 637k

and this is an example of why the Federal government needs to get rid of the unemployment "bonus".

Thanks for the compiled info. +2 Helped me slap some stuff in excel on the SBC board.

(06-15-2021 10:59 PM)rileylives Wrote:  Without doing averages, my initial thoughts compiling this data were this.

- Clear ratings boost playing a P5, so potentially need to scrub those games if you want a true apples to apples comp.

- The Sun Belt does really well. You could make a case both the Belt and CUSA are due for a major contract upgrade.

- Maction is a good deal for ESPN, they pull decent mid week attention.

- According to this raw data, if AAC schools are worth 7mill a year per school, Sun Belt and CUSA teams are probably realistically worth 3.5 to 5 mill per school on the low end if a good negotiator had this data.

- A merger of the best CUSA and Sun Belt schools could net a contact close to the AAC deal.

Thanks for doing this. You did a really good job and a salute you for the strenuous effort!

It means there are not many people bored enough to watch CUSA football. Also, b/c we are not regularly promoted or on ESPN we are a forgotten commodity.

(06-16-2021 07:21 AM)balanced_view Wrote:  

(06-16-2021 12:53 AM)WKUYG Wrote:  

(06-15-2021 10:59 PM)rileylives Wrote:  Without doing averages, my initial thoughts compiling this data were this.

- Clear ratings boost playing a P5, so potentially need to scrub those games if you want a true apples to apples comp.

- The Sun Belt does really well. You could make a case both the Belt and CUSA are due for a major contract upgrade.

- Maction is a good deal for ESPN, they pull decent mid week attention.

- According to this raw data, if AAC schools are worth 7mill a year per school, Sun Belt and CUSA teams are probably realistically worth 3.5 to 5 mill per school on the low end if a good negotiator had this data.

- A merger of the best CUSA and Sun Belt schools could net a contact close to the AAC deal.

You are not a businesses owner are you? You do not base VAULE on what is a clear anomaly. The 2020 season is a *season in every which way you want to look at it. That also goes for TV ratings. A lot of those games had no P5 vs P5 to compete with so of course the ratings would be higher.

SEC did not start play till week 5 and the Big10 till week 7 or 8. So not only did we not have to compete for viewers. A lot more espn and espn2 games with some primetime slots. Especially espn games which have a build in ghost viewership that is most likely higher than the total amount of viewers for G5 games shown on the U

If you want to compare the SBC and CUSA to the AAC then you need to go to 2019 and look at the numbers. You will also need to compare timeslots vs timeslots. The site you looked at has a column for the amount of viewership +/-

There are people a lot smarter than you or I that ran these numbers and know what espn can get back as a return. If espn thought they could get a 50% return (vs the AAC) they would have put a bid in for CUSA content. ESPN understands that for 1 million dollars a school they could have bought CUSA....1/7 the cost of the AAC.

SBC/MAC/CUSA all pull in close to the same ratings on a normal year. There was no value in buying CUSA because for the slots CUSA would use. ESPN had already bought and paid for more than enough content to fill those slots.

You might not like that and a lot of the other fans from the 5 schools that got left behind might not like it. But the value was in the schools that bolted to form a new conference. The same thing applies to when Louisville, TCU and Cincinnati left CUSA.

The 5 schools that got left behind got a lot of their value from those schools that bolted. Not just, dollars, but also value in recruiting. Hard to accept but for the most part...

that is the reality of it and all you have to do is look at UNCC basketball to see this play out. UNCC clearly benefited a lot more than their "value" when they played in conference with well known basketball schools.

Believe what you want but if you want apples to apples on ratings you will need to look at another season and not the *season of 2020

This is good work for comparing the 2020 season, The season happened, people watched, and these numbers have some value and merit. It was however an anomaly, but people did watch and were entertained enough to come back throughout the season. Cant erase it like it never happened.

as for the TV contract values, 2020 should not be used as a measuring stick alone, the AAC got what they did because they were valued at that level at the time, now going into 2021 the Sun Belt and CUSA should be able to show we are more valuable than what we got a few years ago. There is a time piece that cant be ignored, we are both living on older contracts of perceived value, with different lengths of contracts.

I think there is a time piece to this that is hard to calculate. I think what the Sunbelt did really well that CUSA did not was beat good teams early and carry that momentum into the later parts of the season. I also noticed that the earlier games carried more viewership than the later games which is interesting. I prefer night games but it appears to effect viewership.