So, is there weekday garbage deal better than ours or no?

(11-18-2022 04:04 PM)NIUfilmmaker Wrote:  So, is there weekday garbage deal better than ours or no?

IMO-- it's a mixed bag. Although obviously the MAC has MORE games and makes a little more money.

(11-18-2022 04:23 PM)TOPSTRAIGHT Wrote:  

(11-18-2022 04:04 PM)NIUfilmmaker Wrote:  So, is there weekday garbage deal better than ours or no?

IMO-- it's a mixed bag. Although obviously the MAC has MORE games and makes a little more money.

I'm just asking as a CUSA fan. How many games does the MAC deal have them have on ESPN or other networks in a given year? I can't seem to find it anywhere. It's confusing between CBS Sports Network and ESPN. I know for CUSA, it's this:

Football: 18 CBS Sports Network and 8 ESPN Networks
Basketball: 18 CBS Sports Network and 5 ESPN Networks

We only have 9 teams this year, so that I kind of factor into each team being on TV more.

(01-15-2023 01:59 AM)sstaedtler88 Wrote:  I'm just asking as a CUSA fan. How many games does the MAC deal have them have on ESPN or other networks in a given year? I can't seem to find it anywhere. It's confusing between CBS Sports Network and ESPN. I know for CUSA, it's this:

Football: 18 CBS Sports Network and 8 ESPN Networks
Basketball: 18 CBS Sports Network and 5 ESPN Networks

We only have 9 teams this year, so that I kind of factor into each team being on TV more.

Don't be surprised to see a lot of your games end up on the useless ESPNU channel since "ESPN Networks" is so vague. CUSA should have defined the deal better and said we will play weekday games on ESPN or ESPN2 only.

Most ESPNU games don't even have a TV rating since the # of people who watch that network is far less.

This past year the MAC played 19 weekday games in November. 7 games were on ESPNU, 6 on ESPN2, 1 on ESPN, 1 on ESPN+, and 4 on CBSSN.

When the new ESPN deal was signed in 2014 we were told weekday games would not increase and remain at 14. That seems to not have held true.

Quote:CBS Sports Network will air a maximum of 12 football and 12 men’s basketball games annually.

Don't forget that it is so much easier to create a schedule with the entire conference playing weekday games at the same time - instead of picking certain teams to have a weekday game, then scheduling others on the weekend. It might be somewhat easier since October is bye weeks, but ESPN will demand the prime matchup on their network so the only way to promise it is for everyone to be stuck in made-for-tv land.

(01-15-2023 07:39 AM)WesternDave Wrote:  Don't forget that it is so much easier to create a schedule with the entire conference playing weekday games at the same time - instead of picking certain teams to have a weekday game, then scheduling others on the weekend. It might be somewhat easier since October is bye weeks, but ESPN will demand the prime matchup on their network so the only way to promise it is for everyone to be stuck in made-for-tv land.

Yeah, that is the one thing I don't like. For instance, Western Kentucky/Liberty or New Mexico State/UTEP, prime type matchups for. different reasons, will probably end up Tuesday nights. when you'd like those games to be Saturday for fans.

I expect the ESPN games to be a mix of ESPN 2 and ESPNU, much like the MAC.

(01-15-2023 03:08 AM)epasnoopy Wrote:  ... This past year the MAC played 19 weekday games in November. 7 games were on ESPNU, 6 on ESPN2, 1 on ESPN, 1 on ESPN+, and 4 on CBSSN. ...

Yes, 7 games on first/second tier cable channels, 11 games on third tier cable channels, and one streaming.

The core of the deal is two games on a Tuesday/Wednesday weeknight, with ESPN free to pick one game on ESPN2 at least (with the ability to bump the high profile pick to the ESPN Mothership if they want). The second game has previously been on ESPNU, ESPN3 or ESPN+, but this last season, they were all on ESPNU. (It was originally Tuesday/Thursday, but then the NFL took over Thursday night).

But then IIRC, something was added ...

Quote: When the new ESPN deal was signed in 2014 we were told weekday games would not increase and remain at 14. That seems to not have held true.

... IIRC, what was added was the deal between CBSSN and ESPN to sublicense some games, and then the MAC started putting on more three-game weeknight schedules, to accommodate getting a game on ESPN2, a game on ESPNU / ESPN3 / ESPN+, and maybe getting a game on CBSSN.

So:
Week 9 was the transition week, with 2 games on Saturday to allow for 8 schools transitioning to midweek games in Week 10.

Week 10 (4 T/W games): ESPN2/ESPNU both nights
Week 11 (6 T/W games): ESPN2/CBSSN/ESPNU both nights
Week 12 (5 T/W games, UA/UB postponed weather): Tue: ESPN2/ESPNU, Wed: ESPN2/CBSSN/ESPNU
Week 13 (4 T/F games): Tue: ESPN+/ESPN, Black Friday: CBSSN/ESPNU

It seems likely CBSSN would have picked up a game from the Week 12 Tuesday games if the Akron/Buffalo game had not been blizzarded out.

It is also clear that the ESPN2 guarantee is the November weeks before the week of Thanksgiving. If the MAC wants to get on onto ESPN2 on Tuesday of Thanksgiving week, it probably has to have a compelling enough game for ESPN to want to place on ESPN2 -- such as, a game that have Access Bowl (or, under the CFP12, top 6 FBS champions) implications.

By contrast, MAC home games in Weeks 1-9, plus the Saturday Week 13 games were: 1 game on the NFLN, 5 games on CBSSN, 4 games on ESPNU, 26 games on ESPN+, 12 games on ESPN3, so 0 home games on first/second tier cable, 10 games on third tier cable channels, 38 games streaming.

The thing about CUSA is that if CBS is willing to accept the second pick of two weeknight October games, then they can get "ESPN network"/CBSSN coverage on both weeknights when they just have four conference games per week. Of interest will be the degree to which they have a guaranteed ESPN2 spot in any of those weeks. It could even be a single ESPN2 pick per week. For example, ESPN picking an ESPN2 game on either a Tuesday/Wednesday, CBSSN getting the other game that day, CBSSN picking a game on the other day, ESPN putting the second game on ESPNU/ESPN3/ESPN+ based on its view of the level of interest.

(11-09-2022 07:37 PM)MeepMeep Wrote:  

(11-09-2022 07:09 PM)Miami (Oh) Yeah ! Wrote:  

(11-09-2022 06:48 PM)epasnoopy Wrote:  They got $750k per school for a conference with a bunch of random FCS schools.

MAC should be getting far more considering we killed our fanbases many years ago by creating the whole weeknight college football concept.

I expect us to at least double up when we renegotiate in the next year or 2. Hopefully we add WKU and MTSU at that same time. MTSU will have had time to collect the exit fees of the 6 who left for the AAC and they will see the writing on the wall that Memphis isn't going anywhere (New Big XII contract says ESPN will only pay more if they expand with P5 teams and not G5 teams like Memphis) so MTSU will now know they won't be joining AAC.

Wouldn’t count on that. The MTSU fan reaction to this on the CUSA makes it seem as though they want nothing to do with MAC.

https://www.csnbbs.com/thread-959066.html

To be honest, the MAC should want nothing to do with them..... MTSU is noting special in athletics, and academically they are far worse than every MAC school. Their fanbase is small, and you rarely see them selling out anything (football or basketball). The MAC can do better than MTSU....No thanks.

I took a closer look at the phrasing of the news, using the CBS story, since they are the primary media partner:

Quote:... Notably, the conference will shift all league matchups in football during the month of October to midweek evenings, mirroring the Mid-American Conference's November "MACtion" slate.

The agreement will give CBS Sports the Tier 1 selection for 18 Conference USA football games and the Conference USA Championship Game, along with 18 men's basketball games and the men's basketball tournament semifinal and championship games.

...

Quote: In addition to inventory selected by CBS Sports, ESPN will carry midweek football games on its linear networks. Remaining football games, men's basketball games, women's basketball games and Olympic sports will be broadcast through its streaming services.

So that sounds like CBSSN gets two picks during four weeks of October Midweek games and one pick for Saturday games in October & November, which adds up to 17. Maybe it's the CCG that makes 18.

Then everything else is on ESPN, with the midweek games "on linear networks" and the balance on ESPN3/ESPN+.

If the first tier picks for CBS means what it sounds like it means, "linear network" seems like it means "ESPNU unless there is a game interesting enough that ESPN decides to bump it up to ESPN2".

But we will see next year if that's what it means for sure: if we see one ESPN2 game a week in the midweek action, then it would seem like the "first tier for CBS" is probably only an approximate description of the contract terms.

I don't know how they'll transition to two Tuesday / two Wednesday midweek games, they might have to have a home FCS buy game by the 9th member as "the" game for the preceding round. That issue goes away when Kennesaw State joins and they have five games to work with in a conference round.

(01-17-2023 02:18 PM)astr083 Wrote:  To be honest, the MAC should want nothing to do with them..... MTSU is noting special in athletics, and academically they are far worse than every MAC school. Their fanbase is small, and you rarely see them selling out anything (football or basketball). The MAC can do better than MTSU....No thanks.

I don't see Middle Tennessee as "far worse than every MAC school" academically, but I don't see them as anything special, either.

We should just go ahead and do a football series with the Sun Belt on the last Tues/Wednesday in October where we MAC vs SBC play on ESPN2/U/CBS both nights and make a challenge of it like in basketball since we both are used to playing mid-week and that is when their midweek winds down and ours starts.

(01-20-2023 10:57 AM)Miami (Oh) Yeah ! Wrote:  We should just go ahead and do a football series with the Sun Belt on the last Tues/Wednesday in October where we MAC vs SBC play on ESPN2/U/CBS both nights and make a challenge of it like in basketball since we both are used to playing mid-week and that is when their midweek winds down and ours starts.

I kinda like that idea. You could even use some Halloween Marketing to go with it.

(01-17-2023 02:18 PM)astr083 Wrote:  

(11-09-2022 07:37 PM)MeepMeep Wrote:  

(11-09-2022 07:09 PM)Miami (Oh) Yeah ! Wrote:  

(11-09-2022 06:48 PM)epasnoopy Wrote:  They got $750k per school for a conference with a bunch of random FCS schools.

MAC should be getting far more considering we killed our fanbases many years ago by creating the whole weeknight college football concept.

I expect us to at least double up when we renegotiate in the next year or 2. Hopefully we add WKU and MTSU at that same time. MTSU will have had time to collect the exit fees of the 6 who left for the AAC and they will see the writing on the wall that Memphis isn't going anywhere (New Big XII contract says ESPN will only pay more if they expand with P5 teams and not G5 teams like Memphis) so MTSU will now know they won't be joining AAC.

Wouldn’t count on that. The MTSU fan reaction to this on the CUSA makes it seem as though they want nothing to do with MAC.

https://www.csnbbs.com/thread-959066.html

To be honest, the MAC should want nothing to do with them..... MTSU is noting special in athletics, and academically they are far worse than every MAC school. Their fanbase is small, and you rarely see them selling out anything (football or basketball). The MAC can do better than MTSU....No thanks.

Middle is top 20 in the nation in wbb attendance and knocked us off in the WNIT final 4 last season at Savage... that earned my respect. The men have also made the NCAAs at least a couple times in my life. Cant say that for UT. Oh yeah and they beat us in a bowl game in 2021. Stock goes bowling almost every year. Argue Apathy but they are alright. They need more support for fb, but lots suck off the Knoxville Orange UT. Compare that to Miami or WMU or Ball State in the major 3 sports? Way better.

(01-20-2023 10:57 AM)Miami (Oh) Yeah ! Wrote:  We should just go ahead and do a football series with the Sun Belt on the last Tues/Wednesday in October where we MAC vs SBC play on ESPN2/U/CBS both nights and make a challenge of it like in basketball since we both are used to playing mid-week and that is when their midweek winds down and ours starts.

You need four games to make a ESPN2/U deal for each day, and CBSSN will still be showing a CUSA midweek game that week, and with the CUSA deal, ESPN might not be asking for as many midweek games from the SBC. If they only had one midweek game the week before, you'd really only have two SBC teams available to play in the "MAC/SBC Challenge".

However, if the CUSA deal does not guarantee an ESPN2 slot when it says "ESPN linear", maybe you could have one game Tuesday, one game Wednesday, and ESPN picking on for ESPN2 and the other for ESPNU.

So the MAC would have two home games in the "skimpy" round before #MACtion starts when they normally only have a single game, at the cost of the two participating in the SBC Challenge having their transition bye the Saturday before.

They'd have to be allowed to transition to Saturday a week earlier, the weekend before Thanksgiving, and could then play each other.

I think we have enough midweek games now. If somehow the cross conference games would maybe replace the first week of November MACTION games, that might be good.

(01-21-2023 08:40 PM)DICK Wrote:  I think we have enough midweek games now. If somehow the cross conference games would maybe replace the first week of November MACTION games, that might be good.

That would be a version of a system where a pair of Sunbelt teams played midweek the week before, and then two OOC MAC/Sunbelt games are scheduled the first Tuesday of #MACtion.

I guess the idea there is it would allow "satisfying" ESPN's midweek demand on a Tuesday with only two MAC schools, so you could have the first week of #MACtion be "the SBC/MAC challenge" on Tuesday and then two #MACtion games on Wednesday, leaving Saturday the round before with three games, instead of one.

But that doesn't seem to be the MAC President's attitude to MAC. They seem to view being on linear cable, with (I guestimated above) six guaranteed ESPN2 spots and with the balance of games before Thanksgiving on ESPNU and CBSSN as an upgrade over Saturday games on ESPN+ and ESPN3.

And so that appearance of one school on ESPN2 and another on ESPNU in a "challenge" game probably is a downgrade in their eyes over two MAC schools on ESPN2 and two MAC schools on ESPNU.

And as far as the new "MAC/Sunbelt Challenge brand" to market, #MACtion itself is a niche enough brand that it probably makes sense to keep them as MAC conference games rather than trying to spin up another branded competition to have to push for just two school's benefit per year.

I don't think you'd be able to get a program like Kent on board with a Sunbelt-MAC challenge. Their OOC scheduling has been collecting 3 guarantees then playing 1 FCS. You would have to convince them to forfeit the ~$1.5 million they receive as a guarantee to play a Sunbelt team instead

(01-22-2023 07:56 PM)kreed5120 Wrote:  I don't think you'd be able to get a program like Kent on board with a Sunbelt-MAC challenge. Their OOC scheduling has been collecting 3 guarantees then playing 1 FCS. You would have to convince them to forfeit the ~$1.5 million they receive as a guarantee to play a Sunbelt team instead

That is supposedly changing with the current AD. They have 3 road $$ games this year (UCF & Arkansas) only because Fresno State fell into their lap for a nice payday and basketball game as well. In 2024 they'll have Pitt, Tennessee and State Penn, but beyond that they're not locked into the usual 3 road $ games and are currently only showing OOC road games @ Ohio State in 2026 and Kentucky in 2028.