Big 12 expansion - maybe not.

[dayooper]

Which school is the public ivy you write of?

Texas

Link

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[pj]

With the Big Ten about to make a cash haul the LHN money doesn't seem as big of a deal now. I suppose Texas could get very creative and make some concessions while still taking in a little more money without the Big Ten "freaking out". I'll leave that to @dayooper as to what the arrangement might be because I still see it as a deal breaker with the Big Ten.

I suppose the arrangement would have to be: A new entity is created, BTN-Texas, that is a standalone subsidiary of BTN. It merges with LHN and is the exclusive distributor of BTN and UTexas content within the state of Texas. It may be owned 50% by BTN and 50% by LHN owners UT&ESPN (choose the proportions). BTN outside of Texas gets to show Texas and B1G content whenever it wants and BTN-Texas gets to show Texas and B1G content whenever it wants, but the feeds are different so BTN-Texas can show UT games while BTN shows Ohio State or whatever.

 

[Stinger92860]

I guess UConn must be right there with the lower tier of public Ivy's.

http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandr...ges/rankings/national-universities/top-public

 

[huskymedic]

dennisdoddcbs 5:16pm via TweetDeck
Bowlsby reiterates no equity partners that fit B12 for expansion. Talking to u Memphis, UConn, Cincy, BYU, USF, UCF.
http://www.cbssports.com/collegefoo...ould-consider-co-champions-after-playoff-snub

>>Bowlsby reiterated there is no partner(s) for Big 12 expansion that make sense at the moment. The most mentioned candidates – Cincinnati, Connecticut, Memphis, BYU, South Florida, Central Florida – do not bring the equity to the table that matches the annual Big 12 per-school payout from the media contracts -- $22 million.

"That's right," he said. "Even more than that -- it's academic, it's competitiveness, it's geography, it's scope of program …<<

 

[upstater]

"That's right," he said. "Even more than that -- it's academic, it's competitiveness, it's geography, it's scope of program …<<

We have entered George Costanza bizarro world. When your champ Baylor loses to one of those schools in football, when one of those schools wins the national championship in basketball, when some of those schools are much better academically than yours, when they have bigger athletic programs than the vast majority of your schools, when they have better markets than the majority of your schools, you are showing that you are basically an idiot.

Well, at least he can fall back on geography.

 

[SubbaBub]

Bowlsby apparently can't do multiplication. CT would absolutely broker an instate cable deal that would result in $25-30M a year to get UConn's games in CT 1 Million+ homes to the channel that carries them.

 

[Deleted]

After those comments, I'm curious to see if Bowlsby's days are numbered as a commissioner. It seems like he's refusing to change with the times and won't look outside of his narrow telescope. He's not very creative.

 

[bobbyinaz]

Bowlsby apparently can't do multiplication. CT would absolutely broker an instate cable deal that would result in $25-30M a year to get UConn's games in CT 1 Million+ homes to the channel that carries them.

Huh? The B12 games are already on ESPN & FOX. There is no B12 network to broker any deals with. Unless you think UConn can make a side deal with Texas & demand that the LHN be made available on basic cable throughout CT there is no cable deal to be brokered

 

[itgoeslike]

We have entered George Costanza bizarro world. When your champ Baylor loses to one of those schools in football, when one of those schools wins the national championship in basketball, when some of those schools are much better academically than yours, when they have bigger athletic programs than the vast majority of your schools, when they have better markets than the majority of your schools, you are showing that you are basically an idiot.

Well, at least he can fall back on geography.

He is an idiot. Consider that UConn won as many, or more, national titles last year than the entire membership of the Big 12 Conference. . .

 

[SubbaBub]

Huh? The B12 games are already on ESPN & FOX. There is no B12 network to broker any deals with. Unless you think UConn can make a side deal with Texas & demand that the LHN be made available on basic cable throughout CT there is no cable deal to be brokered

The deal would be a minimal participation of UCONN in the national cable deal but allow UConn to market it's an agreed number tier 3 games (most of them) to a channel like SNY. The state then makes the channel and the fee a requirement for a cable TV license in the State and funnel the money to UConn. Done.

 

[Hoophound]

The deal would be a minimal participation of UCONN in the national cable deal but allow UConn to market it's an agreed number tier 3 games (most of them) to a channel like SNY. The state then makes the channel and the fee a requirement for a cable TV license in the State and funnel the money to UConn. Done.

I don't know if it is that simple but you seem to have some knowledge of how it works. If you are right, we are probably the only school that can pull something like that off.

If I'm UConn, I publicly rebut Bowlsby's statement and toot my horn a little bit.

 

[Dooley]

Pure and utter poppycock. The more "we're content at 10 / there is nobody that adds value" garbage that Bowlsby and other B12 mouths spurt out, the more I think this is a dead man walking conference. Texas throwing around some muscle to keep their short-term revenue as lucrative as possible until their eventual move.

 

[Deleted]

After those comments, I'm curious to see if Bowlsby's days are numbered as a commissioner. It seems like he's refusing to change with the times and won't look outside of his narrow telescope. He's not very creative.

 

[Dooley]

UCONN gets $8M/yr for its T3 rights (signed in 2010). That falls right in line with most other P5 schools before most of the CR movement that has crushed UCONN. Point is, UCONN has the same value as many P5 schools: http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/...-Recently-Signed-Multimedia-Rights-Deals.aspx

Also, our Nike deal falls in line with most P5 schools. We make about $1.4M/yr in cash; $1.5M/yr in product from Nike: http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2014/01/how_much_do_colleges_get_for_s.html

If UCONN had zero value, like everyone claims, why has it been able to sign comparable deals with other P5 schools?

Again, Bowlsby and any B12 rhetoric saying nobody out there adds value is full of poppycock.

 

[UConn Dan]

Bowlsby will end up just as much of a patsy as Beebe at Texas's behest.

We add value to any league. But our biggest obstacles are that we are 1) geographically challenged in the big 12's eyes and 2) the big 12 does not and will not have a tv network so our market really doesn't help us.

They are most likely going to ride out their current TV contract or Texas will figure out a way out of GOR.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

ESPN could fix this in a nanosecond. We believe we are worth $20MM, and we are probably worth a lot more than that. ESPN doesn't care, and that is all that matters.

 

[zls44]

The deal would be a minimal participation of UCONN in the national cable deal but allow UConn to market it's an agreed number tier 3 games (most of them) to a channel like SNY. The state then makes the channel and the fee a requirement for a cable TV license in the State and funnel the money to UConn. Done.

....no.

Putting aside the fact that it would never even make a DPUC proposal...and the fact that every cable operator would resist it...and the fact that it's tortious interference...let's put all of those realities on the side and break it down from another basic level.

There aren't any Tier 3 rights to sell.

The Tier 3 rights are part of the AAC contract. For everything except men's/women's ice hockey, field hockey and lacrosse, the AAC owns them lock stock & barrel. The move that's coming soon is for the AAC to do what the MAC, Big West, MAAC, ACC and pretty much every other conference that has a deal with ESPN- developing the infrastructure for transmission facilities on campus and school-productions of all AAC home sporting events. These end up distributed through ESPN3/Watch ESPN. The AAC is already doing this from a conference level (every non-UConn WBB game is streamed online, plus conference tournaments in the other sports) and the Big East is ramping this up through the Fox app. It's protection against cord-cutting.

This is from the recent MAC-ESPN deal and explains how most of these contracts will work going forward: http://www.hustlebelt.com/2014/8/19/6045303/explaining-the-new-mac-espn-tv-deal

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The simple reality is that UConn doesn't add enough value to the overall contract to make them worth expanding. It doesn't matter that it's an excellent school, it doesn't matter that it wins a lot of titles, it doesn't matter that it's between New York and Boston. If it was worth it, it wouldn't have been passed over by the ACC...and the Big Ten...and the Big XII...the only people who found them to have any value are Hockey East and they're looking like geniuses for doing so.

Here's a couple of articles on the top rated markets for college football & college basketball. Hartford isn't in either.

http://espnmediazone.com/us/press-r...ootball-coverage-garners-millions-of-viewers/

http://espnmediazone.com/us/press-r...viewed-and-highest-rated-regular-season-ever/

"For the 12th consecutive year, Louisville was the highest-rated metered market for ESPN’s regular-season telecasts, averaging a 4.5 rating. Greensboro, Kansas City and Raleigh-Durham finished tied for second with a 2.8 rating. It marks the third straight year Greensboro has ended the season in the second spot. The remaining top 10 is Memphis (2.6), Columbus (2.0), Cincinnati (1.9), Knoxville (1.9), Dayton (1.9) and Indianapolis (1.8). "

Think Memphis going from conference games against UAB & Rice to UConn & Louisville had an impact?

"Memphis made the biggest year-to-year jump in the standings, moving from 14th to fifth by doubling its rating from a 1.3 to a 2.6."

 

[zls44]

After those comments, I'm curious to see if Bowlsby's days are numbered as a commissioner. It seems like he's refusing to change with the times and won't look outside of his narrow telescope. He's not very creative.

It's amazing how they went from one idiot commissioner to another one. Breathtaking.

 

[XOVERX]

That's a great article, short and concise. The point of the article is that the Big 10 needs to invite Texas and Oklahoma. The last sentence:

"The last wave of Big Ten expansion helped bring the conference to the East Coast and those major television markets. Now it’s time for the Big Ten to strengthen the league on the gridiron."

I think the formula, if the B1G ever decides to utilize it, is: Kansas > Oklahoma > Texas > UConn.

Pick off Kansas and Oklahoma, and then Texas will have no choice except to migrate out of the B12; there being no other anchor school left. To keep its most important association alive, Texas follows Oklahoma into a very nice, prestigious league. Then here comes UConn to get the B1G to 18.

Such an expansion gets the B1G that strenghened league on the gridiron while simultaneously bringing the B1G even more major television markets in the East, finishing off the north end of the NE Corridor.

But there's even more: Excellent new football recruiting ground, massive basketball upgrade with UConn and Kansas, shuts out the SEC from state flagship schools in the West, two additional AAU schools with one near-AAU (UConn). Grand slam, if you'll pardon the mixed metaphor.

Maybe the B1G is cultivating such a scenario, idk. It seems obvious enough to me, but there's a whole lot of moving parts, as they say. The most difficult moving part, from Texas' pov, is what happens to its beloved LHN? Texas folks who get it do like the LHN. So who knows?

 

[SubbaBub]

....no.

Putting aside the fact that it would never even make a DPUC proposal...and the fact that every cable operator would resist it...and the fact that it's tortious interference...let's put all of those realities on the side and break it down from another basic level.

There aren't any Tier 3 rights to sell.

The Tier 3 rights are part of the AAC contract. For everything except men's/women's ice hockey, field hockey and lacrosse, the AAC owns them lock stock & barrel. The move that's coming soon is for the AAC to do what the MAC, Big West, MAAC, ACC and pretty much every other conference that has a deal with ESPN- developing the infrastructure for transmission facilities on campus and school-productions of all AAC home sporting events. These end up distributed through ESPN3/Watch ESPN. The AAC is already doing this from a conference level (every non-UConn WBB game is streamed online, plus conference tournaments in the other sports) and the Big East is ramping this up through the Fox app. It's protection against cord-cutting.

This is from the recent MAC-ESPN deal and explains how most of these contracts will work going forward: http://www.hustlebelt.com/2014/8/19/6045303/explaining-the-new-mac-espn-tv-deal

-----------

The simple reality is that UConn doesn't add enough value to the overall contract to make them worth expanding. It doesn't matter that it's an excellent school, it doesn't matter that it wins a lot of titles, it doesn't matter that it's between New York and Boston. If it was worth it, it wouldn't have been passed over by the ACC...and the Big Ten...and the Big XII...the only people who found them to have any value are Hockey East and they're looking like geniuses for doing so.

Here's a couple of articles on the top rated markets for college football & college basketball. Hartford isn't in either.

http://espnmediazone.com/us/press-r...ootball-coverage-garners-millions-of-viewers/

http://espnmediazone.com/us/press-r...viewed-and-highest-rated-regular-season-ever/

"For the 12th consecutive year, Louisville was the highest-rated metered market for ESPN’s regular-season telecasts, averaging a 4.5 rating. Greensboro, Kansas City and Raleigh-Durham finished tied for second with a 2.8 rating. It marks the third straight year Greensboro has ended the season in the second spot. The remaining top 10 is Memphis (2.6), Columbus (2.0), Cincinnati (1.9), Knoxville (1.9), Dayton (1.9) and Indianapolis (1.8). "

Think Memphis going from conference games against UAB & Rice to UConn & Louisville had an impact?

"Memphis made the biggest year-to-year jump in the standings, moving from 14th to fifth by doubling its rating from a 1.3 to a 2.6."

When has a cable system not bitehed about adding a sports network. It could be done. Why is SNY in every home in CT; it's not because of the Mets. And the state can raise excise taxes on cable andP satellite bills anytime it wants to. It can discount systems that carry enough Uconn sports. It can also increase UCONN funding anytime it wants to. There is no need to connect the two things directly. DPUC answers to the legislature.

If the price of P5 admittance is a temporary self funding mechanism, it will happen.

 

[UConnTrumbull]

Lol...I love how he mentioned academics

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Z,

If UConn is worthless to ESPN, why do we keep trying to sell ourselves to ESPN? And if ESPN will never pay more than $2 mm per year for UConn, wouldn't it make sense to either find another way to sell our games, or shut down football and de-emphasize athletics? That appears to be what you are saying.

 

[zls44]

Z, If UConn is worthless to ESPN, why do we keep trying to sell ourselves to ESPN? And if ESPN will never pay more than $2 mm per year for UConn, wouldn't it make sense to either find another way to sell our games, or shut down football and de-emphasize athletics? That appears to be what you are saying.

I knew you'd seize on that as an excuse for your stupid anti football rant.

 

[Adios]

We have infiltrated ESPN. I wouldn't worry.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

I knew you'd seize on that as an excuse for your stupid anti football rant.

Lame.

You are the one saying UConn is worthless, not me. Follow your post to its logical conclusion.