Football start times are rarely in Colorado State's control thanks to Mountain West football TV contracts
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>>Athletic director Joe Parker would prefer Colorado State play its homecoming football game against San Diego State on Saturday afternoon instead of 8 p.m.
He’d even be willing to give up some of the $1.1 million CSU receives from the Mountain West’s national television deals with CBS-Sports Network and ESPN to make that happen.
CSU, though, is in the MW minority when it comes to that tradeoff, commissioner Craig Thompson said Monday. Most schools in the conference care more about maximizing the revenue they earn from those media-rights deals than about when their games are played. And the MW’s value to potential broadcast partners is directly correlated to the conference’s willingness to play games when others are not.<<
>>“We’re knee-deep in negotiations with everybody and anybody, and one thing is perfectly clear: The later we kick and the more frequently we play on Thursdays and Fridays, the more rights fees they will pay us,” he said.<<
>>The MW’s 11 full members have been asked repeatedly to rank the importance of revenue, controlling start times and national exposure in a new media-rights package, Thompson said.
CSU consistently puts controlling start times at the top of its list, Parker said. “The revenue is important, but we’ve always talked that, in our case with the new stadium and fan engagement, we’d rather see more favorable kick times,” Parker said.
The majority of the conference’s members, though, continue to make revenue No. 1 and control over start times No. 2, creating a “direct conflict … which makes it a very challenging decision by the membership,” Thompson said.
Restrictions on the number of late-night games a school can play, or what time of year those games are scheduled, further reduce the value, he said.<<