The SEC had another banner season at the bank, as its members reeled in around $21 million per school during the fiscal year of 2013.
That puts the SEC well ahead of everybody else and just behind the king of cash Big Ten, which distributed $23-$26 million per school in the same fiscal year. And the SEC has reasons to be bullish on the future, as its own SEC Network is scheduled to launch Aug. 14.
But any prediction that, with the SEC Network, the conference will out-pace the Big Ten in earnings would be premature. There are still a number of issues involving the nascent network, not the least of which is that it has yet to reach agreements with some of the nation's biggest TV carriers.
With an asking price of $1.30 per subscriber within the conference's 11-state footprint, the SEC Network is demanding significantly more than either the Big Ten ($1) or the Pac-12 ($.80) for their networks. As a point of comparison, the NBC Sports Network, which carries the Stanley Cup playoffs and the English Premier League, costs merely 31 cents per subscriber.
So far, DirecTV (20 million subscribers) and Comcast (22 million) have not caved to the SEC's demands. DirecTV in fact has not carried the Pac-12 Network since its inception two years ago and the impasse is expected to continue into a third season this fall.
Even with the SEC fans threatening to make a switch, these providers might not budge so easily as the sports television landscape has changed dramatically over the past five years. The proliferation of regional sports networks and their exorbitant fees have forced the providers to re-evaluate their business model.
In Houston, the Comcast regional sports network that carries the Astros and Rockets recently filed for bankruptcy after it was unable to get on any carriers other than its parent Comcast. In L.A., the popular Dodgers—even with the legendary Vin Scully in the booth in perhaps his final season—have been blacked out this season on virtually every carrier other than Time Warner, which owns the new sports network that broadcasts the team's games.
The SEC Network, of course, has one advantage over the others as it's part-owned by ESPN, which is the most expensive and perhaps the most indispensable cable network. ESPN has already made sure that the SEC Network will not be stuck only with third-tier football games involving FCS schools. South Carolina-Texas A&M has been chosen to debut the network's lineup in the 2014 season.
But even with ESPN's clout, there is no guarantee that these carriers, facing considerable consumer backlash over rising cable bills, will play ball. For as popular as sports is in general and in particular in the South, there is still a considerable number of people who don't care and don't want to pay for something they won't watch.
"A lot of the households would assign a very low value to an SEC regional sports network," Andrew Zimbalist, a noted sports economist recently told USA Today. "There is a real structural question of how important it is for a cable distributor to carry this, particularly in light of the fact the bottom income earners have had their wages stagnate over the last decade and cable bills keep going up and up and up.
"I think we've been in a bubble and there has been a lot of over-bidding, and these little fracases we're seeing are harbingers of sustained battles that will be happening."
SEC has quite a bit of brand power and fan loyalty. But given the current business climate, the success of the SEC Network is hardly a certainty.
Showing posts with label Television. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Television. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 3, 2014
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
Could CFP Fall Apart Before It Starts?
Like it or not, the College Football Playoff, set to debut this coming season, will be around until at least 2025—or outlast the next Bush (Jeb) or Clinton (Hillary) administration.
At least that's what Bill Hancock, the CFP executive director, insisted will be the case when he spoke at the AWSM convention in Orlando over the weekend.
There's just one catch: While the CFP has signed over the entire postseason to ESPN in a 12-year, $5.64 billion deal, the contracts with the six bowls that will take turns to host the semifinal games remain unsigned just three months before the season were to start.
CBS Sports' Dennis Dodd reported earlier Wednesday that the bowls—Rose, Sugar, Orange, Fiesta, Cotton and Peach—have not yet come to terms with the CFP. The primary hangup appears to be that the bowls, which have long operated independently even during the BCS era, are having some second thoughts about surrendering all of their autonomy so they can be run in a centralized fashion much like the Final Four.
Hancock, however, told Dodd the contract holdup is only a formality and nothing to worry about:
"We're continuing to discuss the contracts," he said. "This is nothing unusual. We're just plugging away and everything will get finished."
That may be so, but the longer this drags on, the more likely the bowls will get cold feet. By submitting themselves to the CFP arrangement, each bowl already will lose its own uniqueness. The Rose Bowl, for example, may never get another matchup between the Pac-12 and Big Ten champions as it did last season, as well as every year after World War II and before the advent of the BCS.
Whereas the BCS mostly preserved the bowl system that has been in place for nearly a century, the CFP more or less will obliterate it. The big bowls used to send their representatives (sporting those tacky blazers) to games all over the country to scout teams that they might want to invite, now teams will be assigned to them by a selection committee.
Though it's too early to speculate whether the entire CFP apparatus might fall apart before it even gets started, it's safe to say that the CFP is still a work in progress. While there has been much talk about expanding the playoff field to eight teams or even 16 teams, that is very much a non-starter because we haven't even dotted the i's and crossed the t's for the the four-team CFP.
First things first.
At least that's what Bill Hancock, the CFP executive director, insisted will be the case when he spoke at the AWSM convention in Orlando over the weekend.
There's just one catch: While the CFP has signed over the entire postseason to ESPN in a 12-year, $5.64 billion deal, the contracts with the six bowls that will take turns to host the semifinal games remain unsigned just three months before the season were to start.
CBS Sports' Dennis Dodd reported earlier Wednesday that the bowls—Rose, Sugar, Orange, Fiesta, Cotton and Peach—have not yet come to terms with the CFP. The primary hangup appears to be that the bowls, which have long operated independently even during the BCS era, are having some second thoughts about surrendering all of their autonomy so they can be run in a centralized fashion much like the Final Four.
Hancock, however, told Dodd the contract holdup is only a formality and nothing to worry about:
"We're continuing to discuss the contracts," he said. "This is nothing unusual. We're just plugging away and everything will get finished."
That may be so, but the longer this drags on, the more likely the bowls will get cold feet. By submitting themselves to the CFP arrangement, each bowl already will lose its own uniqueness. The Rose Bowl, for example, may never get another matchup between the Pac-12 and Big Ten champions as it did last season, as well as every year after World War II and before the advent of the BCS.
Whereas the BCS mostly preserved the bowl system that has been in place for nearly a century, the CFP more or less will obliterate it. The big bowls used to send their representatives (sporting those tacky blazers) to games all over the country to scout teams that they might want to invite, now teams will be assigned to them by a selection committee.
Though it's too early to speculate whether the entire CFP apparatus might fall apart before it even gets started, it's safe to say that the CFP is still a work in progress. While there has been much talk about expanding the playoff field to eight teams or even 16 teams, that is very much a non-starter because we haven't even dotted the i's and crossed the t's for the the four-team CFP.
First things first.
Monday, May 19, 2014
Big Ten Is Still College Sports' King of Cash
The Big Ten pays Jim Delany nearly $2 million a year for his work as conference commissioner, and he's worth every penny.
Under Delany's stewardship since 1989, the Big Ten has been and continues to be the richest conference in college athletics. Even though it has not won a national championship in football since 2002, the Big Ten still rakes in more cash than any other conference, including the SEC.
According to tax returns made available to USA Today, the Big Ten brought in $318.6 million in revenue for fiscal 2013. Nearly $298 million of that was distributed to its 12 members, with each school receiving between $23-$26 million (except Nebraska, which won't receive full shares until 2017-18).
Contrast that with the SEC, which is the second-richest conference despite being far more accomplished on the football field. In fiscal 2013 the SEC made $314.5 million, with its 14 member schools each receiving around $21 million (and a bit less for newcomers Texas A&M and Missouri).
So how did Delany get his conference schools more money than anybody else? And how did he do so despite the Big Ten's 1-2 record in BCS championship games and a losing record (13-15) in BCS bowl games during the 16-year run of the BCS?
The simple answer is television. Delany figured out how to leverage the large viewership of his popular conference to maximize revenue.
The 12 Big Ten schools occupy 10 of the 35 largest media markets in the United States (according to the 2013-14 Nielsen Media Research)—as compared to six for the SEC, which includes the marginal SEC markets of Houston and St. Louis. All Big Ten schools except Iowa and Nebraska dominate at least one, sometimes several of these top-ranked markets.
Delany's decision to launch the Big Ten Network in 2007 also turned out to be a stroke of genius, even if he was second-guessed at the time—especially after the BTN failed to corral all the cable providers in its first year. The BTN has grown to be a model for all other conferences, with the Pac-12 following suit two years ago and the SEC due to begin its own in August.
That's why while Delany's decision to add Maryland and Rutgers was met with widespread derision—especially given those schools' complete lack of athletic prowess in recent years—it might turn out to be another shrewd maneuver.
With Maryland and Rutgers in the fold (beginning this fall), the Big Ten adds three more top media markets (No. 1 New York, No. 8 Washington, D.C. and No. 27 Baltimore) into its already formidable lineup. This will force television providers in these markets to add BTN into the basic tier while allowing the conference to establish a firm presence on the densely populated eastern seaboard.
Delany is already looking ahead. After alternating the Big Ten basketball tournament between Chicago and Indianapolis, the 2017 tournament will be played at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. Don't be surprised if the Big Ten's football title game shows up at either FedEx Field in Maryland or MetLife Stadium in New Jersey sometime soon.
“Moving into the eastern corridor, that’s the new Big Ten,” Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez told CBSChicago's Chris Emma. “We all have to accept it, and our fans have to accept it. We want to welcome our two new members in Rutgers and Maryland, and we want a presence in the East. We want to take advantage of us expanding into the East.”
That's why as much as Maryland and Rutgers are the butt of jokes in college football, fans only laugh at Delany and his vision at their own peril. He and the Big Ten are laughing all the way to the bank.
Under Delany's stewardship since 1989, the Big Ten has been and continues to be the richest conference in college athletics. Even though it has not won a national championship in football since 2002, the Big Ten still rakes in more cash than any other conference, including the SEC.
According to tax returns made available to USA Today, the Big Ten brought in $318.6 million in revenue for fiscal 2013. Nearly $298 million of that was distributed to its 12 members, with each school receiving between $23-$26 million (except Nebraska, which won't receive full shares until 2017-18).
Contrast that with the SEC, which is the second-richest conference despite being far more accomplished on the football field. In fiscal 2013 the SEC made $314.5 million, with its 14 member schools each receiving around $21 million (and a bit less for newcomers Texas A&M and Missouri).
So how did Delany get his conference schools more money than anybody else? And how did he do so despite the Big Ten's 1-2 record in BCS championship games and a losing record (13-15) in BCS bowl games during the 16-year run of the BCS?
The simple answer is television. Delany figured out how to leverage the large viewership of his popular conference to maximize revenue.
The 12 Big Ten schools occupy 10 of the 35 largest media markets in the United States (according to the 2013-14 Nielsen Media Research)—as compared to six for the SEC, which includes the marginal SEC markets of Houston and St. Louis. All Big Ten schools except Iowa and Nebraska dominate at least one, sometimes several of these top-ranked markets.
Delany's decision to launch the Big Ten Network in 2007 also turned out to be a stroke of genius, even if he was second-guessed at the time—especially after the BTN failed to corral all the cable providers in its first year. The BTN has grown to be a model for all other conferences, with the Pac-12 following suit two years ago and the SEC due to begin its own in August.
That's why while Delany's decision to add Maryland and Rutgers was met with widespread derision—especially given those schools' complete lack of athletic prowess in recent years—it might turn out to be another shrewd maneuver.
With Maryland and Rutgers in the fold (beginning this fall), the Big Ten adds three more top media markets (No. 1 New York, No. 8 Washington, D.C. and No. 27 Baltimore) into its already formidable lineup. This will force television providers in these markets to add BTN into the basic tier while allowing the conference to establish a firm presence on the densely populated eastern seaboard.
Delany is already looking ahead. After alternating the Big Ten basketball tournament between Chicago and Indianapolis, the 2017 tournament will be played at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. Don't be surprised if the Big Ten's football title game shows up at either FedEx Field in Maryland or MetLife Stadium in New Jersey sometime soon.
“Moving into the eastern corridor, that’s the new Big Ten,” Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez told CBSChicago's Chris Emma. “We all have to accept it, and our fans have to accept it. We want to welcome our two new members in Rutgers and Maryland, and we want a presence in the East. We want to take advantage of us expanding into the East.”
That's why as much as Maryland and Rutgers are the butt of jokes in college football, fans only laugh at Delany and his vision at their own peril. He and the Big Ten are laughing all the way to the bank.
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
Pac-12 Running Out of Time to Get on DirecTV
DirecTV just brought The Weather Channel to its knees. Will the Pac-12 follow suit and beg for forgiveness?
The Pac-12 Network is about to enter its third year of existence, yet there are no signs that it soon will be carried by DirecTV, one of the nation's top programming distributors—and the major one among sports fans. The two sides haven't even had any tangible discussions in 2014, so a resolution to the impasse is anything but imminent.
And that's very bad news for the Pac-12.
With the SEC Network about to enter the fray in August, the Pac-12 can ill afford being shut out of DirecTV for a third year and likely beyond. Should the SEC join the Big Ten to launch its network on DirecTV, it'll further cement Pac-12's status as an also-ran with its TV network further marginalized.
The biggest mistake the Pac-12 and its commissioner Larry Scott made was not to bring DirecTV into the fold when the network was launched in August 2012. And soon after the initial talks fell apart, the Pac-12 carried on a confrontational tactic that asked its fans to switch from DirecTV, with conference athletic directors leading the charge, including this one from Sandy Barbour:
The Weather Channel used the same playbook when it was dropped by DirecTV in January, taking out a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal to taunt DirecTV. Scott should ask David Kenny, the CEO of TWC's parent company, how that worked out. Kenny finally got TWC back on DirecTV on April 9 by pledging to cut back on reality TV shows and issuing a humiliating apology.
Make no mistake: DirecTV is in no rush to make a deal with the Pac-12. It has already sustained whatever loss of subscribers it was going to be hit with over the past two years and is not at risk to lose a chunk more. It also needs to prioritize whom it needs to make a deal with in an increasingly crowded and expensive sports programming market.
With more than 20 million subscribers around the nation and nearly two million in its base in Southern California, DirecTV is currently embroiled in a spat with Time Warner Cable, which launched a new Dodgers channel this spring. All major carriers in SoCal so far have resisted Time Warner's fee demand of nearly $5 per subscriber and having the channel placed on the basic tier.
On a different front, DirecTV is actively in negotiations with the SEC Network ahead of its Aug. 14 launch. DirecTV has to seriously engage the SEC after its opening gambit was met with tremendous blowback from SEC fans, as well as the fact that the SEC Network is co-owned by ESPN, the most powerful entity in sports television.
The Pac-12, on the other hand, has no such clout. By deciding not to take on a partner, the conference left its network with no leverage whatsoever. And since the Pac-12 fanbase is not as rabid as SEC fans and the conference footprint contains six NFL franchises, massive fan defection from DirecTV just hasn't materialized. DirecTV remains the exclusive provider of the NFL Sunday Ticket through 2014.
Being shut out of DirecTV for two years has hurt the Pac-12's recruiting and branding, not just in football but also other sports, particularly men's basketball. This past March, a majority of the Pac-12's conference tournament games were available only to a fraction of the national audience, when every other major conference had every game on TV.
The endgame here isn't going to be pleasant for Scott, who must compromise way more than DirecTV would be willing. The Pac-12 needs to lower its demands and perhaps offer give-backs to other distributors that already carry the network.
Time is of the essence. Once DirecTV cuts a deal with the Dodgers and the SEC, there will be little to no room left for the Pac-12.
The Pac-12 Network is about to enter its third year of existence, yet there are no signs that it soon will be carried by DirecTV, one of the nation's top programming distributors—and the major one among sports fans. The two sides haven't even had any tangible discussions in 2014, so a resolution to the impasse is anything but imminent.
And that's very bad news for the Pac-12.
With the SEC Network about to enter the fray in August, the Pac-12 can ill afford being shut out of DirecTV for a third year and likely beyond. Should the SEC join the Big Ten to launch its network on DirecTV, it'll further cement Pac-12's status as an also-ran with its TV network further marginalized.
The biggest mistake the Pac-12 and its commissioner Larry Scott made was not to bring DirecTV into the fold when the network was launched in August 2012. And soon after the initial talks fell apart, the Pac-12 carried on a confrontational tactic that asked its fans to switch from DirecTV, with conference athletic directors leading the charge, including this one from Sandy Barbour:
The Weather Channel used the same playbook when it was dropped by DirecTV in January, taking out a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal to taunt DirecTV. Scott should ask David Kenny, the CEO of TWC's parent company, how that worked out. Kenny finally got TWC back on DirecTV on April 9 by pledging to cut back on reality TV shows and issuing a humiliating apology.
Make no mistake: DirecTV is in no rush to make a deal with the Pac-12. It has already sustained whatever loss of subscribers it was going to be hit with over the past two years and is not at risk to lose a chunk more. It also needs to prioritize whom it needs to make a deal with in an increasingly crowded and expensive sports programming market.
With more than 20 million subscribers around the nation and nearly two million in its base in Southern California, DirecTV is currently embroiled in a spat with Time Warner Cable, which launched a new Dodgers channel this spring. All major carriers in SoCal so far have resisted Time Warner's fee demand of nearly $5 per subscriber and having the channel placed on the basic tier.
On a different front, DirecTV is actively in negotiations with the SEC Network ahead of its Aug. 14 launch. DirecTV has to seriously engage the SEC after its opening gambit was met with tremendous blowback from SEC fans, as well as the fact that the SEC Network is co-owned by ESPN, the most powerful entity in sports television.
The Pac-12, on the other hand, has no such clout. By deciding not to take on a partner, the conference left its network with no leverage whatsoever. And since the Pac-12 fanbase is not as rabid as SEC fans and the conference footprint contains six NFL franchises, massive fan defection from DirecTV just hasn't materialized. DirecTV remains the exclusive provider of the NFL Sunday Ticket through 2014.
Being shut out of DirecTV for two years has hurt the Pac-12's recruiting and branding, not just in football but also other sports, particularly men's basketball. This past March, a majority of the Pac-12's conference tournament games were available only to a fraction of the national audience, when every other major conference had every game on TV.
The endgame here isn't going to be pleasant for Scott, who must compromise way more than DirecTV would be willing. The Pac-12 needs to lower its demands and perhaps offer give-backs to other distributors that already carry the network.
Time is of the essence. Once DirecTV cuts a deal with the Dodgers and the SEC, there will be little to no room left for the Pac-12.
Thursday, March 27, 2014
Groundhog Day: NCAA vs. Big Time Football
Imagine that there's only one college football game on TV every Saturday. Just one.
Imagine that your favorite team can be on TV only once all season. Just once.
This isn't some doomsday scenario on some parallel planet. This was reality only about 30 years ago.
That only changed—so now you have an embarrassment of riches as far as televised games go—because big-time college football programs took the NCAA to court. And won.
In the landmark NCAA v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma case, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June 1984 against the NCAA, a decision that freed the big-time college football programs to cut their own TV deals and opened up the cash flow spigot. There is nothing that has done more to transform college football into a money-making machine that it is today.
Outraged by the NCAA's 1970s TV policy that they viewed as an illegal restraint of trade, the big football powers of the day formed the College Football Association to take on the governing body. The 64-member CFA consisted of the Atlantic Coast, Big Eight, Southeastern, Southwest and Western Athletic conferences, plus major independents including Notre Dame, Penn State, Pitt and the service academies—curiously, the Big Ten and Pac-10 declined to join.
With strength by numbers, the CFA aggressively confronted the NCAA, which haughtily threatened the members with various forms of sanctions. The jousting finally reached the courts, with the universities of Oklahoma and Georgia taking the lead. When the Supreme Court sided with the schools, the NCAA effectively lost all control of the financial windfall that soon flooded the coffers of major Division I-A football programs.
Now history is on the verge of repeating itself.
With the NCAA under siege from various lawsuits all relating to the issue of player compensation—mostly in football and men's basketball, the only real revenue-generating sports—the "Big Five" conferences are mulling another split from the NCAA. Thirty years ago it was about finances, this time it's about governance.
These 65 schools (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC, plus Notre Dame) understand the current compensation model is unsustainable and probably won't stand up in court. While the programs are reaping millions from television contracts, apparel deals and ticket and merchandise sales, the players are punished for receiving even the most inconsequential fringe benefits.
The drive to split the revenue-rich power programs gained momentum early this year when the majority of an NCAA seminar attendees voted in favor of granting them more autonomy. Thursday's ruling by the National Labor Relations Board to allow Northwestern football players to unionize will only accelerate that process.
These institutions simply make too much money to not allow the labor (ahem, "student-athletes") to have a piece of that financial pie. The lower-rung Division I programs (both FBS and FCS), on the other hand, are constantly in the red and cannot afford to increase the aid packages their players receive. This schism is what caused the NCAA to table a $2,000-per-player stipend proposal in 2012.
But they can't kick the can down the road for much longer. The financial wellbeing of all these schools—founded on winning the NCAA v. OU case—is now being threatened by lawsuits filed by others. They understand that in order to preserve most of the riches, they must share some of it with those who contributed all the sweat labor—broken bones, torn ligaments, concussions and all.
The NCAA is headed toward the ash heap of history. Big-time college football can't save the NCAA (or maybe they don't want to), so its best bet is to abandon the sinking ship instead of going down with it.
Imagine that your favorite team can be on TV only once all season. Just once.
This isn't some doomsday scenario on some parallel planet. This was reality only about 30 years ago.
That only changed—so now you have an embarrassment of riches as far as televised games go—because big-time college football programs took the NCAA to court. And won.
In the landmark NCAA v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma case, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June 1984 against the NCAA, a decision that freed the big-time college football programs to cut their own TV deals and opened up the cash flow spigot. There is nothing that has done more to transform college football into a money-making machine that it is today.
Outraged by the NCAA's 1970s TV policy that they viewed as an illegal restraint of trade, the big football powers of the day formed the College Football Association to take on the governing body. The 64-member CFA consisted of the Atlantic Coast, Big Eight, Southeastern, Southwest and Western Athletic conferences, plus major independents including Notre Dame, Penn State, Pitt and the service academies—curiously, the Big Ten and Pac-10 declined to join.
With strength by numbers, the CFA aggressively confronted the NCAA, which haughtily threatened the members with various forms of sanctions. The jousting finally reached the courts, with the universities of Oklahoma and Georgia taking the lead. When the Supreme Court sided with the schools, the NCAA effectively lost all control of the financial windfall that soon flooded the coffers of major Division I-A football programs.
Now history is on the verge of repeating itself.
With the NCAA under siege from various lawsuits all relating to the issue of player compensation—mostly in football and men's basketball, the only real revenue-generating sports—the "Big Five" conferences are mulling another split from the NCAA. Thirty years ago it was about finances, this time it's about governance.
These 65 schools (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC, plus Notre Dame) understand the current compensation model is unsustainable and probably won't stand up in court. While the programs are reaping millions from television contracts, apparel deals and ticket and merchandise sales, the players are punished for receiving even the most inconsequential fringe benefits.
The drive to split the revenue-rich power programs gained momentum early this year when the majority of an NCAA seminar attendees voted in favor of granting them more autonomy. Thursday's ruling by the National Labor Relations Board to allow Northwestern football players to unionize will only accelerate that process.
These institutions simply make too much money to not allow the labor (ahem, "student-athletes") to have a piece of that financial pie. The lower-rung Division I programs (both FBS and FCS), on the other hand, are constantly in the red and cannot afford to increase the aid packages their players receive. This schism is what caused the NCAA to table a $2,000-per-player stipend proposal in 2012.
| School | Revenue* | Expenses | Profits |
| Texas | $103.8 | $25.9 | $77.9 |
| Michigan | $85.2 | $23.6 | $61.6 |
| Alabama | $82.0 | $36.9 | $45.1 |
| Georgia | $75.0 | $22.7 | $52.3 |
| Florida | $74.1 | $23.0 | $51.1 |
| Notre Dame | $69.0 | $25.8 | $43.2 |
| LSU | $68.8 | $24.0 | $44.8 |
| Oklahoma | $59.6 | $24.1 | $35.5 |
| Ohio State | $58.1 | $34.0 | $24.1 |
| Nebraska | $55.1 | $18.6 | $36.5 |
* Data from U.S. Department of Education (2011-12 academic year)
But they can't kick the can down the road for much longer. The financial wellbeing of all these schools—founded on winning the NCAA v. OU case—is now being threatened by lawsuits filed by others. They understand that in order to preserve most of the riches, they must share some of it with those who contributed all the sweat labor—broken bones, torn ligaments, concussions and all.
The NCAA is headed toward the ash heap of history. Big-time college football can't save the NCAA (or maybe they don't want to), so its best bet is to abandon the sinking ship instead of going down with it.
Friday, March 21, 2014
How Penn State Could Have Saved Big East Football
Imagine the College Football Playoff beginning next season not with five, but six major conferences.
The Big East is still at the table, but not splintered into a basketball version of mostly Catholic schools and a watered-down, rebranded football version that's no longer among the big boys but has to fight for scraps.
Imagine a healthy Big East football roster with these teams: Syracuse, Rutgers, Boston College, UConn, West Virginia, Virginia Tech, Louisville, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and Penn State. Oh yeah, and possibly even Notre Dame.
This conference—with or without Notre Dame—would not be relegated to the "Group of Five" as the Big East successor American Athletic Conference will be in the CFP. It would've had one of the biggest TV contracts and among the best bowl lineups. It very well might have been even bigger, having raided the northern ACC schools such as Maryland and Virginia.
All this could've happened with the change of just a single vote back in 1982.
With the NCAA tournament in full flight, ESPN touched on the demise of the once-mighty basketball conference in the excellent "Requiem for the Big East." The 30-for-30 series film touched on how football ruined the conference, that its drive to get the lucrative football TV money inevitably destroyed what was the best basketball conference in history.
But what if I told you football could've minted the Big East instead of ruined it? It came down to one vote.
In 1982, the independent football powers started to see the handwriting on the wall after the major conferences freed themselves from the bonds of the NCAA and were able to negotiate their own television deals. Penn State's Joe Paterno was contemplating the formation a new eastern football conference, but was persuaded to apply to join the nascent Big East.
By a single vote, the Big East athletic directors turned down Penn State's membership request. Needing six votes to pass, Penn State got five. Three basketball schools—Georgetown, St. John's and Villanova—voted against JoePa's Nittany Lions.
Villanova actually had played Division I football and produced NFL players including Hall of Famer Howie Long. But it shut down the football program in 1980, citing lack of support, only to bring it back four years later under pressure from the alumni. Had the vote not taken place during the 'Cats' football hiatus, Villanova would've cast the deciding vote in favor of Penn State and thus changed history.
Mike Tranghese, who was then-commissioner Dave Gavitt's right-hand man, said he told Gavitt the Big East would "rue the day" when it rejected Penn State. Tranghese would later succeed Gavitt and tried vainly to make the Big East football-relevant, but by then it was too late.
Penn State joined the Big Ten instead in 1990 and that officially began the football-and-TV-driven realignment frenzy that's still not quite finished. The Big East was raided by the Big 12, Big Ten and the ACC until it was no more.
A Big East with Penn State as the kingpin in football, however, would've thrived in this age. It would've monopolized all the big media markets on the eastern seaboard and gotten a huge windfall of television dollars. (And remember, the Big East was actually the first conference to have its own network.) Even as late as 2011, before the Big East's final collapse, it was offered a $1.1 billion TV deal, which of course it foolishly turned down.
With Penn State in the fold, Notre Dame might've joined the Big East in the '80s as well, as its fanbase has always been more eastern oriented than around its midwest-based campus. And in that case the Irish would've been a full member instead of staying independent in football when they did join the Big East in 1995.
Gavitt's vision had always been making the Big East the premier basketball conference, which was achieved to an astonishing degree in the 1980s, with the crowning moment in 1985 when three conference teams made the Final Four. But by failing to tame the beast that is football, Gavitt's beloved creation ended up being eaten alive by it 30 years later.
The Big East is still at the table, but not splintered into a basketball version of mostly Catholic schools and a watered-down, rebranded football version that's no longer among the big boys but has to fight for scraps.
Imagine a healthy Big East football roster with these teams: Syracuse, Rutgers, Boston College, UConn, West Virginia, Virginia Tech, Louisville, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and Penn State. Oh yeah, and possibly even Notre Dame.
This conference—with or without Notre Dame—would not be relegated to the "Group of Five" as the Big East successor American Athletic Conference will be in the CFP. It would've had one of the biggest TV contracts and among the best bowl lineups. It very well might have been even bigger, having raided the northern ACC schools such as Maryland and Virginia.
All this could've happened with the change of just a single vote back in 1982.
With the NCAA tournament in full flight, ESPN touched on the demise of the once-mighty basketball conference in the excellent "Requiem for the Big East." The 30-for-30 series film touched on how football ruined the conference, that its drive to get the lucrative football TV money inevitably destroyed what was the best basketball conference in history.
But what if I told you football could've minted the Big East instead of ruined it? It came down to one vote.
In 1982, the independent football powers started to see the handwriting on the wall after the major conferences freed themselves from the bonds of the NCAA and were able to negotiate their own television deals. Penn State's Joe Paterno was contemplating the formation a new eastern football conference, but was persuaded to apply to join the nascent Big East.
By a single vote, the Big East athletic directors turned down Penn State's membership request. Needing six votes to pass, Penn State got five. Three basketball schools—Georgetown, St. John's and Villanova—voted against JoePa's Nittany Lions.
Villanova actually had played Division I football and produced NFL players including Hall of Famer Howie Long. But it shut down the football program in 1980, citing lack of support, only to bring it back four years later under pressure from the alumni. Had the vote not taken place during the 'Cats' football hiatus, Villanova would've cast the deciding vote in favor of Penn State and thus changed history.
Mike Tranghese, who was then-commissioner Dave Gavitt's right-hand man, said he told Gavitt the Big East would "rue the day" when it rejected Penn State. Tranghese would later succeed Gavitt and tried vainly to make the Big East football-relevant, but by then it was too late.
Penn State joined the Big Ten instead in 1990 and that officially began the football-and-TV-driven realignment frenzy that's still not quite finished. The Big East was raided by the Big 12, Big Ten and the ACC until it was no more.
| Team | Big East Member | Current Membership |
| Boston College | 1979-2005 | ACC |
| Cincinnati | 2005-2013 | American |
| Connecticut | 1979-2013 | American |
| Louisville | 2005-2013 | ACC |
| Maryland | Never a member | Big Ten |
| Notre Dame | 1995-2013 (non-football) | ACC (Independent football) |
| Penn State | Rejected for membership in 1982 | Big Ten |
| Pittsburgh | 1982-2013 | ACC |
| Rutgers | 1991-2013 | Big Ten |
| Syracuse | 1979-2013 | ACC |
| Temple | 1991-2005, 2012-2013 | American |
| Villanova* | 1980-2013 | Big East (FCS football) |
| Virginia | Never a member | ACC |
| Virginia Tech | 1991-2004 | ACC |
| West Virginia | 1991-2012 | Big 12 |
A Big East with Penn State as the kingpin in football, however, would've thrived in this age. It would've monopolized all the big media markets on the eastern seaboard and gotten a huge windfall of television dollars. (And remember, the Big East was actually the first conference to have its own network.) Even as late as 2011, before the Big East's final collapse, it was offered a $1.1 billion TV deal, which of course it foolishly turned down.
With Penn State in the fold, Notre Dame might've joined the Big East in the '80s as well, as its fanbase has always been more eastern oriented than around its midwest-based campus. And in that case the Irish would've been a full member instead of staying independent in football when they did join the Big East in 1995.
Gavitt's vision had always been making the Big East the premier basketball conference, which was achieved to an astonishing degree in the 1980s, with the crowning moment in 1985 when three conference teams made the Final Four. But by failing to tame the beast that is football, Gavitt's beloved creation ended up being eaten alive by it 30 years later.
Thursday, March 13, 2014
College Football's Fierce TV Competition
The fierce competition between college football's major conferences is no longer limited on the playing field. The "Big Five" conferences often fight their battles in boardrooms and bank vaults—and now also in outer space.
As in the television network war, beamed via satellite to a screen (or six) in your own home.
With the launching of the SEC Network this summer, three of the Big Five conferences will have their own TV networks, with the Big Ten and Pac-12 already having been on the air for several years. But it was another, upstart conference that touched off the TV arms race.
The Mtn. begin broadcasting Sept. 1, 2006, a revolutionary idea that was to transform the landscape of college sports. The Mountain West Conference and its partners (CBS and Comcast), though, never were able to resolve lingering distribution issues. Then the conference alignment wave swept in and effectively led to the demise of The Mtn., which went off the air June 1, 2012.
The Big Ten launched its network a year after The Mtn. and had issues of its own. But it's becoming the gold standard of conference networks, now reaching more than 90 million U.S. households. And with the conference's latest expansion, the BTN is hoping to gain greater viewership shares in the huge metropolitan areas of New York City and Baltimore/Washington. In fact, you can say that Rutgers and Maryland are added more for TV eyeballs than for athletic or academic excellence.
Lately the SEC is very much in the TV news, as its network—a wholly-owned enterprise by ESPN operated out of Charlotte—sets to debut with Brent Musburger and Jesse Palmer as its No. 1 team in the booth. ESPN is aggressively going after distributors before it goes on the air in August, trying not to repeat the mistakes made by both the BTN and Pac-12 Network. The BTN spent its first year only sporadically available in Big Ten country, and the Pac-12 is still without a deal with DirecTV after two seasons.
The SEC Network is asking for more money within its footprint ($1.30 per subscriber) than even the BTN ($1), but with ESPN's clout and the rabid nature of SEC fans, it's banking on getting that. It secured a major agreement when it came to terms with DISH Network last week. ESPN also leveraged that into a deal for the Longhorn Network, which it co-owns with the University of Texas.
The big question now is how DirecTV will handle this avalanche of college conference networks.
Under current president and CEO Mike White, the nation's largest satellite carrier has taken an increasing hardline against rising programming costs. It famously dropped The Weather Channel in January and has held its ground against both the Pac-12 and Longhorn networks.
But the SEC could prove to be a different beast. After initially indicating that it "has no current plans to carry the SEC Network," DirecTV was forced to recant that statement a day later after receiving from SEC fans a torrent of complaints and threats to drop the carrier. How this negotiation goes may very well determine DirecTV's future as the leading carrier of sports programming.
DirecTV built that reputation on having the exclusive NFL Sunday Ticket, with its current deal set to expire after the 2014 season. DirecTV is paying $1 billion per season for the rights, which it has owned since Sunday Ticket's inaugural season in 1994. But neither the NFL nor DirecTV is in a rush to reach a new agreement, leaving the door open for other carriers to get in on the package.
If DirecTV does not come to terms with the SEC Network before the season opens in late August, it may be a signal that it's drastically cutting back on sports programming. DirecTV may very well decide there's no more money to be made as a sports carrier if it says no to both the NFL and SEC, the most valuable football properties in this football-mad nation.
As in the television network war, beamed via satellite to a screen (or six) in your own home.
With the launching of the SEC Network this summer, three of the Big Five conferences will have their own TV networks, with the Big Ten and Pac-12 already having been on the air for several years. But it was another, upstart conference that touched off the TV arms race.
The Mtn. begin broadcasting Sept. 1, 2006, a revolutionary idea that was to transform the landscape of college sports. The Mountain West Conference and its partners (CBS and Comcast), though, never were able to resolve lingering distribution issues. Then the conference alignment wave swept in and effectively led to the demise of The Mtn., which went off the air June 1, 2012.
The Big Ten launched its network a year after The Mtn. and had issues of its own. But it's becoming the gold standard of conference networks, now reaching more than 90 million U.S. households. And with the conference's latest expansion, the BTN is hoping to gain greater viewership shares in the huge metropolitan areas of New York City and Baltimore/Washington. In fact, you can say that Rutgers and Maryland are added more for TV eyeballs than for athletic or academic excellence.
| Network | Owner | Launched | Reach* | Distributors |
| Big Ten Network | Fox, Big Ten | Aug. 2007 | 90 million | Most major carriers |
| Pac-12 Network | Pac-12 | Aug. 2012 | 48 million | No DirecTV, Verizon FiOS |
| SEC Network | ESPN | Aug. 2014 | 20 million | DISH, AT&T U-Verse |
| Longhorn Network | ESPN, UT | Aug. 2011 | 25 million | No DirecTV, Comcast |
| BYUtv | BYU | Jan. 2000 | 65 million | DirecTV, DISH, some cable |
Lately the SEC is very much in the TV news, as its network—a wholly-owned enterprise by ESPN operated out of Charlotte—sets to debut with Brent Musburger and Jesse Palmer as its No. 1 team in the booth. ESPN is aggressively going after distributors before it goes on the air in August, trying not to repeat the mistakes made by both the BTN and Pac-12 Network. The BTN spent its first year only sporadically available in Big Ten country, and the Pac-12 is still without a deal with DirecTV after two seasons.
The SEC Network is asking for more money within its footprint ($1.30 per subscriber) than even the BTN ($1), but with ESPN's clout and the rabid nature of SEC fans, it's banking on getting that. It secured a major agreement when it came to terms with DISH Network last week. ESPN also leveraged that into a deal for the Longhorn Network, which it co-owns with the University of Texas.
The big question now is how DirecTV will handle this avalanche of college conference networks.
Under current president and CEO Mike White, the nation's largest satellite carrier has taken an increasing hardline against rising programming costs. It famously dropped The Weather Channel in January and has held its ground against both the Pac-12 and Longhorn networks.
But the SEC could prove to be a different beast. After initially indicating that it "has no current plans to carry the SEC Network," DirecTV was forced to recant that statement a day later after receiving from SEC fans a torrent of complaints and threats to drop the carrier. How this negotiation goes may very well determine DirecTV's future as the leading carrier of sports programming.
DirecTV built that reputation on having the exclusive NFL Sunday Ticket, with its current deal set to expire after the 2014 season. DirecTV is paying $1 billion per season for the rights, which it has owned since Sunday Ticket's inaugural season in 1994. But neither the NFL nor DirecTV is in a rush to reach a new agreement, leaving the door open for other carriers to get in on the package.
If DirecTV does not come to terms with the SEC Network before the season opens in late August, it may be a signal that it's drastically cutting back on sports programming. DirecTV may very well decide there's no more money to be made as a sports carrier if it says no to both the NFL and SEC, the most valuable football properties in this football-mad nation.
Thursday, February 27, 2014
Big 12, ACC Dogged by Also-Ran Status
They are supposed to be the "Big Five" conferences as the College Football Playoff era begins in 2014. But upon closer examination, there are really the "Big Three" and then the "Next Two."
We've covered the SEC, Big Ten and Pac-12 in previous pieces analyzing the respective conferences' competitive and financial status as the BCS gives way to CFP. That leaves us with the ACC and Big 12, which face more uncertainty and issues of membership stability, as well as falling behind in the revenue arms race.
Why these two conferences are considered the lesser of the five can be viewed through the lens of conference expansions, which the Big Ten kicked off by poaching Nebraska from the Big 12:
The Big 12 was nearly gutted out of existence after losing four teams to other power conferences. Only a last-minute deal that gave Texas preferential treatment preserved the current 10-team conference, but it also sowed the seeds for potential future discontent. The current membership seems unlikely to be poached in the near future because of the grant-of-rights agreements, though even that is said to be not fool-proof.
For now, the Big 12 appears to be content to keep it at 10 teams and without a conference championship game. Having fewer teams means a bigger cut in the television money for each member school, which currently enjoys north of $20 million in revenue annually. Commissioner Bob Bowlsby has said that there are no current expansion plans, and that might very well be true until the Big 12's TV contracts run out after the 2024 season.
At least the Big 12 has remained competitive on the field, despite all the recent turmoil. Texas won the conference's last national title in 2005 and is seeking to rebuild under Charlie Strong after a couple of mediocre seasons. Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Kansas State all have been factors in the national championship race in the past few seasons.
The ACC has been more proactive in protecting its interests, and thus it's in a better position entering the new era. Of course, Florida State winning the final BCS championship couldn't hurt, either.
While it did lose Maryland to the Big Ten, the ACC got out ahead of the expansion frenzy by poaching Syracuse and Pittsburgh from the Big East and then added another ex-Big Easter Louisville to replace Maryland. While these programs marginally boosted the ACC's football profile, they cemented its status as the premier basketball conference.
The one big football acquisition for the ACC is Notre Dame, even though the Irish joined the conference in all sports except football. Beginning next season, they will play at least five ACC teams every season, and that addition has already paid dividends as each conference team is due to receive an extra million in revenue going forward.
Notre Dame made the switch out of self-preservation, even though it continues to print money like nearly no other program. It just inked the richest athletic apparel deal with Under Armour (10 years at $90 million) after extending its exclusive NBC TV contract through the 2025 season.
But all that cash can't buy the Irish competitiveness on the field as they were routed in all four BCS bowl appearances, including a 42-14 drubbing by Alabama in the 2012 BCS title game. Notre Dame isn't getting more guarantees in the CFP than it had in the BCS, especially when it comes to the four-team playoff field. In a new era when super conferences will only become even more dominant, the Irish face a treacherous future by continuing to strike out on their own as an independent.
We've covered the SEC, Big Ten and Pac-12 in previous pieces analyzing the respective conferences' competitive and financial status as the BCS gives way to CFP. That leaves us with the ACC and Big 12, which face more uncertainty and issues of membership stability, as well as falling behind in the revenue arms race.
Why these two conferences are considered the lesser of the five can be viewed through the lens of conference expansions, which the Big Ten kicked off by poaching Nebraska from the Big 12:
- Big Ten: Nebraska (Big 12), Maryland (ACC), Rutgers (Big East)
- SEC: Texas A&M, Missouri (both Big 12)
- Pac-12: Colorado (Big 12), Utah (Mountain West)
| Conference | Revenue Per School* | Network Partners | Expires |
| SEC (14) | $34 million | ESPN, CBS, SEC | 2023 |
| Big Ten (14) | $30 million | ESPN, FOX, BTN | 2016 |
| Pac-12 (12) | $21 million | ESPN, FOX, P-12 | 2023 |
| Big 12 (10) | $20 million | ESPN, FOX | 2024 |
| ACC (14) | $18 million | ESPN | 2026 |
| Notre Dame | N/A | NBC | 2025 |
The Big 12 was nearly gutted out of existence after losing four teams to other power conferences. Only a last-minute deal that gave Texas preferential treatment preserved the current 10-team conference, but it also sowed the seeds for potential future discontent. The current membership seems unlikely to be poached in the near future because of the grant-of-rights agreements, though even that is said to be not fool-proof.
For now, the Big 12 appears to be content to keep it at 10 teams and without a conference championship game. Having fewer teams means a bigger cut in the television money for each member school, which currently enjoys north of $20 million in revenue annually. Commissioner Bob Bowlsby has said that there are no current expansion plans, and that might very well be true until the Big 12's TV contracts run out after the 2024 season.
At least the Big 12 has remained competitive on the field, despite all the recent turmoil. Texas won the conference's last national title in 2005 and is seeking to rebuild under Charlie Strong after a couple of mediocre seasons. Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Kansas State all have been factors in the national championship race in the past few seasons.
The ACC has been more proactive in protecting its interests, and thus it's in a better position entering the new era. Of course, Florida State winning the final BCS championship couldn't hurt, either.
While it did lose Maryland to the Big Ten, the ACC got out ahead of the expansion frenzy by poaching Syracuse and Pittsburgh from the Big East and then added another ex-Big Easter Louisville to replace Maryland. While these programs marginally boosted the ACC's football profile, they cemented its status as the premier basketball conference.
The one big football acquisition for the ACC is Notre Dame, even though the Irish joined the conference in all sports except football. Beginning next season, they will play at least five ACC teams every season, and that addition has already paid dividends as each conference team is due to receive an extra million in revenue going forward.
Notre Dame made the switch out of self-preservation, even though it continues to print money like nearly no other program. It just inked the richest athletic apparel deal with Under Armour (10 years at $90 million) after extending its exclusive NBC TV contract through the 2025 season.
But all that cash can't buy the Irish competitiveness on the field as they were routed in all four BCS bowl appearances, including a 42-14 drubbing by Alabama in the 2012 BCS title game. Notre Dame isn't getting more guarantees in the CFP than it had in the BCS, especially when it comes to the four-team playoff field. In a new era when super conferences will only become even more dominant, the Irish face a treacherous future by continuing to strike out on their own as an independent.
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