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 BCS Revenue. Show all posts
Showing posts with label BCS Revenue. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 3, 2014
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.
Friday, January 4, 2013
Win or Lose, Notre Dame Already Won Big
No matter what happens Monday night in the BCS championship game against Alabama, Notre Dame will be the big winner for 2012, and many more years to come.
Call it the luck of the Irish if you want, but they could not have picked a better time to put together a dream season.
As recently as the end of last season, it was legitimate to question whether Notre Dame was even relevant. Squeezed out - on its own volition, no less - of the mad conference realignment money-grab, Notre Dame has become a perennial also-ran in a landscape increasingly dominated by the SEC and other power conferences. The Irish had lost 10 of their last 12 bowls games, including nine in a row from 1994-2006. And their TV ratings have slipped so much that they were even mocked by their own network.
All it took was a 12-game winning streak to fix all that.
Expectations weren't high as the Irish began their third season under Brian Kelly, unranked in the preseason AP poll with a brutal schedule that included Michigan, Stanford, Oklahoma and top-ranked USC, with the latter two on the road. They were an independent outfit, an anachronism from a bygone era.
But as it proved this season, Notre Dame is uniquely qualified to strike out on its own. And independence is a vital part of its identity as the team rang up victories and cash registers alike.
Win or lose on Monday, Notre Dame will collect $6.2 million this season by playing in a BCS bowl game, which dwarves the payout to any given conference member. The Pac-12 teams, which lead the rest, will collect $2.48 million each this season by virtue of having two conferences members in BCS games to divide $29.8 million 12 ways.
Notre Dame went with a winner-take-all approach in the first eight years of the BCS, during which it earned $27.5 million by appearing in two BCS games. Starting in 2006, it opted for a more risk-averse route, accepting a smaller but guaranteed annual payment with a bonus in years it qualifies for a BCS game. Even if the Irish fail to make a BCS bowl next season, they will have collected at least $21.6 million over eight years, an annual rate of $2.7 million that outstrips every school during that timespan.
With the arrangement of BCS 2.0, Notre Dame likely will increase the BCS payout gap on its conference-affiliated competition. With six bowls and a total of 12 slots available annually, the Irish will have a better chance to become a fixture in the new setup, especially if Kelly can build on his success this season with more banner recruiting classes. In the new scenario, Notre Dame should qualify for a BCS game every season with two losses or fewer, not a particularly high bar considering it'll be playing at least five ACC foes per season by 2014.
And it gets better (if you're a hater, it might be a good time to close the browser now). Notre Dame's renaissance comes just in time as negotiations for a new TV contract heat up. NBC pays Notre Dame a reported $15 million annually in an eight-year deal that expires after 2015. And this year's TV ratings for the Irish, capped by a blockbuster 10.3 in the regular-season finale at USC and maybe double that for the BCS title game, will only reinforce their brand power and value.
Since most of the major conferences have recently signed new TV deals worth at least 20 million annually to each school, expect NBC to match that to keep Notre Dame home games on the Peacock Network. At the very least, Notre Dame's new deal should exceed the $17 million per school the ACC is getting, but no one should be surprised if the new TV contract pays the Irish $25-$30 million a year.
All in all, things have worked out swimmingly for the Irish this year. They beat the posse out of the fast-imploding Big East by putting all their Olympic sports teams in the ACC. The five-football-games-per-year agreement with the ACC allows the Irish to play a high-profile schedule without being too severely challenged. All the while they get to maintain their cherished independence as the only truly national program in college football.
And if they manage to beat Alabama and Nick Saban on Monday night? It's a prospect that just might be too terrifying for some to contemplate.
(FULL ARTICLE @ SB NATION)
Call it the luck of the Irish if you want, but they could not have picked a better time to put together a dream season.
As recently as the end of last season, it was legitimate to question whether Notre Dame was even relevant. Squeezed out - on its own volition, no less - of the mad conference realignment money-grab, Notre Dame has become a perennial also-ran in a landscape increasingly dominated by the SEC and other power conferences. The Irish had lost 10 of their last 12 bowls games, including nine in a row from 1994-2006. And their TV ratings have slipped so much that they were even mocked by their own network.
All it took was a 12-game winning streak to fix all that.
Expectations weren't high as the Irish began their third season under Brian Kelly, unranked in the preseason AP poll with a brutal schedule that included Michigan, Stanford, Oklahoma and top-ranked USC, with the latter two on the road. They were an independent outfit, an anachronism from a bygone era.
But as it proved this season, Notre Dame is uniquely qualified to strike out on its own. And independence is a vital part of its identity as the team rang up victories and cash registers alike.
Win or lose on Monday, Notre Dame will collect $6.2 million this season by playing in a BCS bowl game, which dwarves the payout to any given conference member. The Pac-12 teams, which lead the rest, will collect $2.48 million each this season by virtue of having two conferences members in BCS games to divide $29.8 million 12 ways.
Notre Dame went with a winner-take-all approach in the first eight years of the BCS, during which it earned $27.5 million by appearing in two BCS games. Starting in 2006, it opted for a more risk-averse route, accepting a smaller but guaranteed annual payment with a bonus in years it qualifies for a BCS game. Even if the Irish fail to make a BCS bowl next season, they will have collected at least $21.6 million over eight years, an annual rate of $2.7 million that outstrips every school during that timespan.
With the arrangement of BCS 2.0, Notre Dame likely will increase the BCS payout gap on its conference-affiliated competition. With six bowls and a total of 12 slots available annually, the Irish will have a better chance to become a fixture in the new setup, especially if Kelly can build on his success this season with more banner recruiting classes. In the new scenario, Notre Dame should qualify for a BCS game every season with two losses or fewer, not a particularly high bar considering it'll be playing at least five ACC foes per season by 2014.
And it gets better (if you're a hater, it might be a good time to close the browser now). Notre Dame's renaissance comes just in time as negotiations for a new TV contract heat up. NBC pays Notre Dame a reported $15 million annually in an eight-year deal that expires after 2015. And this year's TV ratings for the Irish, capped by a blockbuster 10.3 in the regular-season finale at USC and maybe double that for the BCS title game, will only reinforce their brand power and value.
Since most of the major conferences have recently signed new TV deals worth at least 20 million annually to each school, expect NBC to match that to keep Notre Dame home games on the Peacock Network. At the very least, Notre Dame's new deal should exceed the $17 million per school the ACC is getting, but no one should be surprised if the new TV contract pays the Irish $25-$30 million a year.
All in all, things have worked out swimmingly for the Irish this year. They beat the posse out of the fast-imploding Big East by putting all their Olympic sports teams in the ACC. The five-football-games-per-year agreement with the ACC allows the Irish to play a high-profile schedule without being too severely challenged. All the while they get to maintain their cherished independence as the only truly national program in college football.
And if they manage to beat Alabama and Nick Saban on Monday night? It's a prospect that just might be too terrifying for some to contemplate.
(FULL ARTICLE @ SB NATION)
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
College Football's Real God: Almighty TV
While the Big East scrambles to stave off its imminent collapse, whether it's by enticing Fresno State and UNLV to join up or begging UConn and Cincinnati to stay put, it can make no tangible promises because there's no TV dollars to back any such pledge.
Basically, the Big East blew it by not locking down a good TV deal when the going was good.
Television money is now the lifeblood of college sports - specifically college football, which has become the second-most valuable property to television networks after the NFL. With the advent of DVRs and streaming services, sports is about the only thing left that can still deliver huge live audiences that advertisers crave. And that, in turn, brings in big bucks.
The Los Angeles Lakers signed a 20-year, 3 billion exclusive deal with the fledgling Time Warner Sportsnet, which commands a whopping $4 per subscriber fee and won a staredown with DirecTV.
Just up the street, the Dodgers are expected to one-up that, with a new 25-year deal expected to be worth north of $6 billion. And then there's the mother of all monster deals - the NFL's next TV contract, scheduled to kick in for 2014, is worth about $5 billion annually.
College football certainly has gotten in on the act, with the five major conferences each inking billion-dollar deals in the past two years. The annual payouts roughly go like this:
Basically, the Big East blew it by not locking down a good TV deal when the going was good.
Television money is now the lifeblood of college sports - specifically college football, which has become the second-most valuable property to television networks after the NFL. With the advent of DVRs and streaming services, sports is about the only thing left that can still deliver huge live audiences that advertisers crave. And that, in turn, brings in big bucks.
The Los Angeles Lakers signed a 20-year, 3 billion exclusive deal with the fledgling Time Warner Sportsnet, which commands a whopping $4 per subscriber fee and won a staredown with DirecTV.
Just up the street, the Dodgers are expected to one-up that, with a new 25-year deal expected to be worth north of $6 billion. And then there's the mother of all monster deals - the NFL's next TV contract, scheduled to kick in for 2014, is worth about $5 billion annually.
College football certainly has gotten in on the act, with the five major conferences each inking billion-dollar deals in the past two years. The annual payouts roughly go like this:
- Pac-12: $250 million ($20.83 million per school)
- Big Ten: $248 million ($20.67 million)
- Big 12: $200 million ($20 million)
- ACC: $240 million ($17.14 million)
- SEC: $205 million ($14.64 million)
- Notre Dame: 15 million
So who's missing here? Yep, the Big East, the erstwhile member of the big boys' club that's about to get tossed out on its ear after the 2013 season.
The Big East was essentially done in by its own greed. In April 2011, the much-maligned former commissioner John Marinatto had a nine-year, $1.17 billion deal with ESPN on the table, which would've paid its full members about $13.8 million per season and the basketball-only schools $2.5 million. While it wasn't Big Ten money, it was more than commensurate with what the Big East was worth.
But the Big East presidents, including the ones in the "Catholic 7," rejected the deal, thinking they would be able to squeeze more out of it. Turns out, it was a gargantuan miscalculation that left the Big East in today's mess.
The Big East's current TV deal expires after this basketball season and the next football season. With the mass defections this the past month, the value of that next contract is dwindling, and no network is all that eager to jump in to make a deal when more schools might abandon ship before long. The latest estimate has the conference getting about $40-$50 million per year - and that's assuming everybody stays put.
An optimistic model of $50 million yields a payout of about $4.17 million per year for the nine full members and $3.13 million per year for the four football-only schools (Boise State, San Diego State, East Carolina and Navy in 2015). It's dwarfed by the payouts in the major conferences, though it's still substantially more than what the Mountain West pays, which is around $1 million per school per year.
There is a tug-of-war between the remnants of the Big East and the MWC, vying to be the kingpin of the Group of Five in BCS 2.0. The Big East wants to continue to raid the MWC to pump up its value to potential TV suitors, while the MWC aims to lure Boise State and San Diego State back (though technically they haven't left yet). Both conferences would love to pick off BYU, but neither is likely to succeed because the Cougars are getting about $5-6 million per year from its own TV deal with ESPN as a football independent.
Without Boise State and San Diego State (and BYU), the Mountain West is unlikely to substantially improve on its current TV contract, which is set to expire after the 2014 season. There is much uncertainty surrounding the future of the MWC, with the Big East menacing it as an existential threat.
As for the Big East, being demoted in the new BCS landscape is the lesser of its problems, as it's at risk to further disintegrate from more defections the longer it takes to lock down a TV deal. And if the worst-case scenario should happen - UConn and Cincinnati find new homes while Boise State and San Diego State get cold feet before next July - the Big East becomes Conference USA Lite, circa 2004. In that case, it should expect not much more than Conference USA money.
How much is that? C-USA signed its most recent TV deal in early 2011 with FOX and CBS, worth $14 million per year, total.
(FULL ARTICLE @ SB NATION)
(FULL ARTICLE @ SB NATION)
Sunday, December 16, 2012
Boise State's Very Big Move
On the face of it, all the conference realignment action seems to have shaken up the college football landscape. But if you take a closer look, you'll notice that all the moving around really just amounted to rearranging the same deck chairs.
In 2006, when the BCS entered its second phase to include five bowls and increase their accessibility by non-automatic qualifying conference members, there were six AQ conferences (plus Notre Dame) consisting of 66 teams. By 2014, if nothing else changes, there will be five AQ conferences (plus Notre Dame) consisting of 65 teams.
Yep, even with all that upheaval, only five teams will see their status change from have-nots to haves (or vice versa): TCU and Utah have joined the big boys' club by leaving the Mountain West for the Big 12 and Pac-12, respectively; and UConn, Cincinnati and South Florida will lose their AQ status with the demotion of the Big East.
Of course, the realignment madness is far from over. Before it's all settled, Cincinnati and UConn likely will find new homes in the AQ conferences, likely either in the ACC or the Big 12, within a season or two. So essentially you're looking at the ascension two teams (TCU and Utah) and the demotion of one (South Florida) when it's all said and done.
So who are we missing here?
There are only three non-AQ teams that have made multiple BCS bowl appearances. While TCU and Utah have been justly rewarded for their excellence, Boise State, 2-0 in its two BCS bowl games, remains on the outside looking in. But the Broncos do have an opportunity here to finally cash in on the fact that they've been the winningest program since joining Division I-A in 1996.
Boise State was supposed to be the centerpiece of a reconstituted Big East when it joins the conference next season as a football-only member. But massive defections by current Big East members, capped by the pullout of the "Catholic 7" basketball schools on Saturday, have changed the outlook of this conference considerably.
Though he reaffirmed Boise State's commitment to the Big East over the summer, president Bob Kustra must reconsider all his options before his school's official entrance to the conference on July 1, 2013. Kustra thus becomes the man of the hour in the realignment game, as his decisions will fashion a domino effect.
He has several options:
* Stick it out in the Big East - Despite the defections of Rutgers, Louisville and the basketball schools, the Big East should still have 12 teams for 2013-2014 and 13 for 2015, if everybody else stays put. The conference will still have AQ status in 2013 though after that it will be dumped into the "Group of Five" with one guaranteed BCS spot among the teams. The Broncos conceivably could win the Big East next season and dominate the Group of Five for years to come.
But the money potential for the Broncos will have shrunk significantly from when they first signed up. At the time, the Big East just turned down a $150 million-per-year TV deal, and now, after the departure of the Catholic 7, the new deal could be worth as little as $40 million annually, leaving Boise State about $2 million per year as opposed to in the $8-9 million range.
* Return to the Mountain West - The Broncos could opt to stay in the conference it joined two years ago and its BCS status beginning in 2014 will be no different from if it had joined the Big East. Assuming they return with either San Diego State and/or BYU, the MWC will have at least 12 teams and be able to stage a conference title game, thus possibly be in position to renegotiate its current TV deal that still has two years left.
But Boise State will take a financial hit for doing this. First, it could be on the hook for a $10 million exit fee even though it never officially played in the Big East. Second, just by being in the Big East the Broncos will collect nearly $2 million in BCS payout in 2013, whereas it would get just a fraction of that if none of the Mountain West teams crashed the BCS party.
* Look for a spot in Big 12 or Pac-12 - To be frank, the first is a longshot, and the second is a non-starter. The Big 12 might be interested in the Broncos, along with maybe BYU, as football-only members, mostly for the purpose of being able to stage a conference championship game. The Pac-12, though, despite commissioner Larry Scott's recent comments, doesn't see a whole lot of value in adding Boise State.
* Become an independent - This is an option Boise State might seriously study and pursue. The Broncos have enough of a brand power to command a decent TV deal and be able to schedule an attractive collection of teams annually. The risks of being an independent are that unlike Notre Dame, Boise State will not get any kind of guarantees or preferential treatment from the BCS bowls; and if the program goes into a slump, it will quickly sink back into irrelevance with no way out.
Kustra has a very important decision to make. But unless the Big 12 or Pac-12 come calling, his best option might be doing nothing - taking his chances with the Big East.
(FULL ARTICLE @ SB NATION)
In 2006, when the BCS entered its second phase to include five bowls and increase their accessibility by non-automatic qualifying conference members, there were six AQ conferences (plus Notre Dame) consisting of 66 teams. By 2014, if nothing else changes, there will be five AQ conferences (plus Notre Dame) consisting of 65 teams.
Yep, even with all that upheaval, only five teams will see their status change from have-nots to haves (or vice versa): TCU and Utah have joined the big boys' club by leaving the Mountain West for the Big 12 and Pac-12, respectively; and UConn, Cincinnati and South Florida will lose their AQ status with the demotion of the Big East.
Of course, the realignment madness is far from over. Before it's all settled, Cincinnati and UConn likely will find new homes in the AQ conferences, likely either in the ACC or the Big 12, within a season or two. So essentially you're looking at the ascension two teams (TCU and Utah) and the demotion of one (South Florida) when it's all said and done.
So who are we missing here?
There are only three non-AQ teams that have made multiple BCS bowl appearances. While TCU and Utah have been justly rewarded for their excellence, Boise State, 2-0 in its two BCS bowl games, remains on the outside looking in. But the Broncos do have an opportunity here to finally cash in on the fact that they've been the winningest program since joining Division I-A in 1996.
Boise State was supposed to be the centerpiece of a reconstituted Big East when it joins the conference next season as a football-only member. But massive defections by current Big East members, capped by the pullout of the "Catholic 7" basketball schools on Saturday, have changed the outlook of this conference considerably.
Though he reaffirmed Boise State's commitment to the Big East over the summer, president Bob Kustra must reconsider all his options before his school's official entrance to the conference on July 1, 2013. Kustra thus becomes the man of the hour in the realignment game, as his decisions will fashion a domino effect.
He has several options:
* Stick it out in the Big East - Despite the defections of Rutgers, Louisville and the basketball schools, the Big East should still have 12 teams for 2013-2014 and 13 for 2015, if everybody else stays put. The conference will still have AQ status in 2013 though after that it will be dumped into the "Group of Five" with one guaranteed BCS spot among the teams. The Broncos conceivably could win the Big East next season and dominate the Group of Five for years to come.
But the money potential for the Broncos will have shrunk significantly from when they first signed up. At the time, the Big East just turned down a $150 million-per-year TV deal, and now, after the departure of the Catholic 7, the new deal could be worth as little as $40 million annually, leaving Boise State about $2 million per year as opposed to in the $8-9 million range.
* Return to the Mountain West - The Broncos could opt to stay in the conference it joined two years ago and its BCS status beginning in 2014 will be no different from if it had joined the Big East. Assuming they return with either San Diego State and/or BYU, the MWC will have at least 12 teams and be able to stage a conference title game, thus possibly be in position to renegotiate its current TV deal that still has two years left.
But Boise State will take a financial hit for doing this. First, it could be on the hook for a $10 million exit fee even though it never officially played in the Big East. Second, just by being in the Big East the Broncos will collect nearly $2 million in BCS payout in 2013, whereas it would get just a fraction of that if none of the Mountain West teams crashed the BCS party.
* Look for a spot in Big 12 or Pac-12 - To be frank, the first is a longshot, and the second is a non-starter. The Big 12 might be interested in the Broncos, along with maybe BYU, as football-only members, mostly for the purpose of being able to stage a conference championship game. The Pac-12, though, despite commissioner Larry Scott's recent comments, doesn't see a whole lot of value in adding Boise State.
* Become an independent - This is an option Boise State might seriously study and pursue. The Broncos have enough of a brand power to command a decent TV deal and be able to schedule an attractive collection of teams annually. The risks of being an independent are that unlike Notre Dame, Boise State will not get any kind of guarantees or preferential treatment from the BCS bowls; and if the program goes into a slump, it will quickly sink back into irrelevance with no way out.
Kustra has a very important decision to make. But unless the Big 12 or Pac-12 come calling, his best option might be doing nothing - taking his chances with the Big East.
(FULL ARTICLE @ SB NATION)
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Making the Case for 'Death to the BCS'
Dan Wetzel is a columnist for Yahoo! Sports. He and colleagues Josh Peter and Jeff Passan co-authored "Death to the BCS," a best seller that investigates the practices and claims of the BCS before ripping them apart. He joins the Gurus for a chat:
(After the Q&A, the Guru offers his critique of the book as well.)
Guru: The book seems to be written with a lot of passion, bludgeoning the BCS from page 1, what's the inspiration for it?
Wetzel: We went with a real subtle title for the book, didn't we? This began a few years back, we wanted to find out why we have the BCS. We went after the tax documents, university contracts and we talked to hundreds of people: marketing types, bowl directors, not just the PR people but people who know stuff. The more you got into it, the propaganda talking points just turned out to be false. It took an immense amount of research. We all had day jobs, so we needed multiple people for this project. We needed people dealing with the statistical stuff. We also hired accountants, lawyers to read tax documents, checking all the facts. It's a real team effort because it's a huge undertaking.
Guru: Ohio State University president Gordon Gee was recently lambasted for a comment about his team's worthiness vis-a-vis Boise State. You alluded to it in the book, that people who're in the position of making the final decisions seem to be the least informed. How could that be?
Wetzel: For some reason, the (university presidents) just take the word of conference commissioners and bowl representatives than actually try to understand the issues. What Gee said really helps the anti-trust case against the BCS because it was a serious admission that they think teams like Boise should be excluded. But as the argument that we made in the book, a football playoff would make millions more than what we have now, which means a lot more money for each university. Every single expert that we talked to say that the TV ratings would go through the roof. But the BCS is about protecting the bowls and the bowls' money. They want everybody to get into these tedious debates to create mass confusion.
Guru: You really made a case for the nebulous role the bowls play in all this, yet you still want to preserve the bowls. Aren't you a bit conflicted?
Wetzel: My problem is with the bowl system and how it's an obstacle to a playoff, not that it exists. I love football, I want to watch football games, even if it's not to crown a champion. The NIT is fun, sometimes I'll watch it. I watch the Chick-fil-A Bowl, even though nothing is on the line. I don't want the teams to be cheated out of playing in a bowl. But we don't say because we have the NIT that we don't need the Final Four. That would be ridiculous. But in college football, we let the bowls stand in the way of having a playoff.
Guru: Well, then, the NCAA runs the NCAA basketball tournament among its 88 postseason championships. Why couldn't the NCAA get involved to have a Division I-A playoff?
Wetzel: I'll never understand that Walter Byers, a powerful guy who started the NCAA, never got into this. But the problem with wanting the NCAA to do something is that the NCAA is made up of the same people who are running college football - the conference commissioners and the university presidents, who I think as a group is an utter failure. The problem with college football is knowing who's in charge,.There is no Roger Goodell to put his foot down. Everybody is just fighting for their own self-interest.
Guru: So maybe it's up to the politicians? Maybe it'll take Congress or the Justice Department to break up the BCS?
Wetzel: I don't have a good feel for that. I'm not in Washington and I'm not a lobbyist. The group PlayoffPAC, they have done some incredible research and they have resources, maybe they'll be able to push forward a change. In our book, our thing is debunking the arguments you've heard from the BCS, but we barely mentioned the Justice Department or the anti-trust issues. But we hope the facts that we brought to the table might have a positive impact.
Guru: A central theme of your book, in fact, in the first chapter, you proposed a 16-team playoff to replace the BCS. Do you think that'll eventually happen?
Wetzel: No, not anytime soon, realistically I can see a 4-team, maybe an 8-team playoff. They'll never let say, the Sun Belt champion to have a chance. But a playoff makes more games meaningful, not fewer. Like last weekend, there would've been a lot more interest in the LSU-Arkansas game if a playoff berth was on the line. And the fact is that there are more teams that are good enough to play for the national championship now than ever before. Now you can play on TV wherever you play and the kids don't just go to the traditional powerhouses. There used to be maybe 8 or 9 schools that can win it, but now it's maybe 35 deep. You look at Michigan State, they're 11-1, they have a lot of kids that in the old days would go to Michigan, Ohio State or Notre Dame and hope they get to play as a junior or senior. But not anymore, it's a different time.
Guru: You also mentioned that it's a different time for the fans, especially the younger ones, who are not wedded to the traditional bowl matchups. Are they more likely to demand a playoff?
Wetzel: There's a huge divide among some of the fans, maybe people 65 or older think all this stinks, they like the way it used to be, but people under 40, they're used to seeing every game on TV and they'll want these teams to play each other to decide a champion on the field. The old days when just a few schools dominated are gone. You look at Texas, they're not even bowl eligible this season. Alabama has three losses. Florida five. There's a lot of parity, that's why we need a national tournament. The way the BCS and bowl systems are designed is that so nobody can seize control and take the bowls out of the lucrative game. The title game is a huge monetary property, and the bowls want to be part of that. But think about how ridiculous this is. Would the NFL rent you the AFC Championship Game and let you run it and keep most of the money? College football is a big enough business that they don't need (Fiesta Bowl president and CEO) John Junker to rent the stadium to play the championship game. Why would you want to outsource your most important product to people whose values are not intertwined with yours?
Guru: What are we missing out on not having a playoff?
Wetzel: My thing is that you're missing all the great fun. Take the Big Ten, it's always been the conference most opposed to having a playoff, yet this year, they have three teams that could play for a championship but none of them will. Our playoff would have other teams traveling to these places in the Midwest to have playoff games - and the Midwest can use the economic boost from it, why should they always have to benefit Florida, Arizona or any of those states in the south? And at the end it's not always the small schools that get cheated out of a chance to play for a championship, the big schools do, too.
===================================
So, what does the Guru think of "Death to the BCS"?
First, let me just say that if you are a college football fan and are interested in the BCS debate, you need to buy this book. It's a good read and a fast read: Fewer than 200 pages in a small book, I polished it off during a cross-country plane ride. If anything, it's not boring.
The authors thoroughly researched the issues involving the BCS and did a good job debunking many of BCS's propaganda. Case-in-point: The bowls have always claimed that they've given millions of their revenues to charity. In the book, that argument was mercilessly ripped apart.
The best thing the authors did was to reveal the economic idiocy of the current BCS/bowl system vis-a-vis a playoff and the millions that the schools are squandering by not having a postseason playoff hosted mostly on campus sites. The financial impact is stark: Why university presidents choose to piss away untold millions that they could earn from a massive TV deal and instead lose money to go to bowl games is simply a mystery.
But as well as the book did in addressing a number of subjects, I had a few issues:
* The biggest weakness of the book, which is unfortunately fashioned in the first chapter, is the authors' proposal of a 16-team playoff, which involves inviting the champions of all 11 conferences plus five at-large teams. C'mon, genetically re-engineers pigs will be causing air traffic gridlock before you'll see a 7-5 Troy team get an automatic berth in a college football playoff. It's simply an unrealistic proposition, which does much to harm the book's credibility from the very start. A four-team or even an eight-team playoff is much more probable, and with it still a considerable financial windfall. Even Wetzel acknowledged during our interview that he thought a 16-team playoff is unlikely to ever become reality. So why put it in there?
* "The Cartel," which throughout the book is vilified as the single most nefarious influence on why we have the system today. But in truth it's really just conference commissioners who have more say than they probably should. Jim Delany of the Big Ten is rightly portrayed as a supremely powerful figure, but Dan Beebe of the Big 12 and the rest of them surely are not (and for the record, Mike Slive of the SEC is in favor of a four-team playoff). I think the reach and power of the Cartel is a bit overstated in the book. Inertia has just as much to do with the state of affairs today as with anything else.
* The book adopts a tone that's extremely confrontational and belligerent:
That's probably my biggest disappointment with this book. It can and has done much good by bringing a number of issues to light, but its shortcomings do somewhat sabotage its own cause, which unmistakably is bringing "Death to the BCS."
(After the Q&A, the Guru offers his critique of the book as well.)
Guru: The book seems to be written with a lot of passion, bludgeoning the BCS from page 1, what's the inspiration for it?
Wetzel: We went with a real subtle title for the book, didn't we? This began a few years back, we wanted to find out why we have the BCS. We went after the tax documents, university contracts and we talked to hundreds of people: marketing types, bowl directors, not just the PR people but people who know stuff. The more you got into it, the propaganda talking points just turned out to be false. It took an immense amount of research. We all had day jobs, so we needed multiple people for this project. We needed people dealing with the statistical stuff. We also hired accountants, lawyers to read tax documents, checking all the facts. It's a real team effort because it's a huge undertaking.Guru: Ohio State University president Gordon Gee was recently lambasted for a comment about his team's worthiness vis-a-vis Boise State. You alluded to it in the book, that people who're in the position of making the final decisions seem to be the least informed. How could that be?
Wetzel: For some reason, the (university presidents) just take the word of conference commissioners and bowl representatives than actually try to understand the issues. What Gee said really helps the anti-trust case against the BCS because it was a serious admission that they think teams like Boise should be excluded. But as the argument that we made in the book, a football playoff would make millions more than what we have now, which means a lot more money for each university. Every single expert that we talked to say that the TV ratings would go through the roof. But the BCS is about protecting the bowls and the bowls' money. They want everybody to get into these tedious debates to create mass confusion.
Guru: You really made a case for the nebulous role the bowls play in all this, yet you still want to preserve the bowls. Aren't you a bit conflicted?
Wetzel: My problem is with the bowl system and how it's an obstacle to a playoff, not that it exists. I love football, I want to watch football games, even if it's not to crown a champion. The NIT is fun, sometimes I'll watch it. I watch the Chick-fil-A Bowl, even though nothing is on the line. I don't want the teams to be cheated out of playing in a bowl. But we don't say because we have the NIT that we don't need the Final Four. That would be ridiculous. But in college football, we let the bowls stand in the way of having a playoff.
Guru: Well, then, the NCAA runs the NCAA basketball tournament among its 88 postseason championships. Why couldn't the NCAA get involved to have a Division I-A playoff?
Wetzel: I'll never understand that Walter Byers, a powerful guy who started the NCAA, never got into this. But the problem with wanting the NCAA to do something is that the NCAA is made up of the same people who are running college football - the conference commissioners and the university presidents, who I think as a group is an utter failure. The problem with college football is knowing who's in charge,.There is no Roger Goodell to put his foot down. Everybody is just fighting for their own self-interest.
Guru: So maybe it's up to the politicians? Maybe it'll take Congress or the Justice Department to break up the BCS?
Wetzel: I don't have a good feel for that. I'm not in Washington and I'm not a lobbyist. The group PlayoffPAC, they have done some incredible research and they have resources, maybe they'll be able to push forward a change. In our book, our thing is debunking the arguments you've heard from the BCS, but we barely mentioned the Justice Department or the anti-trust issues. But we hope the facts that we brought to the table might have a positive impact.
Guru: A central theme of your book, in fact, in the first chapter, you proposed a 16-team playoff to replace the BCS. Do you think that'll eventually happen?
Wetzel: No, not anytime soon, realistically I can see a 4-team, maybe an 8-team playoff. They'll never let say, the Sun Belt champion to have a chance. But a playoff makes more games meaningful, not fewer. Like last weekend, there would've been a lot more interest in the LSU-Arkansas game if a playoff berth was on the line. And the fact is that there are more teams that are good enough to play for the national championship now than ever before. Now you can play on TV wherever you play and the kids don't just go to the traditional powerhouses. There used to be maybe 8 or 9 schools that can win it, but now it's maybe 35 deep. You look at Michigan State, they're 11-1, they have a lot of kids that in the old days would go to Michigan, Ohio State or Notre Dame and hope they get to play as a junior or senior. But not anymore, it's a different time.
Guru: You also mentioned that it's a different time for the fans, especially the younger ones, who are not wedded to the traditional bowl matchups. Are they more likely to demand a playoff?
Wetzel: There's a huge divide among some of the fans, maybe people 65 or older think all this stinks, they like the way it used to be, but people under 40, they're used to seeing every game on TV and they'll want these teams to play each other to decide a champion on the field. The old days when just a few schools dominated are gone. You look at Texas, they're not even bowl eligible this season. Alabama has three losses. Florida five. There's a lot of parity, that's why we need a national tournament. The way the BCS and bowl systems are designed is that so nobody can seize control and take the bowls out of the lucrative game. The title game is a huge monetary property, and the bowls want to be part of that. But think about how ridiculous this is. Would the NFL rent you the AFC Championship Game and let you run it and keep most of the money? College football is a big enough business that they don't need (Fiesta Bowl president and CEO) John Junker to rent the stadium to play the championship game. Why would you want to outsource your most important product to people whose values are not intertwined with yours?
Guru: What are we missing out on not having a playoff?
Wetzel: My thing is that you're missing all the great fun. Take the Big Ten, it's always been the conference most opposed to having a playoff, yet this year, they have three teams that could play for a championship but none of them will. Our playoff would have other teams traveling to these places in the Midwest to have playoff games - and the Midwest can use the economic boost from it, why should they always have to benefit Florida, Arizona or any of those states in the south? And at the end it's not always the small schools that get cheated out of a chance to play for a championship, the big schools do, too.
===================================
So, what does the Guru think of "Death to the BCS"?
First, let me just say that if you are a college football fan and are interested in the BCS debate, you need to buy this book. It's a good read and a fast read: Fewer than 200 pages in a small book, I polished it off during a cross-country plane ride. If anything, it's not boring.
The authors thoroughly researched the issues involving the BCS and did a good job debunking many of BCS's propaganda. Case-in-point: The bowls have always claimed that they've given millions of their revenues to charity. In the book, that argument was mercilessly ripped apart.
The best thing the authors did was to reveal the economic idiocy of the current BCS/bowl system vis-a-vis a playoff and the millions that the schools are squandering by not having a postseason playoff hosted mostly on campus sites. The financial impact is stark: Why university presidents choose to piss away untold millions that they could earn from a massive TV deal and instead lose money to go to bowl games is simply a mystery.
But as well as the book did in addressing a number of subjects, I had a few issues:
* The biggest weakness of the book, which is unfortunately fashioned in the first chapter, is the authors' proposal of a 16-team playoff, which involves inviting the champions of all 11 conferences plus five at-large teams. C'mon, genetically re-engineers pigs will be causing air traffic gridlock before you'll see a 7-5 Troy team get an automatic berth in a college football playoff. It's simply an unrealistic proposition, which does much to harm the book's credibility from the very start. A four-team or even an eight-team playoff is much more probable, and with it still a considerable financial windfall. Even Wetzel acknowledged during our interview that he thought a 16-team playoff is unlikely to ever become reality. So why put it in there?
* "The Cartel," which throughout the book is vilified as the single most nefarious influence on why we have the system today. But in truth it's really just conference commissioners who have more say than they probably should. Jim Delany of the Big Ten is rightly portrayed as a supremely powerful figure, but Dan Beebe of the Big 12 and the rest of them surely are not (and for the record, Mike Slive of the SEC is in favor of a four-team playoff). I think the reach and power of the Cartel is a bit overstated in the book. Inertia has just as much to do with the state of affairs today as with anything else.
* The book adopts a tone that's extremely confrontational and belligerent:
So for now the BCS survives, a roach amid a typhoon of Raid, emanating coldness, ignoring the measured consideration of old coaching icons, and dismissing fans' bellows. Even the unyielding common sense is held off with mistruths and misdirection that turn the entire issue into a river of red herrings.That's on page 8, and it doesn't let up from there as though the book is a sermon from a fiery preacher calling out for the sinners to repent. The problem is that this approach will win few converts. Despite the fact that the book presents a treasure-trove of meticulously researched material, its persuasive powers ultimately is compromised. If anything, opponents of a playoff will only harden their stance after such a blistering attack.
Facts have power, though. The truth has might. The rational presentation of both can upend even the longest-held conventional wisdom and expose the Cartel for what it is: a not-half-as-smart-as-it-wants-you-to-believe group of leaders that history will one day mock for its obstinacy.
That's probably my biggest disappointment with this book. It can and has done much good by bringing a number of issues to light, but its shortcomings do somewhat sabotage its own cause, which unmistakably is bringing "Death to the BCS."
Friday, August 7, 2009
BCS Weekly News Roundup (Aug. 7)
FLORIDA TOPS PRESEASON COACHES POLL (USA Today, Aug. 7)
BCS REVIEW: RIGHTING A DECADE OF MOSTLY WRONGS (CBS Sports, Aug. 6) - The Bowl Championship Series came of age this decade. That's not to say the BCS matured or got better. It just got older -- and more controversial. This was the first decade in which every major-college season ended with a championship decided on the field.
URBAN FALLACY: THE SEC GRIND (Bleacher Report, Aug. 6) - Fans, media, pundits and now coaches have created a new BCS party line, the "week in, week out" asterisk. This is where any time Utah's undefeated season is mentioned, it must be disclosed that Utah could not have accomplished this had they played week in, week out in a real BCS conference.
BIG EAST BCS-WORTHY FOR FIVE MORE YEARS (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Aug. 5) - The Big East Conference has exceeded the most optimistic predictions when the BCS contract was renewed this year and the Big East retained its berth for the next five seasons.
URBAN MEYER NOW HIGHEST-PAID SEC COACH (ESPN, Aug. 3) - Florida coach Urban Meyer signed a new six-year, $24 million contract Monday, taking his total financial package to $4 million per year and making him the SEC's highest-paid coach in 2009. It makes him the third-highest-paid coach in the country behind Pete Carroll's reported $4.4 million salary at USC and Charlie Weis' $4.2 million at Notre Dame
COACHES POLL MUST BE PUNTED BY BCS (Denver Post, Aug. 3) - What does it tell you about the validity of the football coaches poll when Oklahoma's Bob Stoops decides to vote this year to protect his own team?
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Big Ten the Money Machine
When It comes to raking in the cash, nobody has done it better than the Big Ten in the BCS Era. Though the conference (along with the Pac-10 and Rose Bowl) had to be cajoled and enticed to join the BCS after the 1997 season, it has made the most out of this marriage of convenience.
Over the past 11 years, the Big Ten has cashed $212 million, an average of over $19 million per school over that period. That's far more than anybody else has managed to bank. The SEC, coming in second, made $204 million, or an average of $17 million per school.
Jeremy Fowler of the Orlando Sentinel did the research and came up with how much each conference (both BCS and Coalition), as well as Notre Dame, has made from BCS participation in the BCS Era. It goes without saying that the BCS schools have earned disproportionally more than Coalition schools, as was noted in a previous post.
The data also provides ample reason why Notre Dame has resisted joining a conference. Despite its horrific recent history under Bob Davie, Tyrone Willingham and Charlie Weis, Notre Dame remains the most profitable school in the BCS arrangment simply because it does not have to share its revenue with anyone. Over the past 11 years, the Irish have made nearly as much as the entire Mountain West Conference. Its $35 million haul is about twice as much as the likes of Florida, Ohio State and USC, who have accomplished far more.
Click to enlarge | Data courtesy of Jeremy Fowler, Orlando Sentinel
* In Millions
** Totals do not include the Football Championship Subdivision conferences that currently receive $225,000 per year from the BCS
The breakdown by school (BCS members only):
Notre Dame - $35.00 million
West Virginia, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Rutgers - $21.92
Big Ten members - $19.29
Boston College - $18.94
Pac-10 members - $18.36
Miami, Virginia Tech - $18.10
SEC members - $17.06
ACC members (except Miami, VaTech and BC) - $16.91
Big 12 members - $16.43
Connecticut - $11.27
South Florida, Cincinnati, Louisville - $9.52 ($0.56 as non-BCS members)
*Temple earned $12.96 as a BCS member, $13.02 total
Over the past 11 years, the Big Ten has cashed $212 million, an average of over $19 million per school over that period. That's far more than anybody else has managed to bank. The SEC, coming in second, made $204 million, or an average of $17 million per school.
Jeremy Fowler of the Orlando Sentinel did the research and came up with how much each conference (both BCS and Coalition), as well as Notre Dame, has made from BCS participation in the BCS Era. It goes without saying that the BCS schools have earned disproportionally more than Coalition schools, as was noted in a previous post.
The data also provides ample reason why Notre Dame has resisted joining a conference. Despite its horrific recent history under Bob Davie, Tyrone Willingham and Charlie Weis, Notre Dame remains the most profitable school in the BCS arrangment simply because it does not have to share its revenue with anyone. Over the past 11 years, the Irish have made nearly as much as the entire Mountain West Conference. Its $35 million haul is about twice as much as the likes of Florida, Ohio State and USC, who have accomplished far more.
Click to enlarge | Data courtesy of Jeremy Fowler, Orlando Sentinel
* In Millions
** Totals do not include the Football Championship Subdivision conferences that currently receive $225,000 per year from the BCS
The breakdown by school (BCS members only):
Notre Dame - $35.00 million
West Virginia, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Rutgers - $21.92
Big Ten members - $19.29
Boston College - $18.94
Pac-10 members - $18.36
Miami, Virginia Tech - $18.10
SEC members - $17.06
ACC members (except Miami, VaTech and BC) - $16.91
Big 12 members - $16.43
Connecticut - $11.27
South Florida, Cincinnati, Louisville - $9.52 ($0.56 as non-BCS members)
*Temple earned $12.96 as a BCS member, $13.02 total
Friday, July 31, 2009
Playoff = Money? Really?
Continuing its six-part series, the Orlando Sentinel today looks at why despite the obvious link between playoff games and extra cash, the BCS has been resistant.
(OK, I promise to stop pimping this, but it's a good read, The Guru is quoted in it, and this is the kind of the stuff that might keep newspaper journalism afloat. So go find Part VI yourself tomorrow).
"For the current time, the present moment's problems seem to outweigh the values that would accrue of television from a playoff," said Neal Pilson, former CBS Sports president who now consults for the Rose Bowl. "But the history of sports in the United States seems to indicate when we have elimination games, it attracts a large audience."
If Pilson seems perplexed, he's not the only one. But the dynamics of college football's postseason are truly complex and there is just no easy solution to untangling 100 years of history and the logistical quagmire that comes with a multi-team playoff. And there's no political will, either - don't expect an executive order out of the White House anytime soon.
That's why the Guru will continue to trumpet the four-team playoff - The Only Playoff That Works - until it's implemented. It's a lot better than doing nothing and a little better than what we have now.
BCS Weekly News Roundup (July 31)
WHO'S FOOTING THE BILL FOR SPORTS? (Orlando Sentinel) - At a time when universities across the country are cutting back on academic programs because of the recession, will the subsidies that help fund intercollegiate sports programs become a political issue?
BIG TEN, PAC-10 HAD NO CHOICE BUT GIVE IN (Atlanta Journal-Constitution) - The Big Ten announced on Monday at its preseason meetings that the five Coalition (non-BCS) conferences will finally have access to the Rose Bowl under the new BCS agreement which begins after the 2010 regular season.
NO CHANGES TO BCS FOR AT LEAST FIVE YEARS (News & Observer) - Even after two Congressional hearings and a plea from President Barack Obama, the Bowl Championship Series won't be changing any time soon. ACC commissioner John Swofford, who is also the chairman of the BCS, said Sunday college football's postseason format is unlikely to change in the next five years.
BCS MIFFED AT COACHES' RETURN TO SECRECY (USA Today) - College football coaches might not get the poll-voting secrecy they thought was coming. Bowl Championship Series coordinator John Swofford and other key conference commissioners make it clear they prefer the final regular-season ballots in the USA TODAY Coaches' Poll — which helps determine the BCS title matchup — continue to be made public.
BCS TIPS BOWL MONEY BALANCE (Econosseur.com) - With Senator Orrin Hatch's (R-UT) editorial in this week's Sports Illustrated and congressional hearings ready to get underway tomorrow, I couldn't wait any longer to put up this picture. The figure below shows total NCAA bowl payout revenues adjusted for inflation (2008 dollars, CPI) and divided into revenues that went to BCS conference teams and non-BCS conference teams.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
How Much Does Your School Make?
The Orlando Sentinel is publishing a six-part series called "Tough Times: College Sports and the Economy." In today's installment, it looks at how much each athletic department is raking in among the 120 Division I-A schools (Army and Navy declined to furnish their numbers, so it's actually 118).
The top five: Texas, Ohio State, Florida, Michigan and Wisconsin. No surprises there.
The bottom five (from the bottom up): Louisiana-Monroe, Arkansas State, Louisiana-Lafayette, Louisiana Tech, Idaho. Again, no surprises there.
The surprises: The top school in the Pac-10, checking in at No. 18, is Stanford, one spot ahead of the University of Southern California. The top school in the ACC is another private institution, Duke at No. 23. Florida State, one of the historically powerhouse football programs, is at No. 53, ahead of only N.C. State and Wake Forest in the ACC and a handful of BCS conference schools.
As expected, the 66 BCS schools are ahead of just about all Coalition (non-BCS) schools. The highest ranked Coalition school is Texas Christian, checking in at No. 58. BYU is next at No. 64. The dead-last BCS school - the only one not in the top 67 - is Mississippi State, at No. 75.
What kind of disparity is there among the richest schools and the poorest ones? The top three schools clear $100 million in total revenue annually. The bottom three, less than $12 million. Texas' athletic department makes $112 million more than Louisiana-Monroe, or roughly 15 times more.
Among the BCS conferences, this is how it shakes down by average:
1. Big Ten: $76.4 million
2. SEC: $71.1 million
3. Big 12: $66.5 million
4. Pac-10: $58.7 million
5. ACC: $54.1 million
6. Big East: $45.5 million
The full-table is on the Orlando Sentinel site. Data courtesy of the U.S. Department of Education.
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