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- Aug 26, 2011
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Nothing earth shattering but more foreboding for the “have’s” who might not “have as much” in the not so distant future:
-> What is clear is that there is an almost insatiable appetite to watch the biggest brands match up. To that point, one prominent college athletics official who has been involved in numerous media rights deals told On3, “The networks right now will pay you whatever you need them to pay you for the top inventory. What they don’t want to do anymore is pay $9 million a game for Michigan-Ohio State and also pay $9 million a game for Rutgers-Maryland. Every conference is top-heavy.”
In fact, the top three or four brands in every conference account for more than 50 percent of the TV viewers, with some slight variation among leagues. For the Big Ten, it’s Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State. In the SEC, it’s Alabama, LSU, Georgia and Florida. The Pac-12 has USC, Oregon and Washington. It’s Clemson, Miami and Florida State in the ACC. And the Big 12 (for now) has Texas, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State. Notre Dame is the lone independent that moves the needle. <-
-> “I worry about that for our game and for those universities,” North Carolina coach Mack Brown told ESPN’s Paul Finebaum recently. “ … I think we will see some schools that just can’t have enough money, enough facilities, enough commitment selling those tickets, be attractive enough for the TV contracts that they will lose who they are and drop down to another level.”<-
-> What is clear is that there is an almost insatiable appetite to watch the biggest brands match up. To that point, one prominent college athletics official who has been involved in numerous media rights deals told On3, “The networks right now will pay you whatever you need them to pay you for the top inventory. What they don’t want to do anymore is pay $9 million a game for Michigan-Ohio State and also pay $9 million a game for Rutgers-Maryland. Every conference is top-heavy.”
In fact, the top three or four brands in every conference account for more than 50 percent of the TV viewers, with some slight variation among leagues. For the Big Ten, it’s Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State. In the SEC, it’s Alabama, LSU, Georgia and Florida. The Pac-12 has USC, Oregon and Washington. It’s Clemson, Miami and Florida State in the ACC. And the Big 12 (for now) has Texas, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State. Notre Dame is the lone independent that moves the needle. <-
-> “I worry about that for our game and for those universities,” North Carolina coach Mack Brown told ESPN’s Paul Finebaum recently. “ … I think we will see some schools that just can’t have enough money, enough facilities, enough commitment selling those tickets, be attractive enough for the TV contracts that they will lose who they are and drop down to another level.”<-
