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To this day, I don’t understand the arguments that the Big East would be a league that’s going downward. They already make more TV money than any of the Group of 5 conferences and they don’t even play football (meaning they’re getting a MUCH MUCH MUCH higher ROI without those football expenses)...

The contract details probably won't ever be made public. However, as I noted previously, it's standard to have a most favored nation clause in basic cable agreements, so BTN (or any other basic cable network) can't offer a better deal to Comcast compared to DirecTV, Dish, et. al or else they...

This is the exact same distribution that the BTN had previously with Comcast: basic cable in Big Ten states and adjacent markets with sports pack coverage in all other areas. They only noted the “adding” of BTN in sports packs in non-Big Ten markets because Comcast started taking the channel off...

Cable companies probably would like a la carte very much for this type of network. They would love it if sports networks would be offered like HBO because such sports networks are typically the most expensive basic cable channels. However, there's a bit of a catch-22: the high cost of cable...

It's not a fabrication. A reporter sent it to me as a message he found as part of a FOIA request. People can (and do) disagree with my opinions and analysis all of the time, which is fine, but I'm pretty upfront that I don't make up stories (unlike some others out there).

I'll just leave this here.

I agree that the NBE TV money is only a fraction of the revenue compared to the P5 and individual school media and shoe deals can be much more by comparison. That being said, the NBE schools also aren't carrying the costs of FBS football and the arms race that the sport entails. It's not so much...

I wouldn't count on a P5 breakaway. As long as the P5 control 90%-plus of the college football revenue, they'll likely live with the NCAA for everything else (particularly since the P5 was able legislate different standards for "high resource" schools). It certainly irks some P5 administrators...

Three points: (1) The Big East is a better and more valuable basketball conference than the AAC (whether you're talking about on-the-court results, branding or TV money). When you consider how much the Big East is getting paid in TV money and that it's higher than the AAC *without* football and...

I don't assume that "any" P5 game is worth than any G5 game. However, I do think there's quite a bit of evidence that the top 1 or 2 games from each P5 conference per week consistently get bigger ratings than what the G5 can offer. Those top 1 or 2 games are where the outsized ratings come from...

I'd agree with you there at least with respect to UConn, which this seems to point that UConn's basketball programs (both men's and women's) are subsidizing the rest of the AAC contract. UConn's women's basketball has a fairly high TV value while the rest of the AAC women's basketball probably...

Oh, I understand your argument. I don't necessarily agree that your data point (the number of ESPN appearances by UConn) supports your conclusion (that this means UConn is subsidizing schools within the P5 that aren't as valuable). UConn may very well be more valuable than Wake Forest, but I...

Once again, I agree. EPL promotion is based on on-the-field performance, whereas P5 promotion has only a loose correlation at best to on-the-field performance (and no correlation if you happen to occupy the correct real estate such as Rutgers).

Well, this actually displays how college football TV distributions are similar. Aston Villa is certainly the bigger club in a vacuum. However, games aren't played in a vacuum and, as of now, Bournemouth is getting exponentially more TV revenue as part of the EPL compared to the relegated Aston...

I agree. I'm just looking at the EPL as an example outside of college football of where TV money completely changes depending upon league membership even if you field the exact same team with the exact same fans. There's not a linear financial distribution from league-to-league - instead, it's a...

I completely understand the frustration of the UConn fans here. I would agree that Wake Forest is not worth 10 times as much as UConn. The core issue is that the ACC probably *is* worth 10 times more than the AAC from a TV perspective. The fact that Florida State might be worth $100 million per...

Well, that's an interesting and valid point. UConn's geography was definitely a negative for the Big 12 for being too far while there's a possible redundancy issue with the ACC and Big Ten. The benefit that Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas all have is that they can be slotted into any of the Big Ten...

I understand your argument, but I truly believe that Kansas is the exception to the general rule regarding football focus. They are in an entirely different category that is occupied by Kansas, Duke, UNC, Kentucky and *maybe* Indiana where the hoops blue bloodedness is so strong that the...

I don't think Kansas is taking a spot in lieu of UConn. It's more about Kansas overall. I'd say all of those things put together (market, AAU for academics, basketball history and prestige) are what makes Kansas attractive. Let's put it this way: if you put Notre Dame's resume from the past 20...

Oh, I wouldn't say it's a different bar. It's more like UConn was a member of a conference that simply failed (just like there are thousands of startups that fail for every Facebook-type success). Some other schools like Syracuse were able to find golden parachutes in time but UConn wasn't able...

Well, I agree that it's setting the bar at a really high level. The Big 12 just decided not to invite anyone despite having the lowest financial and academic barriers to entry out of any P5 league, so it's even higher for the other power conferences. The bar is only going to get higher from this...

If the Pac-16 had occurred, Kansas would have ended up in that new Pac-16 (replacing Texas A&M that was prepared to split off to head to the SEC) or a 16-school Big Ten. It has always been a gross misnomer to suggest that they would have been left out (just as I think it's a gross misnomer...

Now, you might not like how the line is constructed, but it's actually a very clear line and there's nothing really artificial about it. In the BCS era, there were 6 AQ conferences that were provided with guaranteed access to the top level bowls. In the CFP era, there are now 5 P5 conferences...

Oh sure - it all has to be mutually beneficial. That being said, BYU was able to get scheduling arrangements in place with Boise State and Utah State despite leaving the MWC, so it's not completely unprecedented for a defector school to get games back on the schedule with their old league. It's...

Hypothetically, you build it out this way: (1) Have permanent deals with independents BYU, UMass and Army as a base. That gives you 3 games. (2) Play 1 local FCS opponent per year at home. (3) Maintain relationships with the regional AAC schools Temple and Navy. That's 2 more games. (4)...

Oh, there's no doubt that Rutgers has a dumpster fire athletic department. Here's the thing with respect to the Big Ten's intent for Rutgers: it doesn't matter. Adding Rutgers was never about actually "adding Rutgers". This was about (a) BTN cable households in the NYC market and (b) providing a...

Tulane is a legitimately excellent academic school, though - that's what university presidents want. It's pretty instructive that Tulane got to round 2 of the Big 12 non-expansion process while Memphis didn't. To me, schools like FIU, FAU and UTSA are probably going to be the most valuable...

Yeesh - OK, so the Northeastern bias reference obviously touched a nerve. Apologies as I meant no harm. That being said, I would disagree that a "bias claim" is my first card outside that I think fans are very biased by "What have you done for me lately?" results on the football field.

Standing behind that I think Tulsa is a good academic school and people seem to be discounting the size of Oklahoma itself? Yes, I will stand behind that. Do I think Tulsa is some type of world-beater? Of course not. I think the last two sentences of my post are a fair summary: "Whether Tulsa...

I think there are a few issues with this: (1) BYU isn't joining this type of league. I've noted this elsewhere. Suffice to say, they will die a fiery death as an independent before they would ever join anything less than a P5 league as long as Utah is in the Pac-12. Without BYU, the value of...

You overlooked my point that people are (whether intentionally or not) sandbagging the size of the market for Kansas. If you're going to argue that UConn's fan base is larger than the state of Connecticut and goes into the NYC/Boston areas (which is what most UConn fans want to argue), then you...

Well, yes, that's the risk. UConn obviously can't have a UMass-like independence. The judgment is whether it can create a BYU-like independence. I don't know if it's possible. Before yesterday, I would have thought it would be insane to have UConn be independent for football. Today, I think it's...

To be sure, ALWAYS rolls downhill in conference realignment. The old Conference USA members used to say similar things about when the Big East was predicted to fall apart... yet when the Big East actually fell apart, the remaining three (!) all-sports members were STILL able to rebuild and...

Uh, no. Kansas will instantly find a place in ANY of the P5 leagues. No question about it. Not even a debate. I see many arguments here that UConn brings in NYC/Boston, which might have some validity, but then people shouldn't turn around and ignore that Kansas brings in a MUCH wider proven fan...

Tulsa is the only AAC member in the top 100 of the US News undergrad rankings besides UConn, Tulane and SMU. They're actually a very good academic school. As for location, the state of Oklahoma has over 300,000 more people than the state of Connecticut and growing at a much faster rate. More...