AAC 2nd TV Contract/Negotiations

[Confident Carl]

UConn basketball is 7.38 times more prestigious than Navy football.

Why aren’t we negotiating a deal that keeps us from playing Sunday at 6 p.m. on an unrated network during an NFL Conference Championship game?

We have precedent. What are they going to do? Throw us out? Good luck with your non-Navy football, non-UConn basketball negotiations.

It might be time to stop monitoring the situation and actually impacting it.

The top two things this Mickey Mouse organization is now selling is UConn men’s basketball and UConn women’s basketball. You can put them 1-2 in whichever order like. Time to act as if.

The TV negotiations are about football. Navy enhanced the AAC's football product.
The busted knees theory doesn't hold water.

 

[whaler11]

The TV negotiations are about football. Navy enhanced the AAC's football product.
The busted knees theory doesn't hold water.

Pathetic

 

[auggie22]

The TV negotiations are about football. Navy enhanced the AAC's football product.
The busted knees theory doesn't hold water.

Then giving UCONN some of that content back for 3rd tier opportunities shouldn’t be an issue.

 

[Confident Carl]

Then giving UCONN some of that content back for 3rd tier opportunities shouldn’t be an issue.

The AAC needed Navy more than Navy needed the AAC. The AAC also benefits from Navy's surrogate in Bball WSU. They contribute NCAA tourney money that Navy can't. Both were smart moves by Aresco.

 

[whaler11]

The AAC needed Navy more than Navy needed the AAC. The AAC also benefits from Navy's surrogate in Bball WSU. They contribute NCAA tourney money that Navy can't. Both were smart moves by Aresco.

They made a terrible deal. Navy was dying on the vine and they saved them and got nothing in return.

They have nothing to do with Wichita State who could have been added with or without Navy’s inclusion as a football only.

 

[CL82]

Are we sure that Navy holds the broadcast rights to their football home games? If so, why would the AAC have negotiated the contract with CBS Sports? Wouldn't Navy have done it themselves?

 

[Confident Carl]

Are we sure that Navy holds the broadcast rights to their football home games? If so, why would the AAC have negotiated the contract with CBS Sports? Wouldn't Navy have done it themselves?

This article explains the evolution and rational. This was all part of the negotiations and apparently needed to be done in order for Navy to join the AAC. As a concession the AAC retains the TV rights to the Navy-Notre Dame game every other year.

Navy agrees to 10-year extension with CBS Sports with support of AAC

Navy wanted control of home games so they could continue playing on Saturdays which is a matter of tradition and prodical.

Adding the US Naval academy is a most positive addition to the AAC. Navy has a national audience and fits well with the geographic spread of the AAC. Dwelling on Navy's retention of home game TV rights is majoring in the minors. The deal is done. Time to move on.

 

[CL82]

Navy announced it has agreed to a 10-year extension of its existing contract with CBS Sports.

Additionally, the primary rights-holder for American Athletic Conference football will have first choice of broadcasting one Navy home game per year. That means not all Navy home games will be televised by CBS Sports.

Gladchuk said it was imperative for American Athletic Conference officials to be part of this round of negotiations with CBS Sports since the majority of Navy home games are now against AAC opponents.

“We understand that Navy has a unique situation and unique needs. CBS Sports has been able to accommodate those needs,” Aresco said. “Ultimately, the conference colloborated with ESPN and CBS to ensure the integrity of Navy’s home schedule was maintained while including certain provisions that benefit the AAC and its primary broadcast rights-holder.

According to multiple media reports, the deal signed with ESPN in 2013 was worth $126 million. Aresco believes the value of AAC athletics is far greater at this time and being able to offer the Navy home game with Notre Dame along with the most attractive annual game at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium is a major boost to the football package.

 

[Drew]

In my opinion, this is going to slowly wind up with the AAC controlling all Navy TV rights.

They came in with a completely separate deal.

Now AAC has ND @ Navy and 1 Navy home game.

Next deal will hopefully be all Navy games.

 

[whaler11]

This article explains the evolution and rational. This was all part of the negotiations and apparently needed to be done in order for Navy to join the AAC. As a concession the AAC retains the TV rights to the Navy-Notre Dame game every other year.

Navy agrees to 10-year extension with CBS Sports with support of AAC

Navy wanted control of home games so they could continue playing on Saturdays which is a matter of tradition and prodical.

Adding the US Naval academy is a most positive addition to the AAC. Navy has a national audience and fits well with the geographic spread of the AAC. Dwelling on Navy's retention of home game TV rights is majoring in the minors. The deal is done. Time to move on.

Wrong. This deal is a joke for the conference.

What is minor league is swallowing a dogcrap deal and trying to pretend it is anything but that.

If you want to run around screaming P6 - maybe start acting like it.

Navy needed the AAC more than the AAC needed Navy - that the leadership is so inept they didn’t realize that simple reality doesn’t change it.

Full-fledged minor league operation. The AAC gives them a legit schedule and a path to big bowls and in return they get to play Navy? Whooptie damn doo - they are such a national draw their games get played on an unrated network. Nobody cares about playing Navy - look at their pre-AAC schedules.

Their last indy home schedule was Rutgers, WKU, SJSU, VMI & Georgia Southern.

They played @USA and @Texas State.

Total and completely inept leadership. P0.

 

[Fishy]

In my opinion, this is going to slowly wind up with the AAC controlling all Navy TV rights.

They came in with a completely separate deal.

Now AAC has ND @ Navy and 1 Navy home game.

Next deal will hopefully be all Navy games.

They just extended the deal for a decade.

The odds of this conference having a television contract in a decade are 50/50 at best.

 

[History Geek]

They just extended the deal for a decade.

The odds of this conference having a television contract in a decade are 50/50 at best.

I agree "at best" because I doubt the AAC exists in its current form at all at that time. I'm convinced that with the end of the Big 12 GOR in 5 years there will be a big reshuffle. Big 12 scraps and some of the G5s will recombine. Hopefully when the dust settles we are in the "P5", or whatever the higher revenue equivalent will be.

 

[UConnJim]

L

Wrong. This deal is a joke for the conference.

What is minor league is swallowing a dogcrap deal and trying to pretend it is anything but that.

If you want to run around screaming P6 - maybe start acting like it.

Navy needed the AAC more than the AAC needed Navy - that the leadership is so inept they didn’t realize that simple reality doesn’t change it.

Full-fledged minor league operation. The AAC gives them a legit schedule and a path to big bowls and in return they get to play Navy? Whooptie damn doo - they are such a national draw their games get played on an unrated network. Nobody cares about playing Navy - look at their pre-AAC schedules.

Their last indy home schedule was Rutgers, WKU, SJSU, VMI & Georgia Southern.

They played @USA and @Texas State.

Total and completely inept leadership. P0.

I think Navy was cautious about the AAC due to stability. Would the conference last, especially when the Big 12 was flirting with expansion or destruction. But, I think they were also nervous about what would happen if Notre Dame was forced to join a conference as they may have to rethink playing Navy every year. I think losing one of their 3 annual opponents, and a big money game, would make staying independent difficult.

That said, Navy could have remained independent as they have 3 important games every year: Army, Air Force, and Notre Dame. The media revenues from those 3 games would be fine. Then they could play BYU and UMass every year plus Hawaii every so often and they easily can get 2 or 3 other P5 games every season based on their past schedules:

2009: Ohio St., Pitt, Wake Forest
2010: Maryland, Wake Forest, Duke
2011: South Carolina, Rutgers
2012: Penn St., Indiana
2013: Indiana, Duke, Pitt
2014: Ohio St., Rutgers

What UConn football fan would not sign up for this schedule:

Army
Air Force
Notre Dame
Indiana
Duke
Pitt
BYU
UMass
Hawaii
1 FCS
2 G5

Yes, the AAC has made scheduling easier for Navy and access to one of the top bowls, but they still would have gotten a decent bowl game every year if they deserved it.

By the way, UConn played Army and Navy at home in 2015. Navy was the highest attended game that season by 5000 fans and Army was the second highest attended game. Navy also played at Tulsa, Houston, and Memphis in 2015. At Houston, Navy was the top attended game by 5000 fans. For Memphis, Navy was the second most attended game (Ole Miss was #1) by 10,000 fans over #3. Navy at Tulsa was their 2nd highest attended game. So, yes, fans will show up when Navy comes to town.

 

[Exit 4]

I agree "at best" because I doubt the AAC exists in its current form at all at that time. I'm convinced that with the end of the Big 12 GOR in 5 years there will be a big reshuffle. Big 12 scraps and some of the G5s will recombine. Hopefully when the dust settles we are in the "P5", or whatever the higher revenue equivalent will be.

I used to be enthralled with that B12 melt down scenario, but now I think how it plays out is that the B12 will hold together with either Oklahoma and Kansas leaving or Oklahoma and Texas leaving and back filling with any combination of four to six schools from the following list in an effort to balance "culture" and proximity with markets and athletic prowess:

A list candidates
Colorado St
UCF
USF
Cincy
Houston if Texas leaves

B list candidates
Boise St
BYU (lots of issues to work out here including political climate)
Memphis (same as Louisville going to the ACC, they will just hold their nose about academics)

And so the remnants will be:
1. Temple
2. UConn
3. ECU
4. Navy
5. Tulane
6. SMU
7. Tulsa
+plus potentially 2 not picked above to join the B12 post Oklahoma.
[insert what here FIU and/or FAU and/or what Georgia Southern? to get back to 12]

I know what our case is, but I fear it will be heard and then ultimately dismissed because of geography.

 

[whaler11]

I used to be enthralled with that B12 melt down scenario, but now I think how it plays out is that the B12 will hold together with either Oklahoma and Kansas leaving or Oklahoma and Texas leaving and back filling with any combination of four to six schools from the following list in an effort to balance "culture" and proximity with markets and athletic prowess:

A list candidates
Colorado St
UCF
USF
Cincy
Houston if Texas leaves

B list candidates
Boise St
BYU (lots of issues to work out here including political climate)
Memphis (same as Louisville going to the ACC, they will just hold their nose about academics)

And so the remnants will be:
1. Temple
2. UConn
3. ECU
4. Navy
5. Tulane
6. SMU
7. Tulsa
+plus potentially 2 not picked above to join the B12 post Oklahoma.
[insert what here FIU and/or FAU and/or what Georgia Southern? to get back to 12]

I know what our case is, but I fear it will be heard and then ultimately dismissed because of geography.

Yep. If you are a UConn fan and rooting against Big 12 survival you are either nuts or a masochist.

 

[UConnJim]

I used to be enthralled with that B12 melt down scenario, but now I think how it plays out is that the B12 will hold together with either Oklahoma and Kansas leaving or Oklahoma and Texas leaving and back filling with any combination of four to six schools from the following list in an effort to balance "culture" and proximity with markets and athletic prowess:

A list candidates
Colorado St
UCF
USF
Cincy
Houston if Texas leaves

B list candidates
Boise St
BYU (lots of issues to work out here including political climate)
Memphis (same as Louisville going to the ACC, they will just hold their nose about academics)

And so the remnants will be:
1. Temple
2. UConn
3. ECU
4. Navy
5. Tulane
6. SMU
7. Tulsa
+plus potentially 2 not picked above to join the B12 post Oklahoma.
[insert what here FIU and/or FAU and/or what Georgia Southern? to get back to 12]

I know what our case is, but I fear it will be heard and then ultimately dismissed because of geography.

I disagree. If the Big 12 lost Kansas basketball, that is a huge blow as they are by far the dominant team in the Big 12 as they have won or shared 16 out of the last 17 regular season titles. And the last Big 12 team not named Kansas to win the NCAA tournament was Oklahama A&M (now State) in 1946! And the last 2 Big 12 teams not named Kansas to make the Championship game were Oklahoma in 1988 and West Virginia in 1959! The poor basketball history of the Big 12 would make UConn attractive.

If you are adding Eastern schools like UCF, USF, and Cincinnati, UConn makes more sense than Colorado St or Boise St.

 

[Exit 4]

I disagree. If the Big 12 lost Kansas basketball, that is a huge blow as they are by far the dominant team in the Big 12 as they have won or shared 16 out of the last 17 regular season titles. And the last Big 12 team not named Kansas to win the NCAA tournament was Oklahama A&M (now State) in 1946! And the last 2 Big 12 teams not named Kansas to make the Championship game were Oklahoma in 1988 and West Virginia in 1959! The poor basketball history of the Big 12 would make UConn attractive.

If you are adding Eastern schools like UCF, USF, and Cincinnati, UConn makes more sense than Colorado St or Boise St.

The big 12 will be left with TT, TCU, Kansas State, OSU and Iowa St. That group is not going to be happy adding a northeastern program. They already greatly dislike and regret adding WVU.

I almost feel like the AAC needs to add Boise St and Colorado St now as a preemptive strike...our AAC conference is already a pseudo national conf with no effort/ability to be a cultural conf.

 

[History Geek]

Yep. If you are a UConn fan and rooting against Big 12 survival you are either nuts or a masochist.

You and E4 make sense here.

 

[Exit 4]

HistoryGeek....now I'm about to make less sense.....

So maybe one way this could play out differently is in the off chance schools like USF, UCF and Cincy actually decline the invitation to join the B12 remnants. If the B12 remnants are unable to offer a substantial step up in revenues, then maybe that actually could happen..maybe.... Playing in Lubbock, Ames, Stillwater, Morgantown and Waco might actually not be that appealing w/o the big $$ boost vs the American which probably wont be there at that stage if Oklahoma and Texas are gone. The B12 bowl tie ins would probably take some hit too lessening the appeal to move conf. Again, the great unknown will be media $ enablers and how they value the B12 remnants and how they enable or deny them the ability to reload/replace.

In a scenario where the B12 remnants are unable to offer a meaningful step up in revenue, maybe the AAC could actually add WV and keep most of its schools. I think some schools like Memphis and Tulane wouldn't mind joining the B12 remnants even if its w/o the $ step up.

 

[History Geek]

I just have hated this in-limbo stuff, both in general and what it has meant for the current state of the UConn athletic department. If we are going to become big-time (again), including the highest revenue level for football, awesome. If our long-term reality is not big-time, then I will starting agreeing with the deemphasize football crowd. And I'm a football guy.

 

[auggie22]

Whaler has me fired up. Navy is a net negative save for a few football games a year... which are now certain to be NOT AAC properties for at least a decade. They have set the precedent that the AAC will grant exemptions and special favors. Time to negotiate AD Dave.

 

[Ha Who]

Whaler has me fired up. Navy is a net negative save for a few football games a year... which are now certain to be NOT AAC properties for at least a decade. They have set the precedent that the AAC will grant exemptions and special favors. Time to negotiate AD Dave.

Let’s say Dave negotiates and the answer is no. What than? The impending ACC/Big bidding war over us.

 

[MattMang23]

I just hope we play games on TV channels that have less than 5 letters and are found under channel number 3000.

Good news is most cable companies have helped us out so you now only have to hit the "c" button on the remote or speak "UConn basketball" into the speaker to find CBSSNNENBCAFFILIATE.

 

[auggie22]

Let’s say Dave negotiates and the answer is no. What than? The impending ACC/Big bidding war over us.

I’m in the Big East and Independent camp, so you now know my answer.

 

[upstater]

The big 12 will be left with TT, TCU, Kansas State, OSU and Iowa St. That group is not going to be happy adding a northeastern program. They already greatly dislike and regret adding WVU.

I almost feel like the AAC needs to add Boise St and Colorado St now as a preemptive strike...our AAC conference is already a pseudo national conf with no effort/ability to be a cultural conf.

As long as their hatred of the northeast outweighs their interest in making money, your scenario would be correct.

As long as UConn has interest in its market, it brings more dough to any conference than the 6th best schools in these states.