Big East shopping for new TV deal - Game on (or no games on).

[BlueMAB]

Of course it doesn't speak to ABC's capacity!!! But as was alluded to previously by Husky10, it speaks to THEIR INVENTORY! This is not a hard concept to understand, really. ABC has other games that it can air in other regions of the map. NBC does not. That was the whole ideology behind bracketing national games around the Notre Dame game for NBC. And Louisville vs. USF is not a dog**** game, I don't care how you slice it. Louisville is a top10 team right now, and was certainly well ranked when ABC aired them in October. I'm sure that ABC aired some ACC games that could be classified as dog****, but this Big East game was not.

Am I arguing that NBC is going to pay us 20 million each and make us household names throughout America? No. I don't think anyone here is. But I will most certainly argue the fact that Big East football is still a good brand of football, and if we become NBC's only inventory, we will be on the main channel a hell of a lot more than we are now, no question about it...

They have signed MLS which is late in the season and into the playoffs during the football season.

Haven't you been an active participant in discussing the growth of soccer in this country?

Ville/USF is a dogshit game, that's why it was only on in local markets and the northeast.

Notre Dame is going to be on NBC 7 times a year, there are only 5 weekly openings for 1-2 games a week. They aren't going to have tripleheaders every week. There will be 14 teams in the conference. If we aren't a ranked team, we are no more likely to be over the airwaves with NBC than with ABC.

 

[UConnDan97]

The quality of the teams is the reason the coverage map looks the way it looks. His point is he doesn't think NBC would put that game on NBC either. It would end up on NBCSN at best. I think NBCSN was broadcasting MLS playoff game at the time. Probably wouldn't bump MLS playoffs for big east regular season games.

His point makes sense. At least with ESPN there were 9 games available on ESPN3 at 3:30, including Rutgers, and the USF/Louisville game wherever it wasn't on ABC.

There are advantages to both, but thinking NBC is going to be a cash windfall and savior of the league is premature. We are as likely to have less access to UConn games due to the lack of internet option, and more teams joining the conference. All that content that people keep talking about is competition for UConn to get airtime. Hopefully SNY can make arrangements and we aren't stuck with no TV certain weeks.

1) I'm not arguing that NBC is going to be a cash windfall and savior (see my post above).

2) SNY is owned at least in part by Comcast/NBC, is it not?

3) I understand ESPN has more channels to air product, but they have a hell of a lot more product. The question becomes: does UConn do better by being on the main NBC channel, let's say, twice nationally during any given year and the rest of the year on SNY/other, or do they do better by never being on ABC and being on ESPN/ESPN2/ESPNU only during the week and SNY the rest of the year?

4) They would negotiate with MLS to change the start time of the playoff game to work accordingly with their football schedule. That is something that MLS wouldn't fight, since they want the strongest NBC possible to hopefully bring in "overflow" viewers, and NBC would want that to maximize their sports inventory.

 

[whaler11]

Of course it doesn't speak to ABC's capacity!!! But as was alluded to previously by Husky10, it speaks to THEIR INVENTORY! This is not a hard concept to understand, really. ABC has other games that it can air in other regions of the map. NBC does not. That was the whole ideology behind bracketing national games around the Notre Dame game for NBC. And Louisville vs. USF is not a dog**** game, I don't care how you slice it. Louisville is a top10 team right now, and was certainly well ranked when ABC aired them in October. I'm sure that ABC aired some ACC games that could be classified as dog****, but this Big East game was not.

Am I arguing that NBC is going to pay us 20 million each and make us household names throughout America? No. I don't think anyone here is. But I will most certainly argue the fact that Big East football is still a good brand of football, and if we become NBC's only inventory, we will be on the main channel a hell of a lot more than we are now, no question about it...

Dan love the passion but you are seeing the upside and ignoring the downside.

If NBC puts Big East games around Notre Dame I'll gladly admit I am wrong - I think that is a fantasy.

 

[UConnDan97]

Haven't you been an active participant in discussing the growth of soccer in this country?

Yes I have. See the above post...

 

[whaler11]

I'm watching a Sun Belt game right now on ESPNU. If this game was on a Comcast RSN on a Saturday no one would watch it.

If you aren't a Big East fan there are dozens of better games on Saturday - the reality for the Big East is if you want people to watch you can't go against the Big 12/Big 10/SEC.

 

[UConnDan97]

Dan love the passion but you are seeing the upside and ignoring the downside.

If NBC puts Big East games around Notre Dame I'll gladly admit I am wrong - I think that is a fantasy.

That may be a fantasy, but it is not a fantasy that I concocted:

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/c...ne-games-national-tv-article-1.1127668?pgno=1''

"One of the network’s ideas may be to run a full day of Big East football, along with Notre Dame home games, from noon to midnight Saturdays on either NBC or its still-growing cable channel."

This was one of multiple write-ups speculating on that being a real possibility. Does this mean it will happen? Of course not. But why are you "poo-pooing" an idea for being fantasy when others are already speculating on it and how it makes sense?

 

[BlueMAB]

1) I'm not arguing that NBC is going to be a cash windfall and savior (see my post above).

2) SNY is owned at least in part by Comcast/NBC, is it not?

3) I understand ESPN has more channels to air product, but they have a hell of a lot more product. The question becomes: does UConn do better by being on the main NBC channel, let's say, twice nationally during any given year and the rest of the year on SNY/other, or do they do better by never being on ABC and being on ESPN/ESPN2/ESPNU only during the week and SNY the rest of the year?

4) They would negotiate with MLS to change the start time of the playoff game to work accordingly with their football schedule. That is something that MLS wouldn't fight, since they want the strongest NBC possible to hopefully bring in "overflow" viewers, and NBC would want that to maximize their sports inventory.

2) We should be able to see games on SNY yes. I don't think the rest of the conference has a deal with SNY, so that's not going to convince anyone other than Rutgers and UConn to sign a deal with NBC. SNY is an NY station. Bringing in SMU and SDSU doesn't help SNY at all, so I don't see why it makes the Big East more valuable.

3) You're making up the number of times UConn would be on the main NBC channel. Completely pulling that number out of your arse. We've been on ABC/ESPN/ESPN2 when we've been good. When we suck we aren't. Why would this change by going with NBC? It won't. ND gets top billing 7 weeks a year. Then we're competing with 13 other teams depending on how many conference games are taking place. Not to mention we don't know if NBC would want to broadcast more than 1 game on NBC each day. Maybe they do, but there is no reason to assume they would if the games are dogshit.

4) You're making up as you go along. You don't know what they would do with those games head to head. Depends on what they get for ratings this year vs what they think they can get for football.

 

[BlueMAB]

Yes I have. See the above post...

So why pretend like they're going to bump MLS for the big east? it's an assumption based on nothing but a wild ass guess.

 

[whaler11]

That may be a fantasy, but it is not a fantasy that I concocted:

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/c...ne-games-national-tv-article-1.1127668?pgno=1''

"One of the network’s ideas may be to run a full day of Big East football, along with Notre Dame home games, from noon to midnight Saturdays on either NBC or its still-growing cable channel."

This was one of multiple write-ups speculating on that being a real possibility. Does this mean it will happen? Of course not. But why are you "poo-pooing" an idea for being fantasy when others are already speculating on it and how it makes sense?

Yes I know. We all saw the stories.

NBC is not airing a NNBE game in primetime. The affiliates would burn 30 Rock to the ground if their Saturday night programming was SMU and Rutgers.

So that leaves noon - I'll believe NBC puts a NNBE game over the air at noon when they actually do it - call me Missouri I guess.

 

[whaler11]

I thought comcast had a big piece of SNY. They barely own any of it.

 

[BlueMAB]

That may be a fantasy, but it is not a fantasy that I concocted:

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/c...ne-games-national-tv-article-1.1127668?pgno=1''

"One of the network’s ideas may be to run a full day of Big East football, along with Notre Dame home games, from noon to midnight Saturdays on either NBC or its still-growing cable channel."

This was one of multiple write-ups speculating on that being a real possibility. Does this mean it will happen? Of course not. But why are you "poo-pooing" an idea for being fantasy when others are already speculating on it and how it makes sense?

"One idea may be"

I'm not overly enthusiastic about that quote. It doesn't even say that's actually one of their ideas. It says it MAY be one of theyr ideas. Talk about pure speculation. Yes, it's fair to poo-poo complete speculation on one of many possible scenarios.

 

[UConnDan97]

2) We should be able to see games on SNY yes. I don't think the rest of the conference has a deal with SNY, so that's not going to convince anyone other than Rutgers and UConn to sign a deal with NBC. SNY is an NY station. Bringing in SMU and SDSU doesn't help SNY at all, so I don't see why it makes the Big East more valuable.

3) You're making up the number of times UConn would be on the main NBC channel. Completely pulling that number out of your arse. We've been on ABC/ESPN/ESPN2 when we've been good. When we suck we aren't. Why would this change by going with NBC? It won't. ND gets top billing 7 weeks a year. Then we're competing with 13 other teams depending on how many conference games are taking place. Not to mention we don't know if NBC would want to broadcast more than 1 game on NBC each day. Maybe they do, but there is no reason to assume they would if the games are dog****.

4) You're making **** up as you go along. You don't know what they would do with those games head to head. Depends on what they get for ratings this year vs what they think they can get for football.

Stop clowning, WingU.

3) Yes, of course I made the number up, since I as much as said so. Even if the number is "once", it is more than we were on ABC this year. If the plan by NBC is to bracket ND (which I provided a link for, so....not out of my ), then that would be a reasonable assumption.

4) I'm not making anything up at all. ESPN REGULARLY moved gametimes of MLS in order to air other products that they felt were more valuable. Are you kidding me??? I love soccer with all my heart, but I am not stupid enough to think that I am not in the minority on that on any given Saturday. If you think that MLS and Don Garber are going to try to play some sort of hardball with a major network because they want to play at 12pm and not 6pm, then you are sadly mistaken. To quote GDL....OK???

 

[UConnDan97]

WingU and Whaler,

Since there is no amount of links or of talks in the media that you will believe until it actually happens, then just wait for it to happen! Or for it not to happen. Why the hell would you both badger people who comment on what's being talked about and how it might be good for UConn??? Do you not like UConn? Or do you just not like the people that like UConn?

I know it sounds tongue-in-cheek, but I'm being dead serious. This board is full of a bunch of crotchety old ladies, yapping about how life sucks and how anyone who might hope for different is an a. But the fact of the matter is that the two of you have NO MORE INFO than anyone else on the board. So if you want to believe that the deal will suck, or our exposure will suck, or WE will suck, then why do you feel the need to try to share your disease with others? Really...

 

[whaler11]

Everyone will move MLS for anything. They would move MLS so Magnus Von Magnusson could pull a train with his teeth.

Why would anyone need to move MLS anyway? They pick football game start times 11 days out.

 

[UConnDan97]

Everyone will move MLS for anything. They would move MLS so Magnus Von Magnusson could pull a train with his teeth.

Tell that to WingU, who believes I'm pulling that out of my for some reason...

 

[whaler11]

WingU and Whaler,

Since there is no amount of links or of talks in the media that you will believe until it actually happens, then just wait for it to happen! Or for it not to happen. Why the hell would you both badger people who comment on what's being talked about and how it would be good for UConn??? Do you not like UConn? Or do you just not like the people that like UConn?

I know it sounds tongue-in-cheek, but I'm being dead serious. This board is full of a bunch of crotchety old ladies, yapping about how life sucks and anyone who might hope for different is an a. But the fact of the matter is that the two of you have NO MORE INFO than anyone else on the board. So if you want to believe that the deal will suck, or our exposure will suck, or WE will suck, then why do you feel the need to try to share your disease with others? Really...

Sorry it's not clear. I don't think NBC is good for UConn or the Big East.

I never claimed to have any info - My stance is simple. NBC is a graveyard. Go to NBC - league stops getting players - quality of play goes down - people stop watching altogether.

I'm not badgering anyone - I just think the NBC circlejerk is wrong. If you want to argue against ESPN come up with real reasons - not hurt feelings.

 

[UConnDan97]

By the way, Whaler...this is thread #4 for you and me...

 

[whaler11]

Tell that to WingU, who believes I'm pulling that out of my for some reason...

I've got enough battles - I don't need any more.

 

[BlueMAB]

Stop clowning, WingU.

3) Yes, of course I made the number up, since I as much as said so. Even if the number is "once", it is more than we were on ABC this year. If the plan by NBC is to bracket ND (which I provided a link for, so....not out of my ), then that would be a reasonable assumption.

4) I'm not making anything up at all. ESPN REGULARLY moved gametimes of MLS in order to air other products that they felt were more valuable. Are you kidding me??? I love soccer with all my heart, but I am not stupid enough to think that I am not in the minority on that on any given Saturday. If you think that MLS and Don Garber are going to try to play some sort of hardball with a major network because they want to play at 12pm and not 6pm, then you are sadly mistaken. To quote GDL....OK???

There's no reason to think the number would be one. None. The link says one of the ideas may be. That's like saying one of our wins next year may be against Michigan. And we've been on ABC/ESPN on Saturday when we've been good. The key is we have to be good. If we aren't, we're not going to ever be on NBC.

ESPN has better products than the Big East. I don't think MLS has to play hardball. I think NBC may look at a game between LA and NY as more valuable than one between Houston and SMU. Or SDSU/South Florida. You're comparing apples to oranges with ESPN and NBC.

 

[whaler11]

By the way, Whaler...this is thread #4 for you and me...

Today? On this subject? Why are you tracking? Your wife have the baby yet?

 

[UConnDan97]

Sorry it's not clear. I don't think NBC is good for UConn or the Big East.

I never claimed to have any info - My stance is simple. NBC is a graveyard. Go to NBC - league stops getting players - quality of play goes down - people stop watching altogether.

I'm not badgering anyone - I just think the NBC circlejerk is wrong. If you want to argue against ESPN come up with real reasons - not hurt feelings.

As you know (or should know by now), I've said numerous times in the realignment area that if ESPN offers equal money for the Big East that the BE should take ESPN. If that is what you are arguing, then I will agree with that. I know the power of being on "Sportscenter", and I know the power of what happens when ESPN wants to marginalize you (as evidenced over the last year).

But if NBC offers a better contract, then I still see it as a positive. More money, and the channel will certainly work hard to promote us and our well-being. There's no doubt about that, because a big company does not pay a premium for a product without the intention of maximizing the investment. I'm sure you'll agree with that as well, right?

 

[UConnDan97]

There's no reason to think the number would be one. None. The link says one of the ideas may be. That's like saying one of our wins next year may be against Michigan. And we've been on ABC/ESPN on Saturday when we've been good. The key is we have to be good. If we aren't, we're not going to ever be on NBC.

ESPN has better products than the Big East. I don't think MLS has to play hardball. I think NBC may look at a game between LA and NY as more valuable than one between Houston and SMU. Or SDSU/South Florida. You're comparing apples to oranges with ESPN and NBC.

Apples and oranges?? Then how come you are offering up a game of LA vs. NY in soccer, instead of the one I just watched in the playoffs of LA vs. San Jose? Because it wasn't sexy enough for you? Hmmm.....

 

[whaler11]

As you know (or should know by now), I've said numerous times in the realignment area that if ESPN offers equal money for the Big East that the BE should take ESPN. If that is what you are arguing, then I will agree with that. I know the power of being on "Sportscenter", and I know the power of what happens when ESPN wants to marginalize you (as evidenced over the last year).

But if NBC offers a better contract, then I still see it as a positive. More money, and the channel will certainly work hard to promote us and our well-being. There's no doubt about that, because a big company does not pay a premium for a product without the intention of maximizing the investment. I'm sure you'll agree with that as well, right?

So how much more money per team? Is 1 million enough? 2? 5?

 

[UConnDan97]

Today? On this subject? Why are you tracking? Your wife have the baby yet?

Christ, Whaler, it was a joke!!! You are a crotchety old lady, aren't you?

 

[whaler11]

Apples and oranges?? Then how come you are offering up a game of LA vs. NY in soccer, instead of the one I just watched in the playoffs of LA vs. San Jose? Because it wasn't sexy enough for you? Hmmm.....

You watched that? Are the batteries in your remote dead?