ESPN tab for destroying the Big East

[nelsonmuntz]

almost $140MM a year for 4 teams.

$36MM - Pitt and Syracuse in the ACC
$60MM - 12x$5 to bring the ACC teams up from $13 to $18MM/school
$40MM - TCU and WVU in the Big 12

$40MM? - Louisville and Cincinnati to the Big 12

I guess we have our answer on whether the $130MM offer from ESPN was a lowball bid since they have paid more than that for just 4 teams.

 

[SubbaBub]

True, the BE teams would have fallen all over themselves to sign for $150M/year.

Or maybe they did and SHU, PC, et al were worth -20M/year. O-o


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[noeynox]

Marinatto should go out and start screaming about how he can't wait to take the big east contract on the open market.

As the saying goes, you mess with the bull you get the horn. I could just picture Jim Delaney wincing when he read that and thinking "good luck with that John. "

I don't totally blame Marinatto but he seems to be a terrible negotiator and he has not been much of a consensus builder among the big east presidents either.

 

[WestCoastHusky]

The key for ESPN is not the money, but to keep their competitors off college football. By destroying the Big East, they have accomplished that since NBC/COMCAST would have nothing to bid on. Even if it cost more than the annual BE contract, it is still worth it for ESPN to keep NBC/COMCAST out of the whole thing.

I just wish UCONN would find a landing spot soon because this is getting ridiculous.

 

[Carl Spackler]

guess we have our answer on whether the $130MM offer from ESPN was a lowball bid since they have paid more than that for just 4 teams.

Oh boy - dissertation coming - warning - long winded postings.

the first offer in any negotiation is a low ball, aren't you supposed to be an expert in this - multimillion dollar negotiations? If I've got you confused with someone else - my apologies. But if you are the one claiming that you do negotiations, you needed multiple earthquakes in the intercollegiate landscape to realize the ESPN offer was a lowball?

The idiocy in all of this, was walking away from the table and puffing out his chest like a rooster, instead of staring cold faced and quiet at the table for a while, and then simply calling the bluff by saying...'ok, if that's what you're starting with, we've got a lot of work to do, let's get started and see where this goes before we have to go and get anybody else involved."

As soon as that happened, walking away from the table, in the spring, I predicted right here on this board, taht the conference as we knew it would be done by the end of the year, everybody thought I was an idiot. There were these huge broadcasting companies lining up to pay the big east piles of cash, basketball was worth so much money in the national landscape. Not. If you read the papers, the business papers, and I posted them, executives all over the place were really confused with the big east. They openly wondered where all this money the big east was going to get was going to come from. Being last in line to negotiate as a big time conference was clearly a BAD place to be, to the people that actually you know, paid the contracts.

Now - had negotiations been ongoing, and nothing reached by the time other companies can jump in, then we're in a different position, b/c the big east is a good product, and it does have value and an open market would drive it up, but to openly expect the big east to get as much money as the Pac 10 got, because we were last in line? Oh man friar tuck......

The pac 10 didn't get the contract they had b/c they had 16 basketball teams and 8 football teams. Complete failure to understand college athletics on a national scale, and continued belief that basketball is of equal, or more value than football in the broadcasting world. The NCAA tournament is the value of college basketball, and the big east's value as a basketball conference was skewed and type I statistical conclusion error, because it was by volume of teams only in the NCAA tournament, coming from a much larger league than anyone else, that the conference made more basketball money than football - even with only 8 football teams.

I have no idea who the leader would be to make it happen, but I believe that if a leader were able to emerge in the next 2 years, to lead the 8 current football schools in athletics and intercollegiate sporting, it would still be possible to build a 10 team northeastern sports conference beginning play in the 2014 season, that would include the 8 current big east members, and two more programs in all sports.

A twelve team conference, as has been proposed would work. It would generate the value,a nd be great for recruiting. All tradition in northeast football would be lost, but in reality, we don't have a big part of that tradition anyway.

But to make it happen, and Iv'e said this all along, Providence leadership needs to fundamentally change and put football ahead of basketball in business transactions and operations.

Holding off expansion for the basketball media day? If West Virginia does leave, I'm putting the blame squarely on that rumor. How's that?!

 

[Heston]

almost $140MM a year for 4 teams.

$36MM - Pitt and Syracuse in the ACC
$60MM - 12x$5 to bring the ACC teams up from $13 to $18MM/school
$40MM - TCU and WVU in the Big 12

$40MM? - Louisville and Cincinnati to the Big 12

I guess we have our answer on whether the $130MM offer from ESPN was a lowball bid since they have paid more than that for just 4 teams.

We will know the contracts so enough.

My guess is Pitt and Cuse to ACC will get an average of $20 million or more. Which means a raise for the rest of the schools from $14 million ($13.8) to $20 million. But the ACC was going to trigger a renegotiation no matter what, with or without Cuse and Pitt. The renegotiation could be triggered by expansion OR the ACC agreeing to more conference games. It looks like they are going to do both.

It sounds like the Big 12 is not going to 12. So ESPN is NOT paying more for the Big 12. If the Big 12 stays at 10, ESPN is net the same on Big 12, it is just how the Big 12 is dividing it up. ESPN loses half of A&M and MO, but gains all of TCU and WV.

If the Big 12 stays at 10, the real cost as it stands today is just the ACC contract.

 

[Heston]

The key for ESPN is not the money, but to keep their competitors off college football.

+1. Correct.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

We will know the contracts so enough.

My guess is Pitt and Cuse to ACC will get an average of $20 million or more. Which means a raise for the rest of the schools from $14 million ($13.8) to $20 million. But the ACC was going to trigger a renegotiation no matter what, with or without Cuse and Pitt. The renegotiation could be triggered by expansion OR the ACC agreeing to more conference games. It looks like they are going to do both.

It sounds like the Big 12 is not going to 12. So ESPN is NOT paying more for the Big 12. If the Big 12 stays at 10, ESPN is net the same on Big 12, it is just how the Big 12 is dividing it up. ESPN loses half of A&M and MO, but gains all of TCU and WV.

If the Big 12 stays at 10, the real cost as it stands today is just the ACC contract.

Another trolltastic post. Maybe the ACC schools are getting $100MM per team.

As for the Big 12, it is stopping at 10 because that is what Texas wants, likely to keep control of the conference. If the league goes to 12 or more, Texas influence becomes diluted. The Big 12 could keep its per team share a lot easier than the ACC can, because the Big 12 doesn't have 4 teams in one mid-sized state, and another in an empty factory town in upstate New York.

 

[Heston]

The Big 12 could keep its per team share a lot easier than the ACC can, because the Big 12 doesn't have 4 teams in one mid-sized state, and another in an empty factory town in upstate New York.

Huh? ESPN already pays the ACC more in total and per team than it pays the Big 12. That is pre a new deal for the ACC. The Big 12 is just trying to hold on to the deal it already has.

 

[RS9999X]

almost $140MM a year for 4 teams.

$36MM - Pitt and Syracuse in the ACC
$60MM - 12x$5 to bring the ACC teams up from $13 to $18MM/school
$40MM - TCU and WVU in the Big 12

$40MM? - Louisville and Cincinnati to the Big 12

I guess we have our answer on whether the $130MM offer from ESPN was a lowball bid since they have paid more than that for just 4 teams.

Of course my take is different. based on other sources:

1) ESPN paid out $28 mil more to the ACC/ $2 mil per team

Big East estimated contract *(around $13 mil a team--same as ACC current contract)
ACC Contract after extension and concession of some media rights: $15 mil team, A $2 mil a team pop for 10 years or $20 mil per team. SU and Pitt are ecstatic with a stable $15 mil. Why throw more money than that? Its more tham sufficient.

ACC realizes a pop of $2 mil a team or $28 mil total after extension and concession of some media rights . ESPN would have to pay Pitt and SU $13 mil anyway as part of BE.

2) B12 deal is neutral

TCU and WVU will take $13 mil from the B12 until the 2017 contract kicks in for $20 mil. They will be phased in to full shares. Any savings and phase in money will be used to address the #1 concern: keeping the existing TV contract revenue neutral with the loss of TAMU and Missouri. TCU and WVU are in no position to bargain. $13 mil and a BCS conference and the TCU Athletic Department pissed its pants. WVU is happy and stable and was left dangling long enough to call $13 mil a gift..

Net cost to EPSN: Zero. They started out thinking they would pay WVU and TCU $13 mil anyway.

3) SEC deal costs $10 mil more

Missouri and TAMU are getting a smallish immediate raise during phase in. Call it $5 mil per team and $10 mil total

Final: EPSN is out $38 mil for moving 4 Big East teams to other conferences. That includes the moving a top 10 type of team (TCU) into the BCS and additional media rights and an expansion of games. (SEC is in process on that negotiation).

The Big East: Can they sign a 12-team BE in Football and 16-team in Basketball for $92 mil or less? $4 mil per team for basketball and $4 mil per team for football?

 

[RS9999X]

Or more simply:

New B12 payout: neutral
New SEC payout +$40 mil
New ACC payout +$54 mil (@ $15 mil a team)

$94 mil. One new BCS team TCU.

New BE payout: BE $4 mil football ($48 mil) and $4 mil basketball ($64 mil) $112 mil. 7 new football teams and 3 new basketball teams in an AQ conference.

 

[arnie3]

The key for ESPN is not the money, but to keep their competitors off college football. By destroying the Big East, they have accomplished that since NBC/COMCAST would have nothing to bid on. Even if it cost more than the annual BE contract, it is still worth it for ESPN to keep NBC/COMCAST out of the whole thing.

I just wish UCONN would find a landing spot soon because this is getting ridiculous.

This is getting to be a load!

 

[Heston]

Or more simply:

New B12 payout: neutral
New SEC payout +$40 mil
New ACC payout +$54 mil (@ $15 mil a team)





$94 mil. One new BCS team TCU.

New BE payout: BE $4 mil football ($48 mil) and $4 mil basketball ($64 mil) $112 mil. 7 new football teams and 3 new basketball teams in an AQ conference.

ESPN has the rights only after CBS makes it's selections. CBS gets first pick and second pick. ESPN will only be paying a potion of any increase, although it is a big chunk. Bottom line, their cost for A&M and MO will not change much if any because they won't be the only partner in the deal.