Big 12 Update@Big12Update
Lyell: Big 12 doesn't need CSU to 'own' TV market
Nobody’s going to pretend that CSU owns the Denver TV market.
The University of Colorado doesn’t “own” it, either.
In today’s world of conference expansion that kind of ownership of a TV market no longer matters. Colorado State University doesn’t have to be the dominant program in the region to “deliver” the nation’s 17th-largest television market to the Big 12 Conference. It simply has to provide a foothold that would help get a new Big 12 television network on the cable and satellite packages available to viewers in the Denver area.
CSU clearly can do that. Just like CU does for the Pac-12 Network.
The Rams have made the kind of commitment to athletics the Big 12 is looking for, with a new $220 million on-campus stadium set to open in 2017, high-profile coaches with salaries and budgets that rival those of some schools in Power 5 conferences and a stated goal from university President Tony Frank to raise the level of the school’s athletic programs to the level of its academic programs.
And the academic programs at CSU are comparable to those of the schools already in the Big 12, a critical factor for the university presidents who will be making the decisions about which schools, if any, to add to their conference.
Geography might not play the role in college conference alignments that it once did, but it can’t be ignored, either. TV viewers in Colorado are a lot more likely to tune in to a Big 12 network, no matter which teams are playing, than viewers in Connecticut, Ohio, Tennessee, Florida, Louisiana and even Utah will be.