Major Announcement... TV? (Update>CBSSN)

[Exit 4]

Why they went with CBSSN seems pretty clear to me:

Randy wanted a consistent timeslot to play in instead of getting jerked around by ESPN every week and who knows how SNY would have scheduled this with the Mets in the Fall.
Benedict wanted national coverage to make it easier to get P5 teams to come to the Rent so opponents can see the games.

I bet the money was secondary and here's why:

Whether it's $250k/year or $750k/year or $1.5M/year is noticeable but not significant compared to a $80 million budget. But if Benedict can schedule better opponents, get national coverage, give Randy something to recruit to and get better players to eventually win more games, then the amount of money they can get with more people coming to games and filling the Rent is significantly higher than anything TV is willing to pay at this point in time. More ticket sales, more more merch, donations, etc. That's a bigger pot to be had and one they have missed out on for 4 years.

The rub with the money is that people are going to compare what would have been with the AAC. Of course it’s much more nuanced than just money, but it’s a measuring stick that people cannot ignore.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

As others have said, most glaringly this answers the question: Hey P5 team, let's do a home and home series...Our home game will be on linear TV nationally available.

Only thing left is to get some sort of bowl tie in. Doesn't have to be anything crazy and it's going to be vs a G5/Indy program but it's a carrot nonetheless.

 

[Palatine]

My question is why doesn't the university release the actual numbers? They are a taxpayer funded entity. The numbers should absolutely be public.

BTW, the entire Big East conference has a 12 year $500 million TV contract. That's $41 million a year divided among 12 teams. A little over $4 mil per. UConn football willl not be receiving a eight figure contract (minimum $10,000,000 which translates to $2.5 million a year).

 

[Guapo]

My question is why doesn't the university release the actual numbers? They are a taxpayer funded entity. The numbers should absolutely be public.

BTW, the entire Big East conference has a 12 year $500 million TV contract. That's $41 million a year divided among 12 teams. A little over $4 mil per. UConn football willl not be receiving a eight figure contract (minimum $10,000,000 which translates to $2.5 million a year).

Why are you so bad at this? The Big East doesn’t have 12 teams.

 

[Exit 4]

My question is why doesn't the university release the actual numbers? They are a taxpayer funded entity. The numbers should absolutely be public.

BTW, the entire Big East conference has a 12 year $500 million TV contract. That's $41 million a year divided among 12 teams. A little over $4 mil per. UConn football willl not be receiving a eight figure contract (minimum $10,000,000 which translates to $2.5 million a year).

Maybe what was signed yesterday has two pricing tiers - a floor based on the games signed and a ceiling for what has been discussed but not yet signed.

As a public body of course the contract numbers will be public - probably in a couple months at the latest.

 

[Storrs South]

The rub with the money is that people are going to compare what would have been with the AAC. Of course it’s much more nuanced than just money, but it’s a measuring stick that people cannot ignore.

That's right. And there are a couple common problems with comparing the deals. None of us have the actual contract agreements so we do not exactly know everything involved with the deals in terms of what is and isn't covered, scheduling, etc. so we can't fully appreciate what each contract is giving to the school. But assuming we considered that all things equal:

• the AAC deal is heavily backloaded. That $7 million figure you have seen flying around is not even achieved by the contract for another 4-5 years. It starts from what I've read at around $5-$5.5 million in 2020
• Then the fact that the AAC deal has zero room for growth since it is locked in for 12 years. By the time AAC teams are getting $7million annually for TV, UConn will already be on a new TV deal for football and negotiating a new one for basketball. If you're in the airline industry that consistency in gas prices locked in is nice for business. I don't think the same goes for conference TV rights, especially before we could see a real explosion in value in the mid-2020s.
• the two contracts are giving something different to the schools: one is throwing not all but many of the revenue sports behind a paywall. All of UConn's revenue sports are on TV. Would you rather have $5 million to be on ESPN+ or $3m to be on linear TV? The former case is great for ESPN since they are forcing many fans to subsidize the deal through ESPN+ subscriptions + a school subsidy need to produce content for ESPN.

The more I've read about that AAC deal, the less appealing is had become from a fan perspective. From a pissing contest standpoint, it almost doesn't matter if you are talking about $7 v. $5 v. $3 million a year annually when you consider what the P5 schools are making and the budgets of the ADs. There's way more upside for UConn in the Big East because of the ability to bring back fan interest in basketball and football, but this separate from the TV deal discussion. I am confident UConn is better off in the Big East/Indy route because of the ability to fill the Rent again, and push Gampel/XL attendance to heights we have not seen since 2012. If UConn can play well in revenue sports the next 4 years, then whatever the money is for this CBS Sports Network deal is insignificant.

 

[huskymedic]

Alternate access link here

>>Between now and 2025, UConn AD David Benedict has made agreements to play Illinois, Virginia, Indiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Purdue, Clemson, Fresno State, Central Florida, Syracuse, Michigan, NC State, Boston College, Utah State, Duke, Tennessee, Maryland, Ohio State and Army.<<

 

[Pudge]

Arrogance aside - you don’t include Lew Perkins in that category?

Of course I do. I’m old enough to remember the Fieldhouse and watching football from the hill. And packed soccer games with a Keg

Perkins was outstanding.

 

[UConnDan97]

Welcome to the Dog Pound, CBS!!!

That felt damned good to type...

 

[Pudge]

As others have said, most glaringly this answers the question: Hey P5 team, let's do a home and home series...Our home game will be on linear TV nationally available.

Only thing left is to get some sort of bowl tie in. Doesn't have to be anything crazy and it's going to be vs a G5/Indy program but it's a carrot nonetheless.

For some of us UCONN football fans ... our favorite bowl experience was Toronto. So that bowl expectation isn’t grand nor January One. Just rewards for solid seasons.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Alternate access link here

>>Between now and 2025, UConn AD David Benedict has made agreements to play Illinois, Virginia, Indiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Purdue, Clemson, Fresno State, Central Florida, Syracuse, Michigan, NC State, Boston College, Utah State, Duke, Tennessee, Maryland, Ohio State and Army.<<

I agree with Coach Edsall 100% about the schedule and TV contract helping with recruiting. Now all we need is a recruiter.

 

[Guapo]

My major takeaway from all this has been; if we had a coach who could actually coach and recruit, this would give them something to work with

 

[Pudge]

From a fan perspective, sorry AAC peers.

We get MSG intensity games in hoop. Name programs at the Rent. And the future with full loud UConn fans cheering our Blue. Money doesn’t really matter; we were at a low in your structure. Might be good for you.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

For some of us UCONN football fans ... our favorite bowl experience was Toronto. So that bowl expectation isn’t grand nor January One. Just rewards for solid seasons.

Tough for me to rank my experiences. I enjoyed Charlotte, Toronto, Birmingham, and Phoenix all quite a bit.

 

[The Funster]

Great job by AD David Benedict. This a homerun for exposure and scheduling. I'm gushing, yes, gushing about this move. Not enough good things I can say.

 

[king conn]

You don't know any of that.. it's not wise to speculatively disparage SNY and that goes for everyone on here, not to single you out.. SNY could've offered the same deal as CBSSN (or better) but AD David Benedict solely liked the appeal of being on a more widely distributed network.

I don't know SNY has the women?
The rest is just putting together common and business sense, it really isn't much of a stretch.
I don't know why you would use the word 'disparage". If we had no leverage with SNY, that's on us, not them. The narrative out there when this happened was that we were destroying our football program. We would die as an independent. Why would they trip over themselves offering us money? I never thought they would when this all started.

Now with that said, I wouldn't play them off as jilted either as you imply

The financial aspect of this CBSN deal is very small. Unless they get specific it looks like under 300k per year. A pay game pays more. SNY pays much more for the women. While the national exposure is huge, SNY at any point could have made an offer we couldn't refuse, maybe something even as small as our women's deal. In our financial position I can't see us turning down a difference of 3 million over 4 years.

Again I'm just putting together from what's out there, hopefully full transparency will come

 

[UConnJim]

What is the least expensive way to get CBS Sports Channel? Is there way to get it per game rather than subscribe?

I think CBS All Access at $5.99/month.

 

[Watchdog]

An Ivy League man. He would know too well Connecticut's value in the whole scheme.

This is an immense opportunity for the football program as an independent.

From reading his bio, he likely started at ESPN during the most exciting years in UConn sports' history, the early 90's. So, even though these contracts are business for him, maybe he's a Huskies fan.

At CBS since 2011, with MLB (years not stated so probably only a couple or three years), Six Flags for 6 years and ESPN for 12 years. So, if he was at MLB for 3 years that puts him at ESPN in 1990..............why wouldn't he be a fan of the Huskies?

 

[Waquoit]

Why they went with CBSSN seems pretty clear to me:
Randy wanted a consistent timeslot to play in instead of getting jerked around by ESPN every week

God, I hope Edsall didn't have that degree of input. I hope he had no degree of input.

 

[Waquoit]

The rub with the money is that people are going to compare what would have been with the AAC.

What people? People that don't care that the AAC was killing our athletic department? Screw 'em.

 

[Chin Diesel]

God, I hope Edsall didn't have that degree of input. I hope he had no degree of input.

Apparently he did and I'll go with what @Storrs South wrote in his post. RE is a consistency freak and has long pined for traditional Saturday afternoon games. I would hope that was the extent of his input.

AD Dave could then take that to potential opponents and guarantee these P5 teams coming to Hartford they won't be playing on Thursday or Friday nights. Any visiting team would like an afternoon Saturday game for game planning and for travel logistics. Fly to Hartford Friday, stay overnight, play Saturday, be home Saturday night.

 

[Watchdog]

If I were a betting man, I'd suggest the one downside to this announcement is the lack of hard numbers. That ambiguity will probably turn in to 4 pages of posters debating what "over seven figures" means.

Especially since we're already on page 9..................

 

[UConnJim]

Apparently he did and I'll go with what @Storrs South wrote in his post. RE is a consistency freak and has long pined for traditional Saturday afternoon games. I would hope that was the extent of his input.

AD Dave could then take that to potential opponents and guarantee these P5 teams coming to Hartford they won't be playing on Thursday or Friday nights. Any visiting team would like an afternoon Saturday game for game planning and for travel logistics. Fly to Hartford Friday, stay overnight, play Saturday, be home Saturday night.

To get P5 teams to play at The Rent, you need to be able to predict start times. And, to attract fans to The Rent, predictable start times is important as well. Both of those points are way more important to increasing revenues than a few extra dollars in TV money.

 

[LoyalFanCT]

I think CBS All Access at $5.99/month.

CBS All Access may not Include the entire CBS Sport Network programming. It has HQ. May want to check.

 

[CTMike]

Edsall made recommendations to AD Dave and that’s where his input ends. Benedict then had to work out the deal.