Per NYTimes - media exec says Big East could surpass ACC

[Carl Spackler]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/08/s...ommissioner.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&ref=sports

Neal Pilson, a media consultant and former president of CBS Sports, predicted that the Big East could surpass the deal it turned down last year, which was considered similar in value to the A.C.C.’s $155 million annual deal.

“I think if they stay together and negotiate as a single unit, I think they can come away with a reasonably favorable result,” Pilson said. “Even more than what ESPN offered a year and a half ago. I think the competition will drive it.”

 

[coachcap]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/08/s...ommissioner.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&ref=sports

Neal Pilson, a media consultant and former president of CBS Sports, predicted that the Big East could surpass the deal it turned down last year, which was considered similar in value to the A.C.C.’s $155 million annual deal.

“I think if they stay together and negotiate as a single unit, I think they can come away with a reasonably favorable result,” Pilson said. “Even more than what ESPN offered a year and a half ago. I think the competition will drive it.”

Key word: IF!

 

[Waquoit]

New headline: Media exec found with huge cache of prescription narcotics.

 

[noeynox]

I hope there is a commissioner in waiting out there that CAN KEEP this league together. The uncertainty of it all is not good for UConn football.

 

[CTMike]

With everyone saying how undervalued the ACC deal is, I should hope that even the craptastic NNBE could exceed that low of a bar. If we ever make it that far.

 

[UconNate]

I agree. We have to stay together to make it, and we've seen that's hard enough to do to introduce doubt. Still, if the IVY's can get a contract at all, I like the chances for the NNBE and the money that might come in with our grotesquely deformed footprint.

 

[UConnJim]

The truth is that ESPN does not need ACC football (or for that matter Big East football) anymore with their inventory of SEC, Big 1G, and Big 12 football for East coast start times. They like ACC basketball, or more specifically, Duke and UNC basketball. The ACC got locked into a bad LT TV contract based on current economics, which is why they added 2 teams so they could reopen the contract with ESPN. Doesn't it seem odd that the Big 12 can finalize their new contract with ESPN faster than the ACC can? The LT TV contract is why the ACC is vulnerable for defections.

Although we all pan Marinetto, he was correct last year that the BE was poised to get a TV contract that was as good if not better than the ACC due to new media competition. The key strength of the BE over the ACC was that the media contract was expiring!

With the new teams in the BE and the increased competition for media rights, it will be interesting to see what the BE gets. It would not be a surprise to get close to the existing ACC contract.