The college football broadcasting cartel

[Carl Spackler]

A 33 page paper submitted for some kind economics program at Vanderbilt in 2003.

Read and enjoy your history.

P.S. Any students out there that are going to write a sports economics paper on all of this conference alignment crap better give me proper citation. I want Carl Spackler and the Boneyard in proper MLA format.

http://www.vanderbilt.edu/Econ/wparchive/workpaper/vu03-w20.pdf

 

[Dann]

4 score and 7 years ago...

i know u mean well carl but no one here is going to spend time on that. send that to a uconn program for research or something, it could be helpful to a professor type.

 

[Carl Spackler]

4 score and 7 years ago...

i know u mean well carl but no one here is going to spend time on that. send that to a uconn program for research or something, it could be helpful to a professor type.

Somebody will read it. Somebody will understand it. People that don't understand will try to figure out what it all means.

And young Dan, FYI, i understand if you aren't interested, but.....for those that might be.....

Everything written in that paper is directly related to where we find ourselves as a university athletic department in 2012, and if you read the citation, it's directly from the minds and mouths of the people that were responsible for all of it. No second hand sources there.

Everything that the Big East leadership has been able to do to grow the conference through television around basketball, in the same period that the CFA was able to do with football for the SEC, the Pac 10, and Big 10 for football.....is essentially the same thing that the Big East leadership must now do for football AND basketball.

There is no other conference in the country that has the potential to do what we can do in the future. The ACC might have, but they locked all of their media rights to ESPN for essentially the next quarter century.

It's not going to be easy, but with the way the market is shaking out, the big east with both it's basketball and football product, could very well find itself as the recipient of the gift that the SEC got from CBS in 1995.

I'm hoping that when the time comes, that when our leadership is sitting at the broadcasting contract negotiations tables, they really have done their homework and learned from it.

 

[epark88]

I really want to go with you on all this, but the folks in Providence just don't give me the warm n' fuzzies about pulling this off. Even Paul Tagliabue's involvement doesn't ease my doubts all that much - his NFL Network is still lagging carriage-wise, nearly 10 years after the fact.

Now if JM were to acquire the services of say, a Kevin Weiberg, then I'd feel much better about the Big East soon cashing in on big TV bucks...

 

[uconnric]

4 score and 7 years ago...

i know u mean well carl but no one here is going to spend time on that. send that to a uconn program for research or something, it could be helpful to a professor type.

I skimmed through and will read it when I have some time. Pretty interesting and very timely.

 

[Carl Spackler]

It's an interesting summary on the whole situation. According to this paper, and it's hard to argue that it's wrong, Rupert Murdoch is really the guy that the SEC institutions owe their current position of power in the landscape, although Fox network, to my knowledge, has never invested anything in SEC football.

 

[Carl Spackler]

I really want to go with you on all this, but the folks in Providence just don't give me the warm n' fuzzies about pulling this off. Even Paul Tagliabue's involvement doesn't ease my doubts all that much - his NFL Network is still lagging carriage-wise, nearly 10 years after the fact.

Now if JM were to acquire the services of say, a Kevin Weiberg, then I'd feel much better about the Big East soon cashing in on big TV bucks...

Don't discount the effect that the NFL network may have on all of this going forward. It's going to be pretty big. I'm pretty sure that next season will be the first 16 week season of thursday night games (including thanksgiving), and you're going to get a lot more decent matchups on thursday nights.

NBC has a Sunday night game now, and ESPN has monday nights. THat's 3 out of 7 nights that any live sports are going head to head with the NFL. So far the NFL has been nice about leaving Saturday nights alone during the regular college football season. If that ever changes, look out.

ESPN is going to have trouble putting college football games on thursday nights next fall and having any success. Lots more Wednesday and Friday night games coming up for the ACC, becuase the SEC is not playing on Wed or Fri nights. Yippee for them. We've played two games on Wednesday nights, and I don't ever want to do it again.

My ideal situation is a big east conference football schedule that begins at noon on Saturdays, and runs back to back, or sandwiched around Notre Dame broadcasts, with Notre Dame, and a second game broadcast nationally, with the remaining games going out regionally, or even two nationally, given that we'll have some west coast teams involved in this, and a 12:00 game on the east coast and a 5:00 game on the west coast, can both go out nationally and not conflict with notre dame at 3:30 ET.

Every big east program gets at least two national games a year on saturdays back to back with Notre Dame. That would be nice.

The basketball side of things, keeps their broadcasting rights separate and under different terms, but same principles. National games sandwiched around regional games, and the big east tourney and a football championship games are different pieces as well.

IT would be dumb, to put everything under exclusivity with a single network. There's no reason why a single network can't get everything, but if I'm at the table, they'll have to buy it piece by piece, separately, and under different length terms.

 

[coachcap]

Carl, you've been very informative with your posts. I disagree that ESPN will have trouble going against the NFL Network on Thursday evenings. College Thursday night football has become a mainstay. I get NFL Network &, unless the Giants are playing, I don't give it a thought. Most fans of the college game feel the same way.
If NBC wrestles away the Big East Contract from ESPN, I'm willing to bet that there will be weeknight (Wednesday, Thursday, Friday) conference games on NBC Sports (Versus) Network. It's exposure, & both the network & conference management will want maximum exposure of the product.

 

[HuskyFan16]

Carl, you've been very informative with your posts. I disagree that ESPN will have trouble going against the NFL Network on Thursday evenings. College Thursday night football has become a mainstay. I get NFL Network &, unless the Giants are playing, I don't give it a thought. Most fans of the college game feel the same way.
If NBC wrestles away the Big East Contract from ESPN, I'm willing to bet that there will be weeknight (Wednesday, Thursday, Friday) conference games on NBC Sports (Versus) Network. It's exposure, & both the network & conference management will want maximum exposure of the product.

I understand the train of thought (and on a college football message board I expect most of you to feel this way) ... but reality is an NFL game without any other NFL competition is going to smoke every other sporting event nationally. Doesn't matter if its a Thursday or any other day, except maybe Saturday.

 

[Marty Jackson]

Somebody will read it. Somebody will understand it. People that don't understand will try to figure out what it all means.

And young Dan, FYI, i understand if you aren't interested, but.....for those that might be.....

Everything written in that paper is directly related to where we find ourselves as a university athletic department in 2012, and if you read the citation, it's directly from the minds and mouths of the people that were responsible for all of it. No second hand sources there.

Everything that the Big East leadership has been able to do to grow the conference through television around basketball, in the same period that the CFA was able to do with football for the SEC, the Pac 10, and Big 10 for football.....is essentially the same thing that the Big East leadership must now do for football AND basketball.

There is no other conference in the country that has the potential to do what we can do in the future. The ACC might have, but they locked all of their media rights to ESPN for essentially the next quarter century.

It's not going to be easy, but with the way the market is shaking out, the big east with both it's basketball and football product, could very well find itself as the recipient of the gift that the SEC got from CBS in 1995.

I'm hoping that when the time comes, that when our leadership is sitting at the broadcasting contract negotiations tables, they really have done their homework and learned from it.

How is the BE's current situation better than any other conference at this point? I very much want to see this conference succeed, and I am more interested in seeing Uconn become the dominant fb program. But, there is not one school that would think twice about leaving this league for any of the other 5 BCS AQ conferences. And that fact isn't likely to change after we get the new TV contract.

 

[HartbeatHusky]

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2012/02/20/Media/NBC-Sports-Net.aspx

NBC Sports' ratings have been weak thus far. They say they are going to aggressively pursue MLB, NASCAR, and the Big East later this year. Sources at the leagues are indicating they will be trying to milk NBC for sweetheart deals since the low ratings clearly show that NBC needs them more than they need NBC. Ideally I would like to see NBC get Big East Football and have games on the network and cable every Saturday along with Notre Dame. Hopefully Big East Basketball can still be on ESPN in addition to having some content on NBC's networks.

 

[ddminct]

NBC has a Sunday night game now, and ESPN has monday nights. THat's 3 out of 7 nights that any live sports are going head to head with the NFL. So far the NFL has been nice about leaving Saturday nights alone during the regular college football season. If that ever changes, look out.

Well one reason they have been nice is any NFL game played on a Friday or Saturday within 75 miles of a high school or college game must be blacked out in the local market. So i doubt we'll see the NFL on Saturdays.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Carl, you've been very informative with your posts. I disagree that ESPN will have trouble going against the NFL Network on Thursday evenings. College Thursday night football has become a mainstay. I get NFL Network &, unless the Giants are playing, I don't give it a thought. Most fans of the college game feel the same way.
If NBC wrestles away the Big East Contract from ESPN, I'm willing to bet that there will be weeknight (Wednesday, Thursday, Friday) conference games on NBC Sports (Versus) Network. It's exposure, & both the network & conference management will want maximum exposure of the product.

True, it could go that way. I'll tell you why I"m quite sure it won't. College football ratings are going to go through the floor on Thursday nights this fall.

Let me guess. You're not a gambler right? (Neither am I). But I have studied it in detail, because it has a huge effect on the NFL, since the inception of pro-ball.

There's a dark side to sports at the highest levels. Gambling. Las Vegas sports books. There are quite literally 100s of millions that exchange hands on weekends i the fall around the NFL. Monday night and now sunday night football have such popularity, because of the drive behind gambling to promote those events. Sunday night and then monday night, provide the gamblers - especially the casual NFL gamblers - the opportunity to either make more $, or recap their losses from the weekend.

It's only a matter of time, and short time, that thursday night, becomes the gambling kickoff for the fall weekends in the sports books, and that economic force will drive the popularity of thursday night NFL.

THe problem, and this is why I think it will be an accelerated effect, is that pro-players are going to absolutely hate thursday night games, regularly, because it's simply not enough time to heal. THe quality of play, argueably, on thursday nights will be poor.

BUT - that means that the vegas books are going to have a hard time getting the lines right, which means more opportunity to be made on gambling, which means more and more viewership and money flowing around the country around those events.

The hardcore gamblers, don't watch TV. The casual NFL gamblers, of which there are millions upon millions, do watch TV, and don't put money on college football.

 

[Carl Spackler]

The Big East, IMO, as a football conference, needs to establish our broadcasting footprint on Saturdays from noon until night, across the country. The opportunity to do this, is going to be there, and our greatest albatross as a conference, Notre Dame.....well it's about time that we turn that albatross into a strength.

Shoulda been done a long time ago, but late, is better than never, and having the ability to broadcast coast to coast, across all the time zones, is a HUGE deal moving forward.

A regional conference, isn't going to be able to do what we can do scheduling wise, and broadcasting wise, having start times for broadcasts across all four time zones.

The big east, scheduling wise around broadcasting, will be able to put up nearly every single game scheduled to a wide broadcasting range.

This where having Paul Taglibue on board, when it comes to broadcasting, is going to help out, rather than having Chuck Neinas.

 

[Carl Spackler]

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2012/02/20/Media/NBC-Sports-Net.aspx

NBC Sports' ratings have been weak thus far. They say they are going to aggressively pursue MLB, NASCAR, and the Big East later this year. Sources at the leagues are indicating they will be trying to milk NBC for sweetheart deals since the low ratings clearly show that NBC needs them more than they need NBC. Ideally I would like to see NBC get Big East Football and have games on the network and cable every Saturday along with Notre Dame. Hopefully Big East Basketball can still be on ESPN in addition to having some content on NBC's networks.

"We know they need us, more than we need them."

This is what I'm talking about. Much like CBS needed the SEC, much more than the SEC needed CBS......and the SEC cashed in and has become powerful based on the moves in the 1995-1996 around NFL broadcasting that left CBS with a huge hole in their revenue streams they needed to fill and were willing to pay big bucks for the SEC (which in perspective, was smaller than what they were paying for the NFL).....

In the 2012-2013 time frame, the major networks, NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox....are going to be positioning and paying for LIVE sporting events.

The broadcasting world, with technology, has changed light years from where it was 15 years ago. LIVE sports, LIVE broadcasting in general, like american idol, etc.....is the only thing that is going to drive revenue streams in the future. Everybody fast forwards commercials now on DVR.

The big east conference, has a lot to offer to the open market when it comes to live event broadcasting that people will watch in real time.

DVR proof. Stretching broadcasts across the entire country time zones, is DVR proof. When all of your games are being broadcast in the same time zone, different story.

 

[Carl Spackler]

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2012/02/20/Media/NBC-Sports-Net.aspx

NBC Sports' ratings have been weak thus far. They say they are going to aggressively pursue MLB, NASCAR, and the Big East later this year. Sources at the leagues are indicating they will be trying to milk NBC for sweetheart deals since the low ratings clearly show that NBC needs them more than they need NBC. Ideally I would like to see NBC get Big East Football and have games on the network and cable every Saturday along with Notre Dame. Hopefully Big East Basketball can still be on ESPN in addition to having some content on NBC's networks.

BTW: Re-read the article. It's the talk show/reporting show stuff they're producing that's not drawing viewership right now. The live events they've got are all pointing up. Lazarus has a good plan, hopefully the top level follows through all the stages. NBC is slowly acquiring rights to all the live events that are small scale right now, while the rest of the networks are focused on the NFL. NBC plans to hold on to that Sunday night NFL broadcast, and make up the difference in the NFL elsewhere.

The more live viewership that starts to tune in, the faster it will grow. What has to happen for them, is that they need more live events on the flagship channel 4 national station, so that they can advertise their own news shows on Versus/NBCsports.

That's where the big east can come in with football AND basketball on weekends.

 

[SAMCRO]

This where having Paul Taglibue on board, when it comes to broadcasting, is going to help out, rather than having Chuck Neinas.

Ya, calling BS on this. Tagliabue has been "advising" the BE and Marinate for a couple years now I believe, and let's take a look at what has happened since then (I'm not saying any of this is Tags fault, but you have to look at the results. Granted, they each play a different role and Neinas has more decision making authority than Tags, but....)

Since Tagliabue began advising the BE walked away from a new TV deal that most felt was a low ball offer, and then flaunted it in Disney's face. We've had 3 more teams depart the conference, and another who was set to join the league. We've added 7 non-BCS teams set to join in the next few years. We got used and abused in legal dispute with one of the exiting teams who gets out of their 27 month notice period. Again, these events weren't his fault, but it did happen while he was advising Marinate.

Neinas was brought on just as the B12 avoided collapsing, aTm had already announced they were leaving before CN joined, and Mizzou had announced their intent to leave. All that's happened in Neinas 6 +/-months at the helm of the B12 is they've landed TCU and WVU from the BE, both to join for 2012, secured their current TV deal, and positioned themselves for a pretty nice one going forward.

Advantage Neinas/B12.

All this being said, I'm still not buying the long term stability of the Longhorn Conference, but if you're going to say Tagliabue is going to help us out more than Neinas has helped the B12, I'm calling BS. This will come down to just how much NBC wants to expand into college sports vs. just how much ABC/ESPN wants to keep NBC out of college sports. At this stage I think it's less about the competitiveness of BE football, and more about 2 (possibly 3 or 4) brands trying to either expand or protect their turf.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Ya, calling BS on this. Tagliabue has been "advising" the BE and Marinate for a couple years now I believe, and let's take a look at what has happened since then (I'm not saying any of this is Tags fault, but you have to look at the results. Granted, they each play a different role and Neinas has more decision making authority than Tags, but....)

Since Tagliabue began advising the BE walked away from a new TV deal that most felt was a low ball offer, and then flaunted it in Disney's face. We've had 3 more teams depart the conference, and another who was set to join the league. We've added 7 non-BCS teams set to join in the next few years. We got used and abused in legal dispute with one of the exiting teams who gets out of their 27 month notice period. Again, these events weren't his fault, but it did happen while he was advising Marinate.

Neinas was brought on just as the B12 avoided collapsing, aTm had already announced they were leaving before CN joined, and Mizzou had announced their intent to leave. All that's happened in Neinas 6 +/-months at the helm of the B12 is they've landed TCU and WVU from the BE, both to join for 2012, secured their current TV deal, and positioned themselves for a pretty nice one going forward.

Advantage Neinas/B12.

All this being said, I'm still not buying the long term stability of the Longhorn Conference, but if you're going to say Tagliabue is going to help us out more than Neinas has helped the B12, I'm calling BS. This will come down to just how much NBC wants to expand into college sports vs. just how much ABC/ESPN wants to keep NBC out of college sports. At this stage I think it's less about the competitiveness of BE football, and more about 2 (possibly 3 or 4) brands trying to either expand or protect their turf.

Neinas did the same thing he's done for 3 decades. He negotiated a deal among a group of colleges and a television network. He got a deal pushed through that had very little to do with actual interests of any of the colleges involved, aside from being on TV at the times and dates that the television networks wanted.

TV networks love Chuck Neinas. He's a cartel manager. Price fixing. Marketing control. Limiting product which creates artificial demand. It's exactly what the big 12 broadcasting set up is right now, with Texas as the drug lord.

Read that paper, it's very, very informative.

The big east, has not in the past, and is not interested in price fixing. Nor is the NFL. Expanding the product, and ensuring a good product for consumption, creates real demand.

This is the danger the NFL faces with thursday night football - quality of product. I think that the 53 man roster rule needs to get lifted, so that you can have more fresh players, or the thursday night broadcasting will be over within 5 years.

 

[john2153]

The NFL said every team is guaranteed at least 1 primetime appearance next year. I doubt the Thursday night games are gonna be great, they rarely are. Does anyone remember the last must see Thursday NFL Network game? Packers-Cowboys in 07 would be my guess. It's just a ploy by NFLN to get more providers to add the network because of additional games.

And people gamble on CFB just as much as the NFL, especially on those Thursday and Friday night nationally televised games. Casual gamblers are gonna wager on both games.

 

[Carl Spackler]

The NFL said every team is guaranteed at least 1 primetime appearance next year. I doubt the Thursday night games are gonna be great, they rarely are. Does anyone remember the last must see Thursday NFL Network game? Packers-Cowboys in 07 would be my guess. It's just a ploy by NFLN to get more providers to add the network because of additional games.

And people gamble on CFB just as much as the NFL, especially on those Thursday and Friday night nationally televised games. Casual gamblers are gonna wager on both games.

Nope. Not ture. NFL gambling far exceeds any other gambling, in the legal sports books, and by any estimate you can find about illegal gambling on sports. Anywhere from $750million-$1Billion goes through vegas sports books on NFL football in a single season. That doesn't include playoffs.

Monday night was historically the most gambled game. Sunday night comes in second. Thursday night games will explode in popularity regularly, because all those gamblers are either going to be watching to either get a start on the weekend, or be eager to make up for whatever they lost the past weekend.

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/20...works-thursday-night-football-in-2011/114692/


The danger is that the quality of product will go through the floor, not because of undesireable matchups, but because playing a game on Sunday and then playing again 72 hours later, is simply too much for the human body to handle.

The 53 man roster rule needs to get lifted. It makes no sense in the salary cap era anyway. You need more bodies, if you're goign to play more games, and/or play them closer together.

 

[john2153]

I know people who gamble...I myself have made a wager here and there. If you are betting the NFL game on a Thursday night it is more than 90% likely you are also making a wager on the college game too.

Yes, over the course of a season the NFL obviously takes more in action but for an individual night where an NFLN game goes head to head with a college football game the handle for both is going to be almost the same.

And you're probably right about the quality of play becoming poor but in the mind of the fan it will be the undesirable matchup that causes them not to tune in.