The objective is for schools to get control of their own content, because that is where the market is going. I believe that UConn would be better off selling its content regionally to local affiliates and SNY than it will be as part of an AAC ESPN contract, and I suspect the rest of the AAC is in a similar bucket. I wouldn't be surprised if the A10 and MWC feel the same.
If you step back and look at the conference as just a TV rights negotiating and scheduling alliance, you can get creative in terms of composition and inter-league scheduling to drive better matchups, more regional rivalries, and a better overall TV package. For example, one thing you could do is create an affiliation of all the G5 leagues, and then break it into A) regional pods or subdivisions that could even be considered conferences, but also have B) "Tiers" between the leagues to create the best national matchups in a particular year.
So UConn's division might be: Navy, Army, Buffalo, Temple, UMass
But then UConn could also be a Tier I national team, which would include Houston, Boise, BYU, Navy, Temple, Memphis, San Diego State, WKU, and Bowling Green. Maybe you would break up the Tiers into I through 3, with I and II, 25% each. The Tiers would be determined preseason, or if you wanted to be fancy, allocate 3 weekends of "Tier" games in the second half of the season, and decide matchups as you go like Bracket Buster.
So, in my format, UConn's football schedule could be:
4 non-conference
Navy, Army, Buffalo, Temple, UMass
Boise, Memphis, San Diego State, or if UConn was not as strong, maybe Tulsa, MTSU and CSU.
A schedule like this would have at least 3 solid national games, plus possibly 1 or 2 more if UConn's divisional opponents are strong. Those games could be sold to an ESPN or FoxSports. The rest of the home games would be UConn's to sell as it wished on SNY or locally. I think you would probably find that the visiting team would have some rebroadcast rights. Buffalo and UMass actually have a lot of value, because a UConn game is more valuable to an SNY or NESN if the other team playing is also regionally meaningful. Within the Division, there would be the spectrum of Tiers, from I to III. I would propose having a geographic and quality conference, just do them separately.
In years where UConn is a Tier II, the Tier games are no worse than what we get now from the AAC. It would actually be less clutter in the schedule than we have now, where we can get 5 or 6 opponents on the conference slate that no one cares about.
The Tier I games should be more valuable to national TV because the networks are guaranteed quality matchups. And every school would have control of its 3 non-conference games.
Throw the A 10 in the mix and do the same for hoops.
I know some NCAA regs would have to be changed, but if the P5 is going to make it up as they go along, then so can we. I also think a lot of P5 teams would like the model for their own leagues.
In terms of dollars, UConn was making more money off its women's basketball SNY contract when it was in the Big East than it makes off its share of the AAC contract now (which includes women's basketball). BYU and Boise both sell their content directly to ESPN and make $5-8 million a year each doing it. I bet UConn could probably match its revenue off the national contract alone, and make a lot more off the regional sales than they would ever make through the AAC, and I bet the same goes for most of the AAC.
