Would ESPN give BE ACC money just to shut out NBC Sports?

[Palatine]

ESPN has an incentive to keep NBC Sports as a cycling, motor sports entity. How large is that incentive?

Does ESPN use the 60 day window to offer, 15-17 million to the BE just to keep NBC Sports from competing with it's college football product.

The last thing that ESPN needs is for the BE to grow and proper and be promoted into a very big dog on the college football landscape. ESPN has placed their bets elsewhere. Keeping the BE in the fold (buying them off) protects their other college football investments.

How large is that incentive? How much is it worth to ESPN?

 

[Carl Spackler]

The question is not how much money ESPN will offer, that's irrelevant in the 60 days. The question is scheduling, and broadcasting. .

THe key to the long term future, is scheduling and exposure. Big East sports, need to be able to be broadcast in their respective primetime sports windows to their target markets.

That means college football on saturday afternoon and evenings, and college basketball on weeknights, and sunday afternoons in February and March.

I don't care if ESPN offers $20mill. IF we're still playing football on Wed, Thur, Fri nights - the conference needs to walk away and go somewhere where will be on TV on satuday afternoons

UConn has played more Wednesday night games in 10 years of 1-A football, than we have played home games 3:30pm or 8pm on a Saturday.

That's ducking pathetic.

 

[ZooCougar]

ESPN has an incentive to keep NBC Sports as a cycling, motor sports entity. How large is that incentive?

Does ESPN use the 60 day window to offer, 15-17 million to the BE just to keep NBC Sports from competing with it's college football product.

The last thing that ESPN needs is for the BE to grow and proper and be promoted into a very big dog on the college football landscape. ESPN has placed their bets elsewhere. Keeping the BE in the fold (buying them off) protects their other college football investments.

How large is that incentive? How much is it worth to ESPN?

If you believe that NBC will overpay, then it could be worth almost 20 Million per school.

 

[ZooCougar]

The question is not how much money ESPN will offer, that's irrelevant in the 60 days. The question is scheduling, and broadcasting. .

THe key to the long term future, is scheduling and exposure. Big East sports, need to be able to be broadcast in their respective primetime sports windows to their target markets.

That means college football on saturday afternoon and evenings, and college basketball on weeknights, and sunday afternoons in February and March.

I don't care if ESPN offers $20mill. IF we're still playing football on Wed, Thur, Fri nights - the conference needs to walk away and go somewhere where will be on TV on satuday afternoons

UConn has played more Wednesday night games in 10 years of 1-A football, than we have played home games 3:30pm or 8pm on a Saturday.

That's ducking pathetic.

With ESPN, you get to be a second class citizen with first class money.

 

[Waquoit]

I don't want to discount the money, but I don't want all of the Big East games on ESPN Classic and ESPN3, not to mention the future ESPN Ocho. Versus, baby!

 

[mattp]

ESPN has an incentive to keep NBC Sports as a cycling, motor sports entity. How large is that incentive?

Does ESPN use the 60 day window to offer, 15-17 million to the BE just to keep NBC Sports from competing with it's college football product.

The last thing that ESPN needs is for the BE to grow and proper and be promoted into a very big dog on the college football landscape. ESPN has placed their bets elsewhere. Keeping the BE in the fold (buying them off) protects their other college football investments.

How large is that incentive? How much is it worth to ESPN?

i think if ESPN was going to go that route, the time to do it was their initial non competitive bid. IIRC they offered us something like $12m/year. since that time they arranged for the ACC to take the two teams they like the best and we've lost TCU and WVU, so i don't see why they'd offer us more now. if they do it means they really F-ed up their first bid, and while i think they did, i doubt they'll own up to it. they could have had us for $15m/team which would have basically maintained their almost monopoly on sports TV, but they didn't and now they'll have to deal with the consequences.

 

[Chin Diesel]

The question is not how much money ESPN will offer, that's irrelevant in the 60 days. The question is scheduling, and broadcasting. .

THe key to the long term future, is scheduling and exposure. Big East sports, need to be able to be broadcast in their respective primetime sports windows to their target markets.

That means college football on saturday afternoon and evenings, and college basketball on weeknights, and sunday afternoons in February and March.

I don't care if ESPN offers $20mill. IF we're still playing football on Wed, Thur, Fri nights - the conference needs to walk away and go somewhere where will be on TV on satuday afternoons

UConn has played more Wednesday night games in 10 years of 1-A football, than we have played home games 3:30pm or 8pm on a Saturday.

That's ducking pathetic.

I've come around on the idea of playing on weeknights. I'm all for the marquee games being played mid-week where you have more of an exlcusive audience. Saturday's are so saturated where very few games get a full national audience. Most of the games are broadcast regionally or have mirrored viewing areas. That's why every week some astute posters put up the broadcast maps for every game.

Our conference's reality is that even the biggest Big East game will get lost in the Saturday shuffle when most people are watching their team play and maybe one other game.

My bigger problem with ESPN is their crappy attitude on College Gameday, Sports Center, College Football Live, etc. The easiest way to overcome that with the general publice is to remove the mouthpiece filters and have fans watch the product itself. And it's easier to do that with national broadcasts on weeknights and not on Saturdays when there's 35-40 games to compete with.

On a sidenote when the NFL goes to a full schedule of Thursday night games, ESPN's college football ratings will tank.

 

[noeynox]

I've come around on the idea of playing on weeknights. I'm all for the marquee games being played mid-week where you have more of an exlcusive audience. Saturday's are so saturated where very few games get a full national audience. Most of the games are broadcast regionally or have mirrored viewing areas. That's why every week some astute posters put up the broadcast maps for every game.

Our conference's reality is that even the biggest Big East game will get lost in the Saturday shuffle when most people are watching their team play and maybe one other game.

My bigger problem with ESPN is their crappy attitude on College Gameday, Sports Center, College Football Live, etc. The easiest way to overcome that with the general publice is to remove the mouthpiece filters and have fans watch the product itself. And it's easier to do that with national broadcasts on weeknights and not on Saturdays when there's 35-40 games to compete with.

On a sidenote when the NFL goes to a full schedule of Thursday night games, ESPN's college football ratings will tank.

I agree. The product on the field will have to improve before we can compete for eyes in the prime time slots. Some compelling Thursday and Friday night games against what ESPN is putting up in those spots would be clutch. In the meantime, the money disparity between the BE schools and the ACC can't be so great that we are at a competitive disadvantage when it comes to hiring coaches, facility upgrades, etc.

 

[Carl Spackler]

I disagree. Man, So much so. You guys need to break free of the matrix.

Saturday afternoon and night is when you reach the most people for college football. Period. You guys have all been conditioned like Pavlov's dogs by ESPN. Mike Aresco knows it, he was instrumental in creating Thursday and Friday night college football. The ACC can have it.


http://www.usatoday.com/sports/colu...09-15/college-football-night-games/50419424/1

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2012/04/09/Media/Fox-Saturday.aspx

 

[Carl Spackler]

You know, pretty much like clockwork, when it's time for ticket sales, attendance, all that kind of talk, the talk about 'building tradition' always pops up.

You know how you build tradition? You need a schedule. A schedule that people can plan for. Not wondering every year, what weeknights you have to plan for to get to a game. Saturday is college football day.

If we're going to be big boy football conference, we need to behave like one. That means our conference plays on Saturdays, in primetime.

Read the articles I posted :

"More Saturday night college football games, suggests ESPN senior vice president Artie Bulgrin, has helped ratings. After early fears that games would cannibalize each other's audiences, they've instead provided a kind of ratings insurance: More games draw more total fans and — if any particular game happens to be a blowout — creates options that make them stick around."

 

[Rondogg]

Versus, baby!

I was with you until I read your last sentence. How does Versus raise our status at ALL?

 

[ZooCougar]

You know, pretty much like clockwork, when it's time for ticket sales, attendance, all that kind of talk, the talk about 'building tradition' always pops up.

You know how you build tradition? You need a schedule. A schedule that people can plan for. Not wondering every year, what weeknights you have to plan for to get to a game. Saturday is college football day.

If we're going to be big boy football conference, we need to behave like one. That means our conference plays on Saturdays, in primetime.

Read the articles I posted :

"More Saturday night college football games, suggests ESPN senior vice president Artie Bulgrin, has helped ratings. After early fears that games would cannibalize each other's audiences, they've instead provided a kind of ratings insurance: More games draw more total fans and — if any particular game happens to be a blowout — creates options that make them stick around."

Carl,

Every now and then you write a post that makes so much sense that it really should be framed, pinned and made mandatory reading.

Before we left our last place on Scout, myself and a few others used to argue for exactly what you are calling for.

Everyone knows when the Iron Bowl is. Everyone knows when Michigan and Ohio State play. The Big East should be looking at that type of scheduling strategy. I think the only game that was scheduled with any regularity was the Backyard Brawl. College football is all about tradition. If your favorite game is Rutgers/UConn, then you could literally plan your time around that because you knew that it was going to be played in X week of every October.

Look at what the ACC did to FSU-Miami. It was bad enough that both programs took a step backward. But ESPN had to move the game to Monday night and it really lost a great deal of its luster.

 

[noeynox]

I was with you until I read your last sentence. How does Versus raise our status at ALL?

Versus is now the NBCsportsnetwork.

 

[Chin Diesel]

I disagree. Man, So much so. You guys need to break free of the matrix.

Saturday afternoon and night is when you reach the most people for college football. Period. You guys have all been conditioned like Pavlov's dogs by ESPN. Mike Aresco knows it, he was instrumental in creating Thursday and Friday night college football. The ACC can have it.


http://www.usatoday.com/sports/colu...09-15/college-football-night-games/50419424/1

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2012/04/09/Media/Fox-Saturday.aspx

If ESPN gave equal money to NBC or any other entity, and guaranteed us a Saturday prime time slot every week that's on ABC, ESPN or ESPN2, I'd be all for it.

I'd expect ESPN to try to stuff BE games on ESPN2 at noon or all over ESPN3.

I don't mind Thursday or Friday night games. Wednesday's and Sunday's? Yuck.

 

[ZooCougar]

Yes, people used to mock ESPN 2. Big East games were lucky to be on ESPN 2.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Espn will not overpay for BE. It will try to overpay another conference to raid the BE.

 

[freescooter]

I've said for years that the Big East should market its "marque" games. the Backyard Brawl should have been played the same week every single year. The keg of nails between Louisville and Cincinatti should have been played the same week every year. And it should have been marketed as a big deal...And while certainly not as big on history, UCONN-Rutgers should always be the same week and given the animosity it has generated in such a short life, to say nothing of the bizzare endings it should be marketed as an up and coming rivalry. the Big East never seemed to get this.

 

[freescooter]

Espn will not overpay for BE. It will try to overpay another conference to raid the BE.

You know what nelson, as long as UConn is one of the raidees, I'm fine with that. though I don't think you are right.

 

[Carl Spackler]

I've said for years that the Big East should market its "marque" games. the Backyard Brawl should have been played the same week every single year. The keg of nails between Louisville and Cincinatti should have been played the same week every year. And it should have been marketed as a big deal...And while certainly not as big on history, UCONN-Rutgers should always be the same week and given the animosity it has generated in such a short life, to say nothing of the bizzare endings it should be marketed as an up and coming rivalry. the Big East never seemed to get this.

The basketball oriented leadership either didn't get it, or didn't care. No matter, that's all in the past. We've lost quite a bit of the tradition that we could have built upon because of it, but the league right now was put together with all of that in mind.

Houston and SMU will have something down there. UCF and USF will have their thing. Teams will be paired up, and I totally expect to see exactly what we're all talking about, and have been talking about for years happening.

Certain games, are goign to be played, at certain times, every year.

I hope we don't get Temple as a pairing, but we'll see, I'd rather have the University of New Jersey. We'll have to ramp up our travel contingency down to Exit 9 in coming years, just have to pass out nose plugs as we ride through North Jersey.

 

[businesslawyer]

UConn has played more Wednesday night games in 10 years of 1-A football, than we have played home games 3:30pm or 8pm on a Saturday.

That's ducking pathetic.

Talk about a disingenous post. You left out playing noon games on Saturday. Which is about the time that UConn historically played games before going big time, and which is the time slot that our school keeps saying it prefers.

If you can't make your point with all of the obviously relevant facts, maybe, just maybe, it wasn't worth making.

 

[businesslawyer]

You know what nelson, as long as UConn is one of the raidees, I'm fine with that. though I don't think you are right.

I don't know that that is or is not what ESPN would do. But it's hard to see the Big East's future not taking a material hit if UConn and Louisville were taken away.

 

[Waquoit]

I was with you until I read your last sentence. How does Versus raise our status at ALL?

You see what I did there. I ended with the Ocho, which was from Dodgeball, which starred Vince Vaughn, who was in Swingers where his big line was "Vegas baby" where I changed to Versus, the old name of NBCSN....oh just forget I brought it up.

 

[metsfan2323]

Espn will not overpay for BE. It will try to overpay another conference to raid the BE.

This is what I see happening.

BTW the ACC owes the Big East a ton of gratitude for turning down ESPN's original offer, it keeps forcing ESPN to give the ACC more money.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Talk about a disingenous post. You left out playing noon games on Saturday. Which is about the time that UConn historically played games before going big time, and which is the time slot that our school keeps saying it prefers.

If you can't make your point with all of the obviously relevant facts, maybe, just maybe, it wasn't worth making.

huh? Randy Edsall said he preferred noon games on Saturdays. His alterantive was weeknights. Given the choice bw a weeknight and a saturday noon kickoff, i'd prefer a noon game on Saturday over a weeknight game too.

College football primetime starts at 3:30pm EST on Saturdays.

Are you really going to debate that?



Friday night ACC football - they can have it.

 

[huskypantz]

I think the BE needs to pay close attention to the UFC and their TV contract/ratings over the past 2 years. Not because they're comparable sports, but because what the UFC did is what many on this board want the BE to do. The UFC went from an almost-exclusive contract with SpikeTv (throw in a little Versus and Epix) to a national contract with the Fox network. After several years of consistency the UFC on Spike was a known commodity. MMA fans knew where to go to watch the UFC. Then the Fox deal comes along - big money, 4 events on BigFox and then a mix of Fx and FuelTv. Since the new contract began, the UFC's TUF ratings have taken a dive moving from Spike to Fx. The UFC is putting live events on Fuel that would have garnered 1-1.8m viewers on Spike......and those events are coming in at 150-200k (which generally break viewership records for Fuel). So the UFC got a boatload of cash and some national broadcasts, but noone watches Fuel (60m subscribers and tough to get in HD, if it's even available) and people don't watch Fx like they did Spike.

That is the stuff that gets me nervous about NBC. Every bar and sports fan in the country knows to turn to ESPN/ESPN2/ESPNU if they're looking for a random live sporting event. Going to a new station with a limited existing following/viewership will be painful at first - and I'm sure ESPN would do their best to forget/ignore us.