Fox - Big East exclusive negotiating window

[Zissou]

I guess the window has closed?

 

[huskymedic]

Big East’s March Madness Wins Key to Keeping Up With Football Powers

Three Big East teams made this year’s NCAA Tournament–UConn, Creighton and Marquette. St. John’s, Seton Hall and Providence were notably left out.

www.sportico.com

-> As for the media piece, the Big East’s rights become available again starting in 2025. UConn’s current form couldn’t come at a better time for a conference attempting to ensure its long-term security.

“We’re in a very active stage” of rights negotiations, Big East commissioner Val Ackerman said. As new deals get closer to the finish line, incumbents Fox and CBS are currently expected to hold onto large parts of the package. Fox has expanded its basketball programming in recent years, and with plans to replace WWE’s Friday Night SmackDown with an end-of-week college football package, the network could build a similar hoops-based property for when the football season ends.

A third partner—possibly a streamer—might emerge as well. Outside of men’s basketball, the Big East has partnered with FloSports to host the Big East Digital Network.

“The media business is certainly facing some headwinds right now … but the need for programming is still there,” said Bob Thompson, longtime sports TV executive and the founder of Thompson Sports Group. “Product quality remains extremely important, so I certainly expect that a property like this would be at the top of [those rightsholders’ priority] lists.”

Still, keeping up is only going to get more difficult with time. Even a doubling of per-school media rights fees would leave Big East athletic departments bringing in a fraction of what Big 12, Big Ten and SEC schools are due to get as part of their latest megadeals.

“We expect there’s going to be a growing revenue gap between the conferences we consider peers in basketball and us, because of the football money,” Ackerman said. “That challenge is real for our schools.”<-

 

[whalerfan]

A third partner—possibly a streamer—might emerge as well. Outside of men’s basketball, the Big East has partnered with FloSports to host the Big East Digital Network.

I've dealt with FloSports and even with a solid upload gig stream a lot gets lost between Connecticut and Ft. Worth. I can't tell you how many times lip sync has gone awry with them when we've output an embedded signal. They blame it on the inbound stream but no, it's them.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Having been on the receiving end of this enough times, if Fox or ESPN was going to ratfudge the Big East on its next contract, one or both would pay for UConn to move to another conference this offseason.

 

[KryHavok]

Having been on the receiving end of this enough times, if Fox or ESPN was going to ratfudge the Big East on its next contract, one or both would pay for UConn to move to another conference this offseason.

That's if you believe in the altruism on network behavior. They could have pushed to move us into a Px conference at any time over the past decade. Instead, they are content to let us draw in ratings for them when they showcase UConn, but their commitment to UConn ends when the game is over. They may see UConn as a currently strong yet fading light as CR continues to screw us over and move us to the fringe. They will squeeze us for all we've got then leave us in the cold. I'm reminded of Ricardo Montalban's iconic portrayal in Freakazoid:

Gutierrez the villain

 

[cellocgg]

That's if you believe in the altruism on network behavior. They could have pushed to move us into a Px conference at any time over the past decade. Instead, they are content to let us draw in ratings for them when they showcase UConn, but their commitment to UConn ends when the game is over. They may see UConn as a currently strong yet fading light as CR continues to screw us over and move us to the fringe. They will squeeze us for all we've got then leave us in the cold. I'm reminded of Ricardo Montalban's iconic portrayal in Freakazoid:

Gutierrez the villain

Yea but we went dormant after we joined the AAC. This is our first time having major success under Fox

 

[Luna]

If we ever joined the big 12 the travel for our sports teams will be insane

 

[Eavesdrop]

If we ever joined the big 12 the travel for our sports teams will be insane

I don't believe UConn is going to the Big 12. I also believe the travel argument is often overstated.

UConn's current in-conference travel already includes flights to Omaha Neb., Marquette Mich., Chicago Ill., Indianapolis Ind. and Cincinnati Ohio. At least some teams probably fly to Washington DC too.

The Big East bus road trips are Providence R.I., New York N.Y. and South Orange N.J. UConn could make this up (if they chose to) by scheduling more nearby schools out of conference.

 

[buddy]

If we ever joined the big 12 the travel for our sports teams will be insane

It is a different world now. All conferences require travel. Arizona will have to travel to UCF and they are not complaining (yet). None the less the Big 12 ship has sailed so you need not lose any sleep over travel.

 

[Luna]

It is a different world now. All conferences require travel. Arizona will have to travel to UCF and they are not complaining (yet). None the less the Big 12 ship has sailed so you need not lose any sleep over travel.

I think our men’s basketball is getting so big that the big 12 college presidents will reconsider taking UConn..and I just think it’s a bad fit

 

[JMick]

I think our men’s basketball is getting so big that the big 12 college presidents will reconsider taking UConn..and I just think it’s a bad fit

There are three good fits. The B1G, SEC and Big XII. Anything else is death. They're the only stable conferences left. If any of the three offers a spot, you go. It's not even a question.

 

[Luna]

I do care about our football..I go to a few games a year and I Don’t think we can stay independent..

 

[pepband99]

A third partner—possibly a streamer—might emerge as well. Outside of men’s basketball, the Big East has partnered with FloSports to host the Big East Digital Network.

A streamer in lieu of FS2 games would be a shrewd move, albeit somewhat annoying. FS2's sub count lacks.

 

[shizzle787]

I do care about our football..I go to a few games a year and I Don’t think we can stay independent..

We can until the ACC loses members.

 

[Slick]

It is bad enough that the Rutgers fan trolls a UConn board every day, but it seems like a lot of UConn “fans” are also openly hoping for the athletic program to fail.

Most of the so called fans are trolls

 

[Luna]

There are trolls from other schools here for sure.. they have been quiet since last March

 

[AZHuskiePop]

I have a gut feel the Big East goes back to ESPN
Just a guess It’s a compelling conference with some great personalities coaching .
Plus a bonus .
They just bought the women’s tournament fairly cheaply which looks like a winner for them.
Every UConn women’s game on ESPN will be a non stop promo for their prize tourney.
Getting it for $50-60 million a year is this era is chump change

 

[UConnJim]

I have a gut feel the Big East goes back to ESPN
Just a guess It’s a compelling conference with some great personalities coaching .
Plus a bonus .
They just bought the women’s tournament fairly cheaply which looks like a winner for them.
Every UConn women’s game on ESPN will be a non stop promo for their prize tourney.
Getting it for $50-60 million a year is this era is chump change

I think the announcement of the FOX post season basketball tournament including the Big 12, Big East, and Big 10 (all FOX properties) means the Big East is renewing with FOX.

And, I said it at the time, the media rights for the women's basketball tournament were wildly undervalued. What a terrible job by the NCAA. And the NCAA also undervalues the NCAA baseball and softball tournaments.

 

[Drew]

I think the announcement of the FOX post season basketball tournament including the Big 12, Big East, and Big 10 (all FOX properties) means the Big East is renewing with FOX.

And, I said it at the time, the media rights for the women's basketball tournament were wildly undervalued. What a terrible job by the NCAA. And the NCAA also undervalues the NCAA baseball and softball tournaments.

Women’s volleyball too.

 

[WestCoastHusky]

Analysis of the recent Big East media numbers. This article from a Marquette reporter provided some great information on viewership and power of UConn drawing eyeballs.

Big East sees huge jump in FS1 top end ratings

The Big East contract with FOX is coming to a close after the 2025 season, and the conference is currently in a negotiating window with the broadcaster to renew the pact going forward. It’s p…

painttouches.com

 

[Hoophound]

Analysis of the recent Big East media numbers. This article from a Marquette reporter provided some great information on viewership and power of UConn drawing eyeballs.

Big East sees huge jump in FS1 top end ratings

The Big East contract with FOX is coming to a close after the 2025 season, and the conference is currently in a negotiating window with the broadcaster to renew the pact going forward. It’s p…

painttouches.com

It’s a good summary. The bottom line is that the Big East is very entertaining and if it were back on ESPN, it would pull much bigger numbers. FS1 is trying to grow and the Big East is giving them good content that is improving with UConn back in the conference and other schools hiring big name coaches.

 

[WestCoastHusky]

It’s a good summary. The bottom line is that the Big East is very entertaining and if it were back on ESPN, it would pull much bigger numbers. FS1 is trying to grow and the Big East is giving them good content that is improving with UConn back in the conference and other schools hiring big name coaches.

Big East is on the right track. The conference trying to bringing in multiple media partners in addition to FOX and CBS should generate some additional revenue.

At the end of the day, it is about the total payout per school to keep up with the Jones. The current payout won't cut it, and it will put the conference further back if the Big East can't land a nice media deal.

For Val, it is time to show me the money.

 

[ScottVib]

Here’s the most relevant quote in my opinion:

You know how I mentioned that the Big East was composed of 10 relatively small private schools? That’s not true any more. Since UConn and its large public school following rejoined in the 2021 season. And more importantly, they not only won the national title in 2023, but they were in the top-3 of the AP rankings for most of the conference season. People love to watch teams they know, and they love highly rated teams. UConn was a behemoth for ratings, even moreso than prime Nova.

For reference, UConn was in 6 of the top-10 rated FS1 games in Big East play, including the top-3, all over 500K. They had 11 games air on FS1 and averaged 355K viewers a game. In FS1 conference games that didn’t feature UConn, the Big East averaged 184K viewers.

The Big East is a collection of smaller schools who are limited draws unless they’re winning plus UConn. The Huskies draw nearly twice the eyeballs of rest of the league.

That’s the challenge for the TV deal. UConn is the clear team with value, it’s also clearly the team that doesn’t fit and would most like to leave the conference leaving the league with that collection of (quoting our friends from Marquette): 10 relatively small private schools.

How do you price in that risk… knowing you’re already paying more than any other non power conference for basketball and as much as several G5 conferences get on average for both football and basketball. (The AAC with the half shares for new members gets about 5.5M per school, the MWC gets about 4M per school, the Big East about 4.6M (depending on the source))

 

[CL82]

That’s the challenge for the TV deal. UConn is the clear team with value, it’s also clearly the team that doesn’t fit and would most like to leave the conference leaving the league with that collection of (quoting our friends from Marquette): 10 relatively small private schools.

How do you price in that risk… knowing you’re already paying more than any other non power conference for basketball and as much as several G5 conferences get on average for both football and basketball. (The AAC with the half shares for new members gets about 5.5M per school, the MWC gets about 4M per school, the Big East about 4.6M (depending on the source))

The answer is that you value the deal according to existing membership and you add a composition clause which allows fox to revalue the deal in the case that a member, or perhaps just Connecticut, leaves.

 

[huskymedic]

BIG EAST Concludes Spring Meetings

The BIG EAST Conference concluded its annual spring meeting last Thursday after three days of sessions that included the league’s Directors of Athletics, Senior Woman Administrators, head men’s and women’s basketball coaches, leaders from FOX Sports and Madison Square Garden, NCAA executives and...

www.bigeast.com