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More BCS realignment

143K views 1K replies 144 participants last post by  Medford 
#1 ·
It's being reported all over that the Big Ten is in the process of inviting Rutgers and the University of Maryland into the conference.

The invites could take place as early as Monday.

Speculation from there includes the idea that the ACC would invite UConn to take the place of UM.

Needless to say, that may be all she wrote for the Big East.
 
#1,396 ·
It's going to take Fox Sports time.

ESPN had such a massive head start on CBS Sports & NBC Sports and Fox Sports.

People go to games when their team is on CBSSN, NBCSN, FS1; but no one just watches whatever is on those three networks compared to the number of people who just watch what ever's on ESPN.

It's a lot like the CBS tourney ratings and the teams they pick for CBS. CBS will put Duke in prime time vs a 16 seed, on CBS based on the logic that "everyone watches Duke." But the ratings for all the games are relatively standard across the board: People tend to watch whichever game is put CBS more than the three cable channels. (TruTV ran ads mocking themselves that no one had watched the network since last March).

FS1 gets terrible ratings because "it's not ESPN" but the more programming they get that people want to see, the more of a competition it will make. Having MLB will help.

If the Big Ten signs with Fox, then it will have a positive effect on Big East games on FS1.
 
#1,399 ·
They most certainly are losing money on it.

But the BE teams most certainly are not. A10 fans attacking their Big East arch-enemies who can't stay away from this board is fine by me, but I think they could find some better ammunition than a TV deal we in the A10 would kill for. It's mostly Fox' problem, not Xavier or any other school's.
 
#1,400 ·
Here is Net Net......

$50MM/year. If the NBE is going to add 2 teams for example, Fox is not going to increase to $60MM(unless it is in the contract). Are the other 10 schools willing to take a cut of $900k to add those 2 teams. I do not believe they would.

Which brings us back to TV ratings and big markets. The only way to get that additional $10MM to fund 2 more teams is to bring in markets to support the increase in advertising dollars.

The NBE schools should absolutely feel good about taking the money. We all would! However, without a change to their model, that gravy train runs out in nine years(unless there is a clause in the contract about ratings over the first part of the contract).

Then Oh boy!
 
#1,404 ·
What available info? It's either in the contract or it's not. Based on the ratings and accompanying advertising revenue, they aren't just going to agree to add 10mm to their bill. Whether they are breaking even as a network overall or not, it's not hard to see that the Big East hoop package is not a big plus to their bottom line, and it's clear they expected much better ratings than they are getting. So would it be smart business for them to agree to ADD to that obligation, for the sake of adding teams/markets that weren't attractive enough to add last time? They aren't sitting there saying, "Well, we're struggling to get eyeballs on the TV product....so let's add Maryland and Duke." If they are struggling with the ten they wanted most, will adding the first and second alternates really make sense?

So unless the "available information" includes a legal obligation to allow the Big East to expand, and add to the payout accordingly, I don't see how that happens.
 
#1,405 ·
#1,408 ·
How much, if any does the BE funnel off of that $50 mil from fox to pay for league offices, salaries, BE tournament, etc? I've always had it in my head that each team was making $3 mil per season, though I don't know if that is accurate. My point being, if those teams are not evenly splitting all of that $50 mil, and a portion of it is going to run the tournament, salaries, offices and all other conference expenses, I doubt those expenses are going to expand proportionally should the BE expand from 10 to 12. Sure, there will be some increase in expenses, but I couldn't imagine it being a bunch more, though I suppose that depends on what kind of things the conference pays for.

If I use the $3 mil per team that is stuck in my head (again I don't know if that is correct) that is $30 mil total, and $20 mil a year to run the conference (which seems way high, but I have no idea how much it costs to run the league, there may have been large initial fees to get things running and that ramps down in time). If you assume no increase in pay from Fox for going from 10 to 12, that would mean a reduction of $500k per team rather than the $900k above. On the other hand, if it is true that Fox has agreed to increase the conference payout from $50 mil to $60 mil a year, and you can safely assume that increasing the size of the league from 10 teams to 12 doesn't significantly change the money the conference needs to function, you could actually end up with an increase of money per team from what the 10 BE teams are seeing today. If you hold that $20 mil figure from above steady and split the remaining $40 mil 12 ways, you'd end up with $3.3 mil per team, an increase of $300K from what they are seeing today (again assuming that $3 mil is correct)

Obviously you have to slide things a bit if my numbers are off. I have no idea how the BE pays for its costs, but I think its safe to assume that won't change significantly with 12 teams vs 10, so the cost per team to run the conference would be less per school with 12 than 10, so there is a savings, at least in that area by increasing size. How much of a savings depends on how much it costs to run the conference.
 
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