Turner On Realignment

[Southland]

None of these conferences are going to make any moves until the shake out of the ACC is complete.

Whether or not the ACC challenges the 12-school championship rule is the strongest variable in the re-alignment equation. None of these conferences are going to expand to 12 if they can get championship game money with 8, 9, 10 or 11.

After that circus is complete, the BCS deal will be the next focus.

Are executives at ABC, CBS or FOX going to pay for an extra BCS game that features a school without much national appeal? Will the BCS conference schools offer multiple BCS packages to the Networks? Are the BCS conferences planning on offering the same package from 2006-2013?

What the television consultants are telling the non-BCS conferences will weigh a lot on the minds of Presidents after those steps are complete. E.g - Does ABC still feel the MWC is really worth the investment for a Network package? Is there any combination that would make the Mountain West or CUSA conferences worth the investment for a Network package?

Obviously the Big East is going to have inside information on the BCS television package(s) and will operate accordingly. The Mountain West Conference is going to depend on their consultants to get a sense of the demand for their package.

Sorry this has been long-winded, but bottom line is a lot more variables need to become fixed units before the Presidents make moves... a lot more goes into these decisions than "fantasy" points. Certainly market value will play a huge part as well… E.g- if you think SMU or TCU delivers a DFW affiliate, your kidding yourself…

[Nacho]

Southland, what sort of time frame are we talking about for these things to occur?

[Southland]

1) Depends on IF the ACC challenges the 12-school rule... nonetheless, that should shake out before this time next year.

2) Networks will begin negotiating (and influencing) during 2004. Probably no BCS deal until 2005 (after Network research is done on the full BCS 1998-2005 contract). The BCS will probably bounce ideas around until then, and land on a solid package in late 2004 to market to the Networks in December/January.

3) The Big East needs to secure 8 football schools for 2004. All indications point to asking UConn to join 1 year early. UConn will need to drop 4 current games on the 2004 schedule to work it out. One additional school would also need to be added. I would expect those announcements by May 2004 (at the latest) to accomodate the 4 schools that UConn has to drop.

4) Individual conference deals depend on the individual contracts. Like the BCS, those will probably be negotiated in the final 12-18 months of the deal with a lot of ideas back-and-forth until the final season has begun.