New Big 12 (secondary) TV Deal and CUSA

[RE Tycoon]

My fears about our new Fox Sports TV deal are starting to materialize. The Big 12 also has a new deal with Fox Sports that gives them second choice for televising Big 12 games. The kicker? Fox Sports will now televise a MINIMUM of 40 games a year, double the previous Big 12 slate. That is roughly 3 games each week (mostly Saturdays with 3 Thurs. games and one Friday Thanksgiving game) during the season.

Why does this matter to CUSA? Because there are only so many time slots available to broadcast games. This probably means CUSA will get the [deleted] slots which will either be really early or really late. But I don't think that is what will happen. At first I was worried Fox Sports would regionalize our games, now I think we will be moved to an even more obscure channel, probably some new Fox Sports College network.

I dearly hope CUSA was savvy enough to secure certain exposure guarantees that assured the conference of certain channels and national coverage.

Another bummer? Even crappy schools like Iowa State and Baylor will now be guaranteed that every Football game, conference or non, will be broadcast.

What the deal means:

For the Big 12, it’ll mean somewhere around the neighborhood of $90 million a year in added TV revenues. Beebe declined to give specifics on how much money is involved in the deal, but $90 million has been a popular projection.

For FOX, it now will carry a minimum of 40 games every year, which is nearly double the number under its current agreement. Most of those games will end up on FSN (Fox Sports Southwest).

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/ ... _reac.html

[Stallion]

I note that the agreement calls for a Sunday game on Labor Day weekend. SMU/A&M might be a consideration there

[RednBlue11]

will they redo the logo of the conference to make the roman numerals that say 12 look like 10?

[Mitch McConnell]

To what extent was CUSA getting the better end of the deal at ESPN with the random Wednesday night game?

How does the 40 games compare to the numbers of games that were shown on FSN last year? On most weekends, you had a Big 12 11:30 a.m. game and the Big 12 6 p.m. Multiply that by 12 and you got 36 with some other games that were shown as well.

I think you're reading too much into "minimum''. Plus, there are some Big 12 games that will be FX candidates -- probably Iowa State vs. Kansas or something like that.

I can't remember the terms of our deal with FOX but weren't we getting more games and more revenue from this thing? Help me understand why that's bad?

Good for ESPN suing CUSA. IMO they only did that because they lost their choice of midweek games and are stuck with the Sun Belt or MAC.

RE, remember this line -- Don't borrow trouble. I think that's what you're doing. It'll work itself out.

[RE Tycoon]

As I stated in my first post 40 would be double the amount of games of the previous contract.

I'm not wrestling up trouble, I'm trying to look past today and see if this is a good deal for us. We are getting more money, but at what cost? The cost is the conference will trade nationally televised games and the exposure ESPN gave us for regional broadcast (if we're lucky, with the new Big 12 contract I doubt will even get that). So even though we will see more money it might be a net loss as our TV games will be on obscure channels.

[NickSMU17]

I have to agree with RE tycoon...I think we shot ourselves in the foot on this one...

[Mitch McConnell]

Competition is good for America. Sounds to me like FOX is trying to create a bigger presence in college football and ESPN, which has monopolized the industry for years, doesn't like it very much. Hence, the paper tiger lawsuit.

I think there's too much conditional thinking going on that, "It's no good if it's not on ESPN." That's the unfortunate climate ESPN created.

Personlly, ESPN can go shove it. I hate that network.

We haven't see a schedule yet for the games and their slots have we?

So how can anyone honestly say CUSA shot itself in the foot without knowing exactly what's been scheduled.

Now, if the schedule comes out and it's cumbersome, then fine.

Again, the Big 12 will have FX games too. Don't forget FX has done some sports programming before.


Hey, I don't mind seeing an episode of Nip/Tuck (with the incredibly hot Famke Janssen on it) leading into SMU-Tulsa.

[NickSMU17]

Only problem with your argument is that ESPN is the 800 lb hairy gorilla in the room. They control the BCS, TV deals and conference landscape....So if you are looking to get in that area you better play by their rules for a bit to see how it plays out....

I have no problem stepping toe to toe with those guys when the consequences aren't as big...but in this situation we would have been smart to appease them...

When you are a fringe candidate you must kiss aszs...

[Mitch McConnell]

There was life before ESPN. And what appears permanent now has as much staying power as the length of the current contract.

I would have no doubt that a lot hard thinking went on in the CUSA offices before this deal was brokered. How do we know that ESPN was making life miserable for whatever reason and it got to the point where the conference said, "We're not going to be hooker?"

AIG was an 800 pound gorilla too. And look what happened there.

[Mitch McConnell]

BTW, everybody got pissed off when FOX had the BCS games because they didn't think they were qualified because the mothership didn't carry college football, only the FSSW's did.

I didn't have a problem when FOX had the contract. I thought their announcers did fine.

In my judgment, people were conditioned that things were done a certain that way that it made it hard for them to accept a different way of doing things.

People can be frightened by change because they get into a comfort zone.

[NickSMU17]

There was life before ESPN. And what appears permanent now has as much staying power as the length of the current contract.

I would have no doubt that a lot hard thinking went on in the CUSA offices before this deal was brokered. How do we know that ESPN was making life miserable for whatever reason and it got to the point where the conference said, "We're not going to be hooker?"

AIG was an 800 pound gorilla too. And look what happened there.

AIG was never an 800 lb gorilla...thats a joke...

GS on the other hand...

[Mitch McConnell]

Some people thought AIG was.

[NickSMU17]

you may be the only one...

The big short....pick up a copy when you can...

[Stallion]

I'm hearing even from a bunch of Aggies that prefer the SEC-that this Big 12 Deal is a very nice financial deal and likely solidifies that conference for the forseeable future. I'm hearing Aggies are going to get a lot more than even the 20 Million per year they were promised. Fox may have overpaid to get in the game and this deal split only 10 ways may be competitive with SEC especially since the schools retain their remaining rights to form network or sell rights to games not chosen

[Mitch McConnell]

You need to look at the ticker symbol BBY and where that thing is going.