It’s coming down to crunch time for the Big East in its negotiations for a new television deal for football which will take the conference through the next segment of the ever-changing landscape of conference configuration.
And, not surprisingly, Big East basketball is being used as a prime asset to boost Big East football revenue.
New Big East commissioner Mike Aresco and his staff are currently coming to an end of an exclusive negotiating period with ESPN, which has televised the majority of Big East football and basketball games.
Aresco is hoping that he can sign a deal that will eventually bring in close to the $17 million dollar per school average the ACC received in its latest deal with ESPN.
That is unlikely to happen.
But according to sources familiar with negotiating process, the Big East could get “decent” money if it breaks its deal into two parts, the main portion with ESPN and the the other part with networks such as NBC and Fox.
Both networks are reportedly eager for programming and ready to let the Big East hear what offers they have when the exclusive negotiating period with ESPN ends in the next few days.
The key element for the Big East, which will expand to 12 teams in football next season and eventually expand to 17 teams in basketball, is the basketball element.
According to sources, any football package will also be directly tied in with some basketball telecasts, which is perhaps the Big East’s greatest asset right now
“Let’s face it,” said one source familiar with the Big East, “there aren’t a lot of games in football that the Big East can create any excitement. Boise State-Louisville is not going to get the country excited.”
The compromise that Aresco and Company may be attempting to put together could look something like this,
ESPN will buy a package that includes Big East Big Monday basketball, an assortment of mid-week football telecasts, a series of 12 noon football telecasts and the Big East basketball tournament.
Aresco will then go to Fox/NBC and sell other Big East football games, including some atttractive non-conference games and several Big East basketball games in various time slots during the week, depending on the preference of the networks.
While ESPN does not really need Big East football, it wants to keep a relationship with the Big East because it might be looking for programming in a few years if the Big Ten makes an expected move away from ESPN and adds more games to the Big Ten network.
In order to keep the Big East tournament and its Big Monday Big East package, ESPN is willing to continue its relationship with Big East football in some capacity.
Aresco obviously wants to maximize the money he can get from not only ESPN, but other networks.
In order to make this work, Aresco needs some quality programming available in Big East basketball.
He has several options.
Don’t be surprised if the Big East keeps Notre Dame, which is scheduled to make a move to the Atlantic Coast Conference in all sports but football, for a few more season. Don’t be surprised if the Big East non-conference schedule in football is upgraded considerably which would allow the other networks to have some quality match ups. A Boise State-Georiga game or a Louisville-Texas game would draw more interest than most Big East Conference games. Don’t be surprised if the Big East football championship game is also part of the other package.
All of those elements combined could turn the Big East television deal into a money-maker for the conference. It won’t be a mega-deal, but it will be reasonable.
© Copyright 2012 Mark, All rights Reserved. Written For: A Jersey Guy
Would the addition of a program like BYU change anything? If not, why is the Big East so hot for BYU if Air Force or even Fresno would make an acceptable 14th?
Air Force would be Ok. But BYU is regarded as more of a national team.
I think that NBC would want to pay through the nose for the Big East. They’re currently replaying the Olympics on NBC Sports.. they need programming
There’s no reason for NBC to “pay through the nose” if no one else will bid (or at least big aggresively). Yes, NBC does need programming. The shouldn’t be re-airing the Olympics. At least it has the EPL starting next year. That’s a start. But overpaying for mediocre content does not sound like the answer. As the article points out, “there aren’t a lot of games in football that the Big East can create any excitement”. Overpaying for content that draws poor ratings only hurts the channel, not helps.
I have read that the ACC TV deal is 13 mil per year for the next few years and gradually goes up to 17.1 mill the last few years of the contract. If that is the case I see no problem in the BE matching the 13 mil figure and perhaps approaching the 17.1 figure at the end of a 10 or 12 year contract. NBC Sports is badly in need of live content. Look at some of the stuff they broadcast now. Is prime time rodeo really the best NBC Sports can do? It is true Fox needs content as well but not as badly as NBC.
It averages $17 million per season (likely to go up a tick once Notre Dame joins), so it goes up well beyond $17 million at the end of the 13 years. With the Pitt/Syracuse additions, I believe the renegotiated deal bumps up to something like $14-$15 million next season. A Big East deal should have similar escalators in the payments, so it’ll be the average that makes the easiest comparison.
Mark, so how does Aresco keep BE teams from leaving the conference and screwing up the deal. I don’t think the big boys in the BE –Louisville, UConn etc., will agree to a grant of rights. And if the B12 or ACC come calling, who is saying no.
that will be a challenge.
No one would say no to either conference. The hope has to be that neither come calling. That’s the Big East’s only real chance. I don’t think Aresco can do anything himself to change that.
If Big East football teams need schedules with more exciting games to make their TV contract more attractive, how is that going to work?
They will have to move away from FCS opponent-laden, W-L record inflating schedules to do this. How will this affect their rankings and ranking-influenced TV audiences?
Whats the incentive for these other more exciting teams to schedule Big East schools? It takes two to tango.
Given the strong need for Big East schools to schedule more “exciting” opponents, how will this affect the negotiations and terms required to land these games? Will potential opponents start demanding neutral site games, more tickets for their fans and other concessions.
And finally on Notre Dame. While ND is contracturally-bound to with the 27 month period, could they negotiate their way out of that by offering some football games which the Big East might need very badly? OOC games were part of the original divorce settlement when BC, VT and Miami left the Big Eastl
Right, I thought the comment regarding Notre Dame was the most interesting when combined with the comment that the Big East football schools will need to upgrade their OOC schedule.
Not sure what holding Notre Dame to the 27 month exit window does. No one really cares about Notre Dame sports outside football. Even basketball is not that popular. So the Big East is not retaining any great attraction. Granted, I’m not advocating letting the Irish go for free. But I don’t expect some huge windfall either. At least some financials would be enough. If you could get a few OOC games, that helps a little. But OOC games would likely be fairly meaningless as: (1) it won’t be very many games; (2) it can’t really start until a few years down the road: and (3) it would be very temporary. Those are not long-term solutions, nor would they move the needle much in contract talks. It’s much simpler to just take $5 million and call it a day…