So now it is over. Or continuing. Take your pick.
After a whirlwind round of talks which continued all day Friday into Saturday morning, the Big East and ESPN have a deal–subject to approval by the Big East Presidents which is expected to be a mere formality in the next few days.
The official announcement came on Saturday afternoon, with details to follow, which should include a 7-year package in football and basketball which will bring Big East schools a total of approximately $130 million.
That total of course, is far short of the more than $1.2 billion offer the Big East turned down 20 months ago, but then again the Boston Globe was a billion dollar purchase by the New York Times 20 years ago and is now being shopped on the market for approximately 100 million dollars.
Stuff happens.
For the Big East, it has been mostly bad for the last few years as the league has been plundered and polarized.
Big East commissioner Mike Aresco, who took the job in August, can now focus on his next crisis–the breakaway by the 7 basketball schools known as the Catholic 7.
Once that is done, Aresco and the Big East can begin life as a smaller, less glamorous and less valuable entity of between 10 and 12 teams in college football and basketball, ostensibly all with a common goal and bond, which was hardly the case in the Big East for the past 20 years.
Aresco has not commented publicly about the deal with ESPN, which was finally worked out in the last 24 hours, after the self-proclaimed world-wide leader matched the offer put on the table to the Big East by NBC.
The money, as been well documented, was minimal. Only between 20 and 23 million a year, which is not even in the same hemisphere as the $150 million a year package which the Big East turned down less than two years ago.
What NBC was offering was exposure and a place as the guest of honor for its NBCSports Network. cable network which still needs more programming.
What ESPN was offering was the comfort of a network which is still the gold standard for broadcasts of college athletics, as well as a relationship with the Big East, which dated back to the creation of both the network and the conference in 1979.
Familiarity was definitely a factor. But so was the wide variety of outlets ESPN had. As one source at the Big East said on Saturday, “ESPN over matched the offer. The deal they offered in terms of exposure is better than the deal we have now in football. It was more than fair.”
So while there will be less money–much less money–ESPN is going to be part of making the Big East the “best of the rest”, which means not quite at the BCS level that the Big East will be part of for one more year, but a cut above, the other groups of conferences such as the Mountain West and Conference USA, who are also fighting for a seat at the main table.
How that will work and how the money is distributed over the next seven years will be explained in the next few days and weeks. To most of us, it doesn’t mean much. What is important is that if you were used to watching Big East Big Monday basketball and the Big East tournament on ESPN, you can still find them there.
If the Big East can produce a pair of Top 10 type teams in football, ESPN will find a way to not only show the game, but promote it as well.
The Big East’s television future is secure for the next seven years. Now Aresco and Company must make the break up with the Catholic 7 as smooth as possible. Sources in the Big East say that both sides are very close to reaching an agreement, perhaps as soon as the next few weeks.
The first major announcement will be the departure date. The consensus opinion seems to be that will be July of 2014, but on Saturday afternoon one Big East source said that a departure by this July is still being discussed. How that would work that quickly remains to be seen.
After that, the issue of the name “Big East” also must be resolved. Both the football and basketball groups want the name, which belongs to the football group unless the league is dissolved in the next four months.
Once those two issues are settled, the Big East and ESPN can continue their relationship in relative peace.
Or at least until the next conference raid takes place.
© Copyright 2013 Mark, All rights Reserved. Written For: A Jersey Guy
Get ready for more W:ednesday night football, Temple. It was TOTALLY worth leaving A-10 rivalries for this football windfall.
If the ESPN deal matches the NBC contract which unnamed sources say its A LOT better than their current deal then Wednesday night games will be MAC teams and possibly MWC games that are sold to ESPN. Boise has the ability to sell their home games but most likely they will be games that are weekday games so ESPN gets the most eyeballs for their money. With their terrible home schedule it is most likely the games won’t sell as well as they had thought and that’s the MWC for giving Boise such a crappy home schedule. The best teams in their conference don’t even play in Boise but 1 time in 3 years.
Stupid move by Thompson but I’m sure it was done out of spite for Boise ruining the MWC chance for expansion by the deal they got. No self respecting team will go there and play second fiddle which is exactly why the nBE wouldn’t match their deal. It’s not a fair deal for the rest of the schools and outside of Texas no other school has put the rest of their conference behind the 8 ball like Boise did to the rest of the MWC teams, but it suits Boise well and it’s obvious Kustra doesn’t care who they hurt as long as Boise takes every last dime the conference has.
Get ready for more Wednesday night football, Temple. It was TOTALLY worth leaving A-10 rivalries for this football windfall.
An offer made for the Globe 20 years ago (before Al Gore invented the Internet and everyone still read newspapers in print) and an absolutly idiotic move by the BE to turn down that 1.2B offer 20 months ago when they knew they were falling apart is not a good analogy at all Blau.
The BE wants to get to 12 teams and have a football championship game, why I don’t know. That will be an even bigger money loser for the teams involved than the ACCCG is.
As for the ESPN contract, 130M/12 teams/7 years = 1.55M/Yr per team (ESPN won’t increase the payout when Tulsa gets added). lol
Not for any of the schools who lead the charge to reject the offer. They are all making more money.
UConn, USF, and Cinci all lost out big time, but that is not the majority of that Big East.
Even if they signed the offer, Pitt, Syracuse, Rutgers, Louisville, Notre Dame and all the others would have left. If you are seriously arguing ESPN would have continued to pay them $10M per football school after all those defections, well… that is just silly.
The sad thing is I don’t think this is done. The money is too low. I think UConn and Cinci are still Catholic 7 flight risks. They can make twice as much in that conference. If I were the CUSA commish I’d be offering both football only homes.
The C7 are running away from the football schools after taking it up the keaster for decades. Why would the C7 want Uconn or Cincy (who both will leave in a heartbeat if they get an offer from a BCS conference) when they can cherry pick basketball-centric schools like Butler, St. Louis, Creighton, and Dayton who are all much better fits?
historic rivals are better local draws and draw better ratings. (ie. more money.)
it would be great for the fans if Uconn and cincy (and maybe even temple for that matter) went to play basketball with the C7 and football in Cusa…but it aint gonna happen, the C& want nothing to do with football schools RIP BIG EAST BASKETBALL
Why would the C7 want Uconn or Cincy?-other than their final fours and national championships?
Even if Catholic 7 has them short time. UConn men and women, and Cinn to lesser extend worth ratings/RPI boost.
If I was UConn and Cinn-I would go MAC in football and then Catholic 7 plus____? in BB.
hopefully all the other monies (tourney shares and exit fees) will overrule that kind of financial gain.
Your math is off because the contracts for sports are staggered and the football deal is still in effect for next year, as is the BCS payout.
Unfortunatley Jersey Guy, the Big East is NOT above the Mtn. West. NO way, no how.
It is now basically on par in a given year with what the Mtn. West produces in terms of quality teams. However, if the Big East were to lose just one school like Cincy or UConn,(which is inevitable) thats it, their goose is cooked and the Mtn. West become the stronger of the two, by a lot.
Whatever conference which was to boast Boise State would have the upper hand in terms of perception and power rankings.( Don’t take my word for it, look at the BCS numbers and average rankings and compare for yourself). One could easily argue that the Mtn. West has already solidified that spot.
One more thing- At this point we’re just arguing over the “perception factor”. The bottom line is that both conferences are being treated like second class citizens in a ploy to make them both look as irrelevant as possible. At this point, it seems as though a 3-tier system is in the making, with ESPN playing Power Broker.
Sad, but “..he who has the gold, Rules..”
Mark has some backup: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/college-football/news/20130220/big-east-mountain-west-conference-comparison/
I have read that article before. Nonethless, it does compare the years of 09′ – 12′. Now in 2013, both conferences, especially the Big East, have changed dramatically. In their CURRENT form, these two conferences are neck and neck, with Boise possibly tipping the scales for the MWC.
Again, we’re splitting hairs here, but both articles from Jersey Guy and SI seemed to have a good splattering of East Coast bias. I just really think you have to look at each conference in their CURRENT form. JMHO
Actually with this TV deal the Big East just skyrocketed past the MWC due to exposure. Team ranking wise the leagues are about even and unless Boise wins the MWC and goes unbeaten the Big East champion will still be higher in the polls b/c ESPN says so. This deal was terrible but Boise hasn’t won the MWC yet as watered down as it has been. The worst teams in the nBE would be middle of the pack in the MWC and in this current landscape you are only as good as your worst teams. In that regard the nBE is head and shoulders better than the MWC.
Why exactly was any of this necessary? March Madness is an ATM. The BET and ACC tourneys dwarf football in interest. A small handful of state schools win the grid national title each year. The BCS is a joke while the NCAA Tournament is a meritocracy. Did I take a very long nap and miss the memo that hoops mean nothing?
I agree. The Big east pulled in $27 Million last year in tourney money. There is no reason 16 dedicated basketball schools couldn’t pull huge money working together.
Sadly the core of this new big east is the core of CUSA v2 and they were a far, far inferior basketball conference than CUSA v. 1. One wonders about their commitment to the sport and their shared groupthink on conference decisions. It’s hard to imagine them pursuing a lot of good basketball schools to strengthen the conference.
I love Temple hoops. In many positive ways, it defines the school. But it now has a questionable future because the football team got lucky with Bernard Pierce, won a bogus Bowl in 2011, and the administration started dreaming about being Boise of the East. So shortsighted. Don’t put Aresco and John.Chaney in the same room any time soon.
I understand your point and have no problem with it, but the gridiron is still King. The television revenue and national perception is still married to football. Granted the BIg East, prior to this last shakeup, was pretty much considered a ‘Basketball Conference’. (Also, the Mtn. West in it’s own right has become a very good basketball conference.)
The Pac 12 didn’t sign a billion $+ contract for it’s basketball programs. Football brings the fans. When you put 70,000+ people in a stadium in a smaller town in Georgia, Alabama, Michigan or Indiana, it’s hard to argue that there is any other substancial driving force behind the television revenue and perception of these ‘Large School’ conferences.
Again, I’m not arguing which sport is necesarily better at all, just pointing out the CURRENT landscape of College athletics. Everything however can be subject to change in time.
As RudyMass has pointed out , the pathetic irony is the Big East was annually among the top leagues ,if not THE top league, in basketball. Yes indeed the Big East had an ATM in basketball and they threw that away for a football pipe dream. Now there is no money for either sport. This will be a quick race to the football bottom and I will not be surprised if schools like Temple are forced to give up D 1 Football for economic reasons. The tv rights bowl revenue and attendence revenue simply won’t be enough to run a competitive program. C7 group have to be delighted they escaped, they have a real future and don’t have to worry about football departures. The only silver lining for the Big East is 2013 should be a good money making year from bowl perspective they still have the bcs bid plus probably 4 other bowls which in total may add up to 22 million or another 2 million per school for the one year. If your any of the newly added C USA schools your happy with this deal because of the exposure. East Carolina and Tulane in particular are delighted.
I am still hoping the BE adds a number of Olympic only members with stronger BB programs. I am almost certainly alone in this as every football BE fan seems to blame the Catholics for killing the league, but I would like to see this collection of schools add 3-6 non-football members as well as all-sports members who are good in basketball added.
Adding another 8 good BB schools could get the NCAA money flowing again.
I think Tulsa and UMass both make a little BB sense if you can’t get a BB ringer like UNM. All sports schools like S Miss, CSU, UTEP, ODU (off year), and (if they show they can maintain this year’s success) La Tech, could make sense. (CUSA v.2′s BB issue was that they had too many sorry basketball programs at the bottom of the conference, but the meat of the conference was decent enough.) Charlotte could be a possibility down the road. Maybe Ohio?
But don’t discount all the good non-football BB schools out there that could be had. Creighton, Siena, and Dayton might be available. If you don’t want Olympic privates because you fear another schism, what about VCU? Or Wichita State? Or George Mason? Cleveland State is usually pretty good.
Adding just 3-4 Olympic members (if they are good enough) could have a dramatic impact on the BB fortunes of the Big East on selection day and the bottom line.
Big East basketball would have been promoted during NBC’s Winter Olympic coverage from Sochi, Russia
I have a hard time just finding NBC on my basic cable. ESPN is 30 and ESPN2 is 32. I’m sure NBCSN is somewhere up there in the 800s, I just have never watched it.
now that his is settled – on to more conference realignment !!