Could Amazon, NBC, @TNT be Negotiating with the AAC

Cougar Football
1

Do we really have a deal with ESPN? Maybe a smokescreen to get NBC to bite. Maybe players like Amazon see value in the college sports market.

  1. If ESPN gave us such a good deal why have they not announce it?

  2. After the month of February we are free to negotiate with anybody.

  3. Memphis PREZ said we would know something by the end of this month.

  4. Who will pay us more than ESPN?

  5. Will we have to sign a GOR? And if we do how much money will it take?

2
  1. Agreed in principle and dry ink are two different things. One can take much longer than the other.
  2. Yes, unless we signed a letter of intent, or we may be lining up 2nd tier rights in order to announce the entire package together to make it sound more lucrative.
  3. Yes.
  4. Noone.
  5. No. The rumor was that was a non-starter, and in the end, will lower the per school amount, but allow departure if the P5 comes calling.
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3

Would be cool if Amazon or another streaming service offered us lots of money in an effort to kick off their own programming? A little like ESPN and the SEC after the SWC turned them down.
Not a total fantasy as the money conferences will want to play it safe with their large amounts of money. The AAC would be one that the new players could afford to out bid ESPN for and also who would be willing to risk being on a new platform for making money closer to the Greenback Conferences.

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4

We sign a GOR only if it’s $30M per school and up otherwise it’s not worth missing out on getting a possible P5 invite.

Since no one is going to offer that amount then no GOR.

5

I will say it again, do we have a deal with ESPN? Or did we leak information to get other networks to make better offers? Do we take this time delay as nothing solid has been done? AAC need a big pay out. I am seeing other raising concerns.

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6

Is it smart to shop our value?
Every thing seem quiet.
Memphis is not even saying a word.

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7

My theory is is that it’s all still being hammered out especially at the tier 2 and 3 levels. ESPN+ is probably the big hold up there. We can shop those tiers around for maybe more money at the tier 2 level. But tier 3 wherever we go is probably worth every school getting a few Amazon gift cards.

If we’re playing hard ball with ESPN on tier one rights still. That’s just not smart no one is going to pay more or give us a prayer at the same level of exposure.