Riiiiiiight. Or maybe it’s because saying UH-UConn ratings in houston is comparable to UT-OU is far-fetched, to use a charitable term.
My wife’s cousin had a beautiful home in California in the town of Hollister (yes, the clothing label). One morning we’re sitting at the breakfast table drinking coffee and reading the paper. Suddenly I noticed little ringlet ripples in my coffee cup. I watched them intently. The cousin saw me staring at my coffee cup and very nonchalantly noted, “Oh, that’s the San Andreas Fault Line. Guess it’s a bit active but don’t worry it’ll stop in a day or so.” Totally lost my appetite.
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Politely, kiss my foot. And take your foot out of your mouth. I posted it on my Twitter account: @UHFan79. Look it up. I have several others but this makes the point. It’s there for any who care to look at the data. Real Facts.
UHFan79 speaks the truth.
Ok so UConn v UH carried as much for Houston as UT v OU did? So why are the networks that rely on ratings for ad revenues not pushing to bring UH into the Big 12? Why did they basically bribe the Big 12 to stay at 10?
I did check the ratings, unless I am mistaken, the game you are referring to was in 2016. For the last 2 years UH ratings (even in Houston) have not been much to boast about. Heck even the UH v USF game only did so so.
As much as we may think that conferences are free to make their own membership choices, they aren’t. It’s the networks that pay out the millions that are the real bosses. The focus on blaming UT and the “Little 12” may have some merit but the real villain here are the media networks. If ESPN were to just tell the Big 12 “add UH immediately”, that would be all it takes.
Until the networks start supporting UH, no P5 will even look at us. That’s the simplest way to look at it.
Here are ratings with the two games highlighted. Someone is eating crow although from post history appears to be a troll.
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You are correct that the networks are calling the shots. However, in the case of the Big 12 neither Fox or ESPN can call the shot alone. Fox and ESPN agreed to give the Big 12 a little more money to not expand because the two networks could not agree on the teams invited. Fox wanted teams from the East. ESPN was okay with expansion as long as it was not Cinn, UCF or USF. Fox wanted East Coast content which they have little of right now (Penn State, Rutgers, Maryland). ESPN controls the East and South with their contracts with the ACC and SEC. During the discussion ESPN was okay with BYU and Houston. Fox wanted two of Cinn, UCF and USF. Impasse, let’s just give the Big 12 a little more money and tell them to stop looking to expand.
Just speculation on the current negotiations with ESPN, but I expect the deal is better than most are expecting and the reason again is more about ESPN keeping Fox out of the East and South. The AAC does not command the audiences of the top level teams in the Power 5 conferences. But we are better than the mid to lower level teams in those conferences in drawing viewers. Our league has a lot more value than the other G5 conferences and ESPN know this. The last thing ESPN want is to let Fox get in the game in the regions our teams play in. At the same time, I think Aresco knows that the best place to continue to develop the AAC brand is with ESPN.
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Actually looking at the ratings, UH did fantastically! The problem is that these are 2 years old. The ratings since them haven’t been particularly impressive.
For 2018, The Armed Forces bowl ranked 22, below Baylor v Vandy, TCU v Cal. In the regular season the highest rated UH game was v USF and it was the 9th highest rated game that week. Heck Purdue v MSU garnered a higher rating!
Looking at ratings is a double edged sword it can work for or against you.
It’ll be interesting to see how the Big 12s next media deal unfolds. If in fact expansion gets them more money that staying at 10.
Re the AAC deal, I’ll be shocked if it starts our being much higher than $8 million per program. I certainly don’t see it being higher than $10 million. But even that’s a huge improvement over the current pitiful payout.
2016 UT sucked and UH was good. Compare the numbers from 2016 to 2018 when UT didn’t suck so bad(even though they lost to Maryland lol).
Our ratings speak for themselves. The small12 tv ratings in the City of Houston speak for themselves. Do you remember where we rank as the most followed program in the State of Texas? This has always been about money. Yes atm won’t be thrilled but our inclusion into the SEC makes more and more sense. Can’t happen because of only one School per state? This is for you. Yes there is Alabama and Auburn in the SEC. Yes there are two Schools from Mississippi. Will espn be pressured by uta to veto it if it happens? That’s the main question. In case this happens? Checkmate.
If our ratings speak for themselves, then for the last 2 years they’ve been speaking very little.
ESPN will do what’s best for ESPN. No program can force them to do anything. UT is in no position to veto anything that ESPN does. If the college athletics media landscape gets more competitive conferences may be able to force the hand of media players. But as long as ESPN is the dominant player they’ll do what they want.
Important point about the two teams per state thing in the SEC. All those schools you mentioned were part of the original conference. So it’s totally different than say an addition of us or an FSU.
Our ratings do speak for themselves and what they show me is a lack of consistency. When we’re good or playing interesting opponents we do well. And the opposite when the tables turn. At that point you can make the argument fairly well both for and against. The fact is for any P5 we’re a big wild card, we could pay huge dividends but the risk is equally great.
The PAC schools are pretty risk adverse, but the further behind they fall the bigger swings they’ll have to take. But they’re going to start with Texas and go from there.
Again, what’s the source on this? Its a screenshot of an anonymous excel spreadsheet.
Here are the total TV ratings and viewership for said games.
Texas vs. Oklahoma: 1.7 or 2.788 million viewers
UConn vs. Houston: .9 or 1.421 million viewers
An unspoken rule in realignment for any conference with a network is that you need to deliver your state if you want to be considered a viable candidate. And UH, I’m sorry to say, doesn’t have a huge following outside of the greater Houston area.
I never heard this side of the story before but it does make sense. I, like others, wondered how could the B12 be so idiotic to say they are serious about expansion then changed their minds. That charade was so embarrassing for the B12.
Both of you are cherry picking your statistics.
When UH is good and UT is bad, they can outdraw them in the ratings. This happened in 2016. Last year, UT outdrew UH for ratings. On a weekly basis, when both are good and UT is playing some of the dregs of the Big XII and UH is playing one of the better, more recognizable, schools I would expect UH could outdraw UT.
As for the argument about the greater Houston area, you have to realize the population of the greater Houston area is greater than the population of some states. Delivering the Houston market can be better than delivering some states.
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I believe the numbers you have are national ratings not just the Houston market. I’m not sure if there is market data out there without paying for it.
I also would like the source link to data that is posted on this forum. It gives the data validity rather than thinking someone made a spreadsheet and did a screen capture. I’m not saying anyone is lying but posting the source link is more believable and is mentioned in this forum rules.
I believe I’m guilty of this too.
DKR wanted us inside the tent pissing out instead of outside the tent pissing in.
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Let me try to respond to some of the comments. First of all, those are valid numbers I posted but I’ve long since lost the references. And I have no desire to try to track them down. I have other lists that are pretty consistent.
What they show is UH is a strong program for pulling in viewers. Just like any other program numbers decline and rise with the team’s record. That goes for UT too. Before we’re too harsh about the last 2 years consider what UH has been through with Herman walking away like he did and the aftermath. Applewhite brought little to the table to turn things around and attendance and viewership reflected it.
I don’t know many programs that could continually take the body blows we’ve taken and still be in business. Don’t just skip over that. Let it sink in. Then ask yourself how does our future look. Because that’s what networks ask.
UH is a proven product. Our motto ought to be “Just add water” because as the basketball program has shown, with the right attention our programs blossom. Hell, they explode. And that’s what UT knows and fears.
One of the mantras spouted by many in the Big 12 is Houston doesn’t bring or add anything of value. At the very least that is an ignorant comment. The DATA says otherwise. At the worst it’s delusional. Just a denial of reality. And the conference will pay a price for it. Advertisers are locked into contracts but they know when they are being screwed. As for that last expansion fiasco no doubt ESPN and Fox each had a voice in the outcome. But don’t kid yourselves. The near hysteria from OU played a role as well. The networks don’t want to take steps that undermine their product and OU made their fears loud and clear.
And those fears were mostly hysterical with a dash of reality. From the beginning of time OU’s program has been built around recruiting Texas players. Yet when UH was in a major conference neither OU nor UT were negatively impacted by UH or our recruiting. They got their players and we got ours. It’s all smoke.
UT seems to be on the rebound. That’s good for the Big 12. But the larger picture is UT and OU are going to take turns winning the conference championship. As I noted elsewhere that means the other 8 teams will annually be playing for 3rd place. The viewership of those teams, especially in the No. 8 media market in the nation is getting smaller every year. It won’t be long before advertisers pull the plug. ESPN and Fox are not oblivious to this. When viewership of a game isn’t enough to pay for the cost of production it isn’t ESPN who will have their hair on fire. Ultimately it’s the advertisers who foot the bill - not ESPN or Fox.
Bottom line in spite of all the crap UH and it’s fan base have had to suffer through when the smoke clears we’re still here, reloading and getting ready for another season. ESPN knows this. So does Fox.
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Fred, you’ve nailed it. Also there are easily a million “orphan fans” in the Greater Houston area. They moved here from other areas for different reasons and while they may continue to follow a team a thousand miles away UH will gain their allegiance if we put a good product on the court or field. Many of our 100,000 fans in the area are largely dormant. But I’m starting to notice UH regalia wherever I go. I’m sure you do too. So our fan base is definitely coming alive and growing. That’s a plus
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