AAC ESPN close to a tier 1 deal?

Let a conference member win a national championship, say like in basketball, and see if that changes perspectives.

UCONN did win the national championship in 2014

3 Likes

They must be counting the loss in revenue having to play games on Wednesday night and things like that. No conference is going to pay to have their game aired.

Incompetent Commissioner


Wasn’t he also the commissioner of the WAC during the time the conference stopped football?

1 Like

But Blackbird by the Beatles will get me to listen !

1 Like

The SBC is on the hook for its own production costs, which is exceed the value of the contract.

Where are you getting “there are no other takers”. Off the top of my head I know for a fact that CBS-Sports is buying AAC inventory from ESPN. On various Saturdays afternoons I have seen a 3 hour car auction, an infomercial, and gymnastics on NBC. NBC-Sports had even crappier content (including a muddy tractor pull). Given that NBC bid on the AAC in 2013, I see little reason to believe they would not be interested in some games to build around their Notre Dame broadcasts.

The AAC has posted pretty good ratings and now has a track record of scoring ratings that are more like a low end P5 than any other G5. I suspect there will be very lively bidding on a conference that offers excellent “bang for the buck” content.

lol
C’mon man. That aint happening. Im pretty optimistic–but Im guessing 6-8 million per team is the most likely outcome. That said, two recent transactions (UFC and WWE) indicate we might actually do a bit better–say 8-10 million per team if things go really well. If your seriously expecting 15-20 million a team, your going to be terribly disappointed. Thats similar to what the ACC, Big-12, and Pac-12 receive. We are not getting that kind of money (nor do our viewer numbers support anything close to that).

1 Like

Zero chance we become an ESPN-Plus exclusive property. That said, its very possible we could have 40-45 or so games on ABC/ESPN/ESPN2/ESPN-U/ESPN-News----pretty much same as this year. But instead of having another 10-15 games on CBS-Sports and another 10 or so on ESPN-3----we might see that block of inventory shifted off those networks to ESPN-Plus.

Frankly, I dont think thats where we are going. When its all over, I have a feeling we will have our top 50 or so games split between NBC and the ABC/ESPN family. The other 20 games will either end up on CBS-Sports or ESPN-Plus (probably the latter).

As the chief CBS hater on the board I submit that having our games on CBS anything is akin to playing in Count Dracula’s crypt.

1 Like

So much this. I don’t understand NBC Sports thinking in college football. Eirher you are a player in this business or you’re not. Notre Dame home games and Ivy League games on NBCSN are not going to cut it. The AAC would be huge to lead in to ND games and you could have 2 AAC games when ND is away. ND has a long history with Temple and Navy, you would get some crossover viewing. They have good streaming setup already from the Olympics and they’ll probably be the network for XFL (Universal tie-in) it just makes sense.

OTOH you have CBS. I agree with Funk they really need to improve their streaming app and availability of CBSSN. Something I will give them props for though on pre, halftime, and postgame they actually discuss the AAC teams playing as well as the AAC as a whole. That goes for hoops as well. They air every commander in chief trophy game and do a good job following the academies so it’s a natural progression for them to get more AAC content.

The good news for both NBC and CBS would be I think the AAC would have a better shot at a national network game every week. That would be huge we draw ratings when we’re on ABC.

https://twitter.com/JohnMartin929/status/1098999083887398912

6 Likes

Interesting as we’re not even out of the exclusive negotiating window with ESPN. Must have gotten an offer that we were happy with or one that was a take it or leave it, but it was enough to take it.

6 Likes

I will eat my words if it turns out that ESPN shows respect to the AAC in terms of fair value, but stranger things have happened in this world

Maybe he’s just “pleased” about the announcement being made so he doesn’t have to answer questions about when and not the actual numbers tho. lulz

9 Likes

lol
ah, this makes much more sense

1 Like

At the end of the day, ESPN offers exposure that other networks don’t. While the good TV ratings the AAC has gotten has had a lot to do with having good teams in big market cities, a big factor has also been playing games on channels like ABC and ESPN.

We want our best games (Tier 1) to be seen by as many people as possible to help our brand and exposure. ESPN offers that on a level that Fox, NBC, and CBS can’t match.

5 Likes

Yes but per my earlier post I wish ESPN would stop the non-stop discussion of what Saban had for breakfast during halftime of our football games and what Coach K had for breakfast during halftime of our hoops games.

5 Likes

A year ago Aresco voted with all the other commissioners to not even have a discussion about CFP expansion. This was him not rocking the boat and if it doesn’t pay off for having something within 50% of the lowest P5 contract, then Aresco must go. He waited until November to see UCF was not only not going to be in the top 4 but wasn’t even going to be close enough to be even part of the playoff discussion AND THEN he says “maybe there should be a discussion.” Oh really? Maybe? A team in the 6th strongest conference has two straight undefeated seasons and still is not even part of the discussion and now you want to talk about it? He punched his ballot a year ago and if it doesn’t pay off with some major concessions, he has to go.

13 Likes