The money is what it is; but now we have a whole decade of our conference being shown in households throughout the U.S. on a regular basis 7 months of the year. Just 10 years ago we’d be lucky to have a couple games a year televised. From 2012 to 2030 the number of people who will have watched Houston sports and AAC in general will have grown by many millions.
This is how you create a long-term valuable product, and we fit a hole that was created by the conference networks.
Before we got in the American and the last TV deal, it was impossible to be a Coog fan if you didn’t live in Houston. We hardly ever played on TV, even football. We have come very far.
One of the cool aspects of the future of streaming is that you don’t have to guess what the ratings are. You will be able to tell exactly how many homes were watching that game. I suspect as ESPN+ grows the way schools get paid will change as well.
Closest thing to the American having its own network
You make a great point and highlight how important it is for UH fans to embrace this new platform.
Renu Khator, UH’s chancellor and chair of the American’s board of directors, said the ESPN agreement “reflects the progress we have made and positions us extremely well for continued future growth. The agreement will afford our institutions and our student-athletes additional resources to continue to compete at the highest level.”
Just to make sure I understand, if you have an existing Cable subscription, you can then watch ESPN+ games on your computer or Apple TV, right?
Just want to check and make sure.
Do you have to pay extra to watch ESPN+ games if you already have a cable subscription? I hope not!
https://www.capitalgazette.com/sports/navy_sports/ac-cs-navy-aac-media-deal-0328-story.html
“It will be significantly more than we realize today and will greatly enhance our ability to meet a wide array of needs on a lot of different fronts at the Naval Academy,” Gladchuk said. “This validates the decision the Naval Academy made to join this prestigious conference. Being part of this conference is delivering a return on investment that is game-changing.”
Check with your service provider. Some might, and some might not.
UCONN not happy…of course
https://twitter.com/ManthonyCourant/status/1111010269797535746
https://twitter.com/ManthonyCourant/status/1111030842321707008
I’m not surprised that UConn isn’t happy. I am surprised they are being so vocal about is. That part doesn’t bode well.
Eh…honestly, the conference could lose them and I don’t think it would hurt. UCONN brings absolutely nothing in football and their men’s basketball program has collapsed as of late. Women’s basketball just doesn’t move the needle enough.
Their administration also probably realizes that the new contract the AAC just signed is more than they’d make in the Big East ($4-5M) and they’d make almost nothing dropping their football down or making them independent (probably would actually lose money).
Conference could see if BYU would join for football and VCU for all other sports and not miss a beat.
Conference could see. I wouldn’t bank on BYU. Maybe Army. But I’m risk-averse here, and optimistic that UConn’s basketball will recover and has a higher ceiling than VCU.
And all of this aside, losing anybody doesn’t look good. Especially if it can be construed as a “We’d rather not have (FBS) football than play in the AAC.”
When the UCONN AD mentions “linear” television is that saying he wants every hoops game on an actual channel (like SNY) and zero on ESPN+?
I believe that’s what he wants.
Earn extra 7M per year? Meaning total 10?
The conference would be better off with less teams. UConn, Tulane, Tulsa, ECU do nothing but make us split the TV money into more pie pieces.
All conferences have this issue. Having doormats is the standard for conferences snd gives the others schools an easy win.
The AAC’s good teams are better than the vast majority of P5 teams. The real difference is in fan support. In P5 conferences (other than the PAC and the ACC, the doormats still draw pretty good crowds. In addition out good teams when they aren’t good (I am looking at us) don’t draw. The American is the home of schools that can win and have won big in the past but don’t draw when they don’t win.