We are worth what the market paid.
To be fair, our offerings did not go to the open market so we really do not know what we are worth but no one wants the repeat of the Big East market devaluations.
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You don’t have to go to market to know what the market will bear. I would like to think there were side and unofficial conversations with other parties to know what would be willing to offer.
It made sense if they went with the original combo of WVU and Louisville. Once Del Conte came in and bent over for DeLoss to get TCU in over Louisville, it didn’t make much sense for WVU to be in the Big12. Still doesn’t.
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I still remember the TCU press conference when TCU got admitted big12. The man was crying !!! It was a John Behner moment.
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I still remember Deloss having 20 plus schools he said that was before us…really???
Deloss was never going to take us. He always held it against the school when he wasn’t hired as AD here.
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Well seeing as how things turned out… We should hold it against our admin that we didn’t.
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I think that is very true, but if it had not been that, he would have found something else; jerks DO THAT!
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Most relevant comment today. The guy is all about spin. His mission is to diminish UH’s value by subtlety pushing a false narrative. Its true that he lives in fear that West Virginia may be left out in the next round. If it were not for DeLoss they wouldn’t be in the Big 12 anyway. So if the deck gets shuffled the right way maybe they are out and UH is in. Who really knows at this point. It’s all speculation anyway. He’s good and he’s subtle. Why debate his ideas here? Let’s spend our time discussing whether or not the world is flat.
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Hogwash. Market forces are not at work here. This is pure backroom politics. Our market value is artificially depressed by factions of the Big 12.
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I think that’s somewhat true. Maybe ESPN is the one depressing it for the AAC to give more money to the Big 12.
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The TRUTH has been SPOKEN!!!
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Yes Sir…
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How many networks bid for AAC media rights? The Big 12 maybe out to suppress UH but it can’t stop media players from bidding for AAC media rights. Why was ESPN was the only bidder? Why didn’t CBS or NBC or some other media company come forward and offer the AAC a better deal than ESPN offered?
ESPN was the only bidder and that means none of the other media companies felt AAC content was worth bidding for. Ergo what ESPN is paying for AAC content is the highest amount the market is valuing AAC content at. I don’t see a conspiracy here. Just market forces at work.
I could be wrong, but I don’t think the contract went to the open market. We were already with ESPN and we had the option to take their offer or go to the open market. We took the offer because we could’ve done a lot worse than we did.
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Does UH have more value than 7 mil/year? Absolutley! Does Tulane or Tulsa? Hell no! We were paid for what the conference was worth on average. Value can also change based on who is on the schedule. A UH playing against big12 or pac12 teams would be worth more than the same UH playing against AAC teams.
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Come on now. No Texas isn’t a friend, but to claim some how that the burnt orange boogey man and friends depressed the value of a conference contact is putting nicely a huge stretch.
Folks have already explained how the conference contact works. The contact never made it to open bids but no one else was going to pay us that much and everyone knew it. This offer from ESPN was the carrot offer. If we didn’t take it now and found out that we weren’t going to get what we wanted they were really going to break it off in us.
Exactly the point I was making. Even if we stipulate that UT is absolutely out to totally destroy UH football and athletics by doing everything it can to keep UH out of a P5, UT has no power over media companies.
Who knows, maybe the AAC did get other bids, but ESPN bid was best. On average AAC is valued at $7M per program. Programs like UH/UCF are no doubt worth a lot more, but they are partnered with programs worth a lot less. All conferences are like that. Anyone thing Purdue or Minnesota is worth $54M? Or Texas Tech worth $39M?
Based on all available information, it appears the market valued AAC at $7M per program. How is such a low valuation (relative to P5) is the fault of UT?