Years ago ESPN was struggling with ratings, and MLB tossed around the idea of purchasing the network and using it as the main hub for cable TV. Not doing it was a huge mistake, they could have renamed it the MLB network and use it as a hub to broadcast all the games. Over time all the teams broadcasts would fall under their umbrella. Heck they are broadcasting about 8 or 10 teams now since Bally Sports went belly up.
Realignment Megathread (All The Moves)
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It didn't come from Iowa Healthcare, that's a completely separate enterprise. In fact, Iowa Healthcare isn't even mentioned in the article below.
It came from general university funds. JP should have lined up for the exact same thing. He'd have gotten the same terms. 15 year repayment that they'll end up 'forgiving'.
University of Iowa ‘very interested’ in athletics paying back $50M loan ‘as quickly as possible’
IOWA CITY — Hawkeye Athletics hasn’t made much of a dent in paying back the $50 million it borrowed from the main University of Iowa campus during the height of
Here is the Dodds' excerpt from the linked Athletic article:CFB is the only sport where networks dictate conference/division alignment and destroy/relegate athletic programs in the process. DeLoss Dodds even admits that is the case:
College conference realignment roundtable: Former ADs dish on rumors, memories and future
DeLoss Dodds, Tom Osborne and more former ADs give their thoughts on the past, present and future of conference realignment.www.nytimes.com
Every other major sport conducts their business with the networks in an opposite manner to their overall financial benefit and don’t leave millions/billions of dollars on the table in doing so.
What do you think about the current state of conference alignment in college sports?
Dodds: "It is what it is because we didn’t try to do the right thing a long time ago. When the NCAA lost the television rights and the (College Football Association) took it – which was probably a pretty good system – but then the SEC dropped out of that and it became a conference thing. And then the conference commissioners got into competition about who could generate the biggest TV package and that’s the direction we’ve gone. It’s left a lot of people in the rearview mirror and it’s put TV executives in charge of college athletics.
That’s pretty much where we are.
When (the Supreme Court) gave each institution the rights to their own TV rights, that’s what changed the world. But on the other side of that, instead of the college people dictating what would happen in TV, the TV people started dictating what was going to happen to the colleges."
And he is absolutely correct and that is why Cruz-Cantwell needs to get passed to help reverse the existing dynamic for the extreme benefit of ISU
You are so tunnel visioned on ESPN & FOX. They are just two players that have been willing to pay the most over the last 20 years for live sports. ESPN for the obvious reason, "Worldwide Leader in Sports". If ESPN doesn't step up they're televising pickleball or dog shows!!
Why doesn't CBS still televise SEC 2:30 games? Because they got outbid by ESPN. Happens in an open market bid process.
Big10 100% ties to FOX? I think CBS & NBC would take exception to that- $350M ways.
The Big 10 Commissioner (Delaney), it's lawyers, it's media consultants, it's AD's and it's Presidents agreed to the FOX/BTN JV. Not sure you understand business negotiations if you think FOX just steamrolled the deal.
Lastly, I would be VERY surprised if we don't see new players in the upcoming Media Rights negotiations for Big 10, Big 12 then SEC TV rights. ESPN, FOX, NBC & CBS will have to fight off players like: Amazon, Apple, Netflix. Plus with all the acquisitions that Paramount/Skydance has done over last few years, I doubt they will be satisfied with 1 game.
So I am 90% certain the Big 10 will get 2-3x it's existing deal. It's not like that means in 2030 Big10 schools will each make $100M and in 2031 each school will make $250M (2.5x). It means average payments over the contact term. So doubling or tripling means comparing value midpoint vs. midpoint (aka 2027 vs. 2033 amounts).
Playing only once a week is a huge advantage, because it makes each game an event, and we cannot discount the effects of gambling on football, again it's a perfect sport to gamble on. Look at fantasy leagues, much easier to plan for one game a week and keep up on the stats, then trying to do it with sports that play multiple games a week.
Equal media revenues sets the floor, the draft in reverse order gives the team at the bottom an opportunity and then unequal scheduling helps teams at the bottom a better chance to make the playoffs the next season, even its only 3 or 4 games against the weaker teams.
Read their financial statements. Nearly all of the net operating income the university claims comes from the U of I hospitals and clinics. A lot of the u of I hospitals and clinics $400 million operating income is spread thoughout the university (for example, tuition). The rest goes back to the hospital. Nearly all of any surplus the university has in its general fund comes from the hospitals, according to the information available to the public. So yes, the athletic department took from the kids they claim to support. And yes, that is very despicable.It didn't come from Iowa Healthcare, that's a completely separate enterprise. In fact, Iowa Healthcare isn't even mentioned in the article below.
It came from general university funds. JP should have lined up for the exact same thing. He'd have gotten the same terms. 15 year repayment that they'll end up 'forgiving'.
University of Iowa ‘very interested’ in athletics paying back $50M loan ‘as quickly as possible’
IOWA CITY — Hawkeye Athletics hasn’t made much of a dent in paying back the $50 million it borrowed from the main University of Iowa campus during the height ofwww.thegazette.com
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If the Big 10 and SEC leave I'd assume the Big 12 and ACC are in a division with the G5.
Tripling I would be supposed by but could work out in combination with the playoff new deals
The B10 and ACC would reform along with the MWC, MAC and maybe the Pac whatever conference to form a division between the two breakaways and the smaller G5 schools.
He’s right though, given Fox sat in on the BIGs deal. They arranged the USC move.
The BIG and Fox’s interests align, but Fox is the one that controls the revenue mechanism. It’s their balance sheet that determines things. They are the bank. The BIG hasn’t been forced to do anything they don’t want to, but the BIG also hasn’t done anything at the detriment of Fox
Regardless, there isn’t room for 3rd peer conference at anything close to P2 rate, even if new entrant. There are only so many premium windows to monetize at high rate. Going past two concurrent elite (premium rate) games in those windows represents cannibalism of viewership.
Streaming subscriptions can help offset, but the subscription revenue doesn’t support the premium rate yet, and may never be without bundling all of CFB. It is capable of allowing the P2 of expansion though
I see why people like to say transfers and NIL have been the reason for ISU recent success in FB, Until you look at the facts. ISU has spent pocket change compared to most that have had "success" with it. And ISU before this last year, ISU has had very few transfers in or out. Which this year, we have yet to see how it works out, and many can say the transfers out were more significant than those coming in.
ISUs recent success has had little to nothing to do with the so called NIL/Transfer rules or lack there of, just people that see the recent success vs past years only look at that on the surface because they know little about the program as a whole.
The fact of the matter ISU recent success started years before it became the wild west of NIL and Transfers.
Conference network ownership skewed excessive control of the sport to Fox and ESPN.
The CBS deal with the SEC was grossly undervalued, great for CBS, bad for the SEC. It was widely known in media circles that ESPN would pick up the 2:30 games from CBS along with the SECN deal. The SEC is firmly tethered to ESPN through 2034 and ESPN will do everything possible to add brands to the SEC, devalue the ACC and the B12 in the process and maintain full control of the SEC. Obvious as hell as to why ESPN is vigorously against Cruz-Cantwell and why they got the SEC by the balls for 7 more years.
And as long as Fox owns the majority stake in BTN, they essentially own 100% of B10 rights in perpetuity. It is also obviously in Fox's best interest to also devalue the ACC and the B12 with additional brand consolidation and maintain their existing cost control leverage over the B10. Fox/B10 already destroyed one conference and two athletic programs with their overly excessive control of the sport. And Fox also fleeced both CBS and NBC with those sublicense deals and those deals will not be duplicated at the end of the decade, especially in the case of CBS and their new ownership.
Both Fox and ESPN will continue to do everything in their power to prevent new and more deep pocketed entrants in the CFB space and both are positioned relative to their current B10 and SEC ownerships to do just that even if Cruz-Cantwell passes. And if Cruz-Cantwell doesn't eventually get passed by YE 2027, Fox and ESPN will conduct additional brand consolidation and they will destroy ISU and everyone else left remaining in the B12 and ACC.
I've asked this before and I'll ask again.
Why do you constantly want to compare Iowa State to Wazzu and Oregon State? Those schools have no value, none, zero. They were power conference schools in name only because of the travel difficulties of the 1910s and 20s. Cross country travel was not possible and they were never consistently competitive. In fact, moving 'down' has increased attendance and engagement because their smaller fan bases realize that they have a real shot at being competitive now.
Iowa State consistently sells 90+% of seats in a stadium double the size of those two, even as the opponents have changed over the years, sells out pretty much every home MBB game and is selected for major network windows on a regular basis. None of these things were ever true about Wazzu and Oregon State.
If Apple or one of the other streaming channels decided they wanted to get into college football, and would look at the ACC and B12, there could be a 3rd peer conference. Apple, YouTube and a few others have plenty of money to bring the other two conferences up to par with the B10 and SEC. Now doing it is totally different, but there would be a market there to make money as the regional provider for teams out of the two left over conferences.
The comparison is made due to the likelihood that ISU's media payouts will be cut in half (or more) if Cruz-Cantwell doesn't get passed and Fox/ESPN are free to conduct additional brand consolidation. So yeah in that scenario, the ISU AD is essentially devastated like Wazzu and Oregon St were.
Here is the issue with this.
Saying something is undervalued or overvalued is great and all but in reality the only way that works out is if someone is willing to pay more.
You can say something is worth $X but if no one is willing to pay that much is it really worth it?
At the time of the CBS deal with the SEC, no one was willing to pay more, and sure by the end of the deal of course they were worth more. That is the way it is supposed to work unless you have a depreciating product, and we all know that is not the case. Hell inflation alone means the dollar amount value will increase at the end of a contract vs the beginning.
But in the grand scheme of things you can say this was a steal of a deal or that was way undervalued etc, but in the end if no one is willing to pay more then the value is what someone is willing to pay.
People try to do this all the time on EBAY and FB Marketplace. "Someone listed something for $X so it must be worth that" No ...... listing something is different from Selling something, so in the end, the value is what someone is willing to pay, not what the seller believes or wants the value to be.
Sure ESPN and Fox control the majority right now.... its not because they got some sweetheart deal, it is because no one was willing to pay more. All these conferences shop themselves out unofficially before taking the step to open up negotiations, and unless they see someone else is willing and able to come to the table with a better deal, they keep the negotiations closed with their media partner. We saw this play out first hand with the B12 and P12.
I just dont believe there are "more deep pockets" out there willing to significantly outbid ESPN and Fox to take on a full slate of content. Those types are happy subleasing a selection of games as they see fit. Maybe that will change, maybe not, but up to this point nothing shows me that there are big pockets lined up to pay 3x what ESPN and Fox are.
,,,,the payouts from a streamer will be of enough value to the B12/ACC only if that streamer has access to partial CFP rights. See NFL.
Iowa State is never going to have to find a home in The Valley for two years like Wazzu/OSU did in the WCC. Iowa State will still be on the exact same level that they are now getting media payouts equal to their peers at a definite increase from where it is now.
Frankly, the Big 10/SEC have already taken everything they're interested in in the Big 12. The league is stable and can now focus on being in the spot to take the remaining mid tier brands in the ACC like Va Tech, Louisville, NC State, Stanford, Cal, SMU, Georgia Tech and Pitt. Those 8 plus the Big 12s 16 create a damn strong 24 team alliance.
Are Wake Forest, Boston College and Syracuse in trouble? Yep but much like Oregon State and Wazzu, the only reason they were ever there in the first place was because of the realities of travel 100+ years ago.
