BYU Makes Long-Term Deals With ESPN, Notre Dame

Holy Vai Sikahema!

Interesting times.

Dodds, et al. seem to be playing this pretty well.

Are they going to keep playing Utah or will it be a messy divorce?

Never underestimate a Mormon’s business acumen. They hit home runs on all these moves, imo.

They will be televising 3 games a year? At $1.6 mil per game? Doesn’t just that $4.8 mil already almost double what they were getting as part of the MWC? If they can pull just ~$3 mil from the BYU TV, bowl game, other games on TV that should put them in lower Big 12 money. I’m not saying that is great, but it is a hell of a lot better than what they had been getting (if I have the numbers right in my head).

I think a lot of schools are headed in this direction. Independent or a large super regional conference for football(maybe Basketball) and small regional conference for everything else.

Why wouldn’t the Texas teams in Conference USA try something like this?

It will be interesting to see what happens with BYU broadcasting their own games on BYU-TV as a bit of a litmus test for TAMU-TV and UT-TV. BYU-TV is pretty much a PBS station on steroids now. With more football, is BYU going to try and hustle more $ from the cable providers? Do all of us want to subsidize BYU football?

How does this compare to Notre Dames TV contract? and what about BYU’s affiliation with the BCS?

So many potential undercurrents since the realignment noise ‘died’. I suspect more of this has advanced in the last 6 weeks than in the previous 6 months.

Notre Dame’s current deal is for $9M per year so about $750,000 per game. They extended that deal in 2008 to go through the 2015 season. I don’t think they released the new extension figures but it was assumed at that time that the numbers were about the same.

That’s about the share of a mid-point of Big 12 teams (pre-split).

But the big difference comes if/when they make a BCS bowl game. They don’t have to share a bit of the $15M pie.

Maybe it’s coincidence (or just the Oliver Stone voice in my head), but I found this news interesting in light of Texas’ recent announcements of football deals with both Notre Dame and BYU.

When you blend that with the USC matchup, it’s clear that UT has a set of desired results in mind, and they have built in some contingency plans to deal with the outcomes.

Bragg:

Notre Dame altered its deal with the BCS — deciding to take a guarantee payment every year in return for cutting down its payout when it makes a BCS game.

Right now Notre Dame is treated like any member of the Big 12. They get a “cut” every year of $1.3 million, as if they were in the league that sent a team to the BCS. In the years that they do qualify for a BCS game, the Fighting Irish get an additional $4.5 million.

Ag_In-Tx:

BYUtv is already in 55 million homes. I doubt that they will up their monthly fee dramatically — at first. They will try to leverage more live sports programming to get wider distribution. BTW the Cougars already have their own HD truck.

Sounds like a deal for them. They’ll have the opportunity to schedule a BCS-contender schedule and will make more money in the process through TV revenue.

BYU’s star is rising.

BYU will never ride the strangest of college football seasons to the national championship again.

Even WAC and MWC teams had a shot at a MNC game. BYU doesn’t even have that anymore. Unless I missed something.

I guess that magic underwear does work.

Hook ’em.

It would be cool to see us eventually go INDY in football only. Partner up with warm weather conference for baseball and have basketball join the same conference as basesball to keep some consistancy.

Even WAC and MWC teams had a shot at a MNC game. BYU doesn’t even have that anymore. Unless I missed something.

Sure they do — as long as the polls are involved. They just don’t have a guaranteed spot in a BCS game if they meet certain criteria, such as Notre Dame.

BYU has just as much chance of making a BCS bowl now as they did as a member of the MWC. All they have to do is end in the top 12 BCS rankings or the top 16 above another BCS conference champion. But they now don’t have to split their pot with anyone else. Good deal for the polygamists.

Right on schedule, Southern Cal starts to rumble:

http://usc.ocregister.com/2010/09/01/would-usc-ever-declare-its-independence-you-have-to-consider-every-alternative-haden-says/46549/

Technically they may have a shot, practically I don’t think so. Given the way the BCS has treated teams from non-BCS conferences, I don’t see an independent team ever making the BCS championship game.

An independent not named Notre Dame

Roach: Your statement was that they hurt their chances by going independent and made them less than zero.

BYU’s shot at getting to a BCS championship game is better than if they stayed in the MVC.

If they go through a schedule that includes a Texas or Notre Dame or Oregon State, or Boise State and any other number of BCS schools they will have a better chance than staying in a non-BCS league.

It may not be all that great, but can be better than it was, and the economics are better for the Cougars.

Srr… I know this is late and I apologize, however, I have a couple of questions about this.

ESPN contract: Is there a reference for the contract that specifies $1.2mil per game? Some BYU buddies of mine said that it is more likely $1.2-1.4mil per season for 4 games, which is still equal to what they made in the MWC without including the other games.

BYUtv: It is unlikely that BYU will broadcast live on the BYUtv backbone. BYUtv is a registered non-profit entity. The only reason it is on 500 channels is because it is given free to any media distribution service and there isnt any reason for a cable outlet to not take free content. BYUtv has an evangelistic and sanctifying mission which is a higher calling than sports and the church will not risk this outreach for the few dollars it would bring in relatively speaking. More than likely, the new media building will be a separate corporation with a not-for-profit wing that will maintain or expand on its 55mil audience. However, another channel will probably be created (such as BYUSportsTv) in another area of the building (or the rest of the building) that will have to create its own cable distribution contracts and outlets. Selling BYU packages is going to be a lot harder than people think unless it is almost free such as 1-5 cents added to a sports package. TV/Cable outlets in the mountain/westcoast might add the cost but I am not sure the rest of the country would.

BYU will have a hard time getting into a BCS game. Only N/D is treated with rules just for them. they have to be ranked in the top, I think 8 now. BYU will more likely be treated like Army and Navy and will have to finish in the top two which will never happen. BYU is not N/D.

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