Talked with a Big East Insider

[OrangePA]

tonight.

When I say insider I mean a former Alumni Association President for a Big East member who has a relevant professional background. He is a pretty good source of information for the issues we have been discussing.

He seems somewhat optimistic that the BE will garner a TV contract that could provide BE teams $12 to $14 million per year.

NBC/Comcast wants the contract badly - the network wants to present BE football from 12 noon to 12 midnight.

ESPN has right of first refusal - so there apparently will be some form of bidding for the deal.

He also made the following observations: (1) the BE is looking for a football guy to be Commissioner - the hiring will be very important to the success of the conference; (2) the NE eyeball count - and the Tampa/Orlando eyeball count for that matter - is much more important than most on this board believe; (3) the Rutgers Athletic Director is the former CBS president of college sports broadcasting who knows what he is doing and is very involved in the process and and (4) stability is of course very important - the BE faces the prospect of additional poaching by the other power conferences.

Bottome line - He is concerned about stability but thinks the BE could get a very good TV contract.

Interesting.

 

[SUalldway]

tonight.

When I say insider I mean a former Alumni Association President for a Big East member who has a relevant professional background. He is a pretty good source of information for the issues we have been discussing.

He seems somewhat optimistic that the BE will garner a TV contract that could provide BE teams $12 to $14 million per year.

NBC/Comcast wants the contract badly - the network wants to present BE football from 12 noon to 12 midnight.

ESPN has right of first refusal - so there apparently will be some form of bidding for the deal.

He also made the following observations: (1) the BE is looking for a football guy to be Commissioner - the hiring will be very important to the success of the conference; (2) the NE eyeball count - and the Tampa/Orlando eyeball count for that matter - is much more important than most on this board believe; (3) the Rutgers Athletic Director is the former CBS president of college sports broadcasting who knows what he is doing and is very involved in the process and and (4) stability is of course very important - the BE faces the prospect of additional poaching by the other power conferences.

Bottome line - He is concerned about stability but thinks the BE could get a very good TV contract.

Interesting.

Did he have anything to say about when Pitt & SU make their exit?

 

[orange79]

the Rutgers Athletic Director is the former CBS president of college sports broadcasting who knows what he is doing and is very involved in the process

Great. How'd that work out for the conference last time? I do believe he is very involved in the process , but I seriously question that statement that he knows what he is doing. He helped lead the charge to turn down the ESPN offer. The result? It helped drive 3 flagship members of the conference out. His track record shows his decision-making needs some work. It SO wouldn't surprise me if that clusterf**k chose him as it's new commissioner. If so, they deserve him, and all that comes with it.

 

[OrangePA]

Did he have anything to say about when Pitt & SU make their exit?

No.

 

[zibby]

Ridiculous. NBC can't be that stupid or desperate. According to this, NBCSN gets only 30 cents per subscriber. They can't pay anywhere near what ESPN can pay without incurring a huge loss.

 

[OrangePA]

Great. How'd that work out for the conference last time? I do believe he is very involved in the process , but I seriously question that statement that he knows what he is doing. He helped lead the charge to turn down the ESPN offer. The result? It helped drive 3 flagship members of the conference out. His track record shows his decision-making needs some work. It SO wouldn't surprise me if that clusterf**k chose him as it's new commissioner. If so, they deserve him, and all that comes with it.

I'm not sure who your are targeting.

If you are talking about the Rutgers guy, I really can't answer for him - I know nothing about the guy.

I have no idea what he did or did not do in that negotiation.

All I can tell you is that the guy I spoke to says that the RU AD was at one time, the president of college sports for CBS and knows what he is doing.

The guy I spoke to gave me no indication that the BE was planning to hire the RU AD as Commissioner - really just the opposite - he seemed to suggest that the process is underway and not necessarily close to completion.

 

[Stevenson]

OrangePa, you know I love you, but why does anyone here give a about the Big Least TV contract?

 

[orange79]

I'm not sure who your are targeting.

If you are talking about the Rutgers guy, I really can't answer for him - I know nothing about the guy.

I have no idea what he did or did not do in that negotiation.

All I can tell you is that the guy I spoke to says that the RU AD was at one time, the president of college sports for CBS and knows what he is doing.

The guy I spoke to gave me no indication that the BE was planning to hire the RU AD as Commissioner - really just the opposite - he seemed to suggest that the process is underway and not necessarily close to completion.

I was talking about Pernetti - I thought it was clear since I quoted the portion of your post referring to the Rutgers AD. Apologies if I wasn't clear. My point was that I question the 'he knows what he's doing' statement, for the reason I gave above. The point about the commissioner was based on an article posted on this board after Marrionette-i resigned saying he was a candidate for the job.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

Tim Pernetti was the Executive VP for the CBS College Sports Network (formerly CSTV).

He was never a President at CBS in charge of college sports.

 

[OrangePA]

Ridiculous. NBC can't be that stupid or desperate. According to this, NBCSN gets only 30 cents per subscriber. They can't pay anywhere near what ESPN can pay without incurring a huge loss.

Good article.

So Neil Pilsner a solid TV sports guy and others are optimistic that the BE will land a solid TV deal and others are not so optimistic.

NBC wants the BE - which seems to confirm what my friend told me tonight.

Recall that Comcast owns NBC and Comcast I believe is a pretty powerful force in the television business.

So, based upon the article you have posted, your use of the word "ridiculous" seems a bit misplaced.

I recall that many called Fox's NFL deal ridiculous way back when - it was thought that Fox would not have the penetration necessary to cover the cost of the deal.

What Fox knew was that NFL content would help build the network - the contract would be a loss leader for awhile.

Perhaps that is what NBC is thinking - begin the process of building a viable sports network with college football content.

Of course, everybody has an opinion. Time will tell.

 

[MaxwellCuse]

"NBC/Comcast wants the contract badly - the network wants to present BE football from 12 noon to 12 midnight."

Sounds like heaven on earth. Just think. They can run "encore presentations" from 12 midnight to 12 noon and...voila! You've got the Big East 24/7.

I can't wait.

 

[OrangePA]

I was talking about Pernetti - I thought it was clear since I quoted the portion of your post referring to the Rutgers AD. Apologies if I wasn't clear. My point was that I question the 'he knows what he's doing' statement, for the reason I gave above. The point about the commissioner was based on an article posted on this board after Marrionette-i resigned saying he was a candidate for the job.

Well, none of us knows exactly what happened last year.

I certainly wouldn't presume to blame the Rutgers AD - I just don't know.

But, I can tell you that the idea that the AD might be the next BE Commissioner was not even suggested by the guy I spoke to tonight.

 

[dasher]

Good article.

So Neil Pilsner a solid TV sports guy and others are optimistic that the BE will land a solid TV deal and others are not so optimistic.

NBC wants the BE - which seems to confirm what my friend told me tonight.

Recall that Comcast owns NBC and Comcast I believe is a pretty powerful force in the television business.

So, based upon the article you have posted, your use of the word "ridiculous" seems a bit misplaced.

I recall that many called Fox's NFL deal ridiculous way back when - it was thought that Fox would not have the penetration necessary to cover the cost of the deal.

What Fox knew was that NFL content would help build the network - the contract would be a loss leader for awhile.

Perhaps that is what NBC is thinking - begin the process of building a viable sports network with college football content.

Of course, everybody has an opinion. Time will tell.

I know you weren't but don't ever confuse the big east with nfl football. The big east will add nothing to NBC.

 

[OrangePA]

"NBC/Comcast wants the contract badly - the network wants to present BE football from 12 noon to 12 midnight."

Sounds like heaven on earth. Just think. They can run "encore presentations" from 12 midnight to 12 noon and...voila! You've got the Big East 24/7.

I can't wait.

I think maybe you missed the point.

The BE conference would cover the entire USA - the expanded market for the conference would allow for more prime time sports viewership for all the time zones. I think that's what the TV people are contemplating.

I know that we SU Football snobs might find it hard to believe - we are such a dominant force in TV viewership - but college football fans in Houston, Dallas, Tampa/Orlando, San Diego and the Rocky Mountain Boise State fans might actually have some interest in what the BE and NBC apparently envision.

I find it all interesting.

And I do get a kick out of those SU Football fans who seem to pooh, pooh this BE stuff.

I am as big an SU Football as anybody I know - I think about it and talk about every day of the year.

But I am not so naive to believe that right now at least SU Football is not in a position to look down upon others in teh business from a high perch. We have a lot of work to do when it comes to supporting the program with attendance, TV viewership and fan travel to away games.

 

[SUinNYC]

tonight.

When I say insider I mean a former Alumni Association President for a Big East member who has a relevant professional background. He is a pretty good source of information for the issues we have been discussing.

He seems somewhat optimistic that the BE will garner a TV contract that could provide BE teams $12 to $14 million per year.

NBC/Comcast wants the contract badly - the network wants to present BE football from 12 noon to 12 midnight.

ESPN has right of first refusal - so there apparently will be some form of bidding for the deal.

He also made the following observations: (1) the BE is looking for a football guy to be Commissioner - the hiring will be very important to the success of the conference; (2) the NE eyeball count - and the Tampa/Orlando eyeball count for that matter - is much more important than most on this board believe; (3) the Rutgers Athletic Director is the former CBS president of college sports broadcasting who knows what he is doing and is very involved in the process and and (4) stability is of course very important - the BE faces the prospect of additional poaching by the other power conferences.

Bottome line - He is concerned about stability but thinks the BE could get a very good TV contract.

Interesting.

This all makes sense to me. As much as I would love to see the Big East go down in flames for the schadenfreude, they're going to get a decent deal because they're going to the open market. I wish the ACC could have done the same. It won't be as good as our deal of course, but it will be a significant upgrade.

As for Pernetti, my brother in law worked for him at CSTV and he tells me that he is a very smart guy who knows what he's doing. So, take that for what it's worth.

 

[OrangePA]

I know you weren't but don't ever confuse the big east with nfl football. The big east will add nothing to NBC.

Of course.

But this is a hind sight point of view.

In 2012 nothing is NFL Football in this country.

But the fact is that many in the business figured that Fox - back then - had over paid for the deal.

The point is that Fox needed content and that's what NBC needs. I understand how you feel, but apparently those who know better than you do at NBC, feel differently - at least that is what I was told and what I have read.

 

[PeteCalvin]

He seems somewhat optimistic that the BE will garner a TV contract that could provide BE teams $12 to $14 million per year.

Isn't this pretty much the same amount of money that the BE would have had last year had they voted YES on the ESPN contract? If so, did your source think the BE was stupid for turning it down, thereby losing Syracuse, Pitt, WVU and TCU in the process? Seems to me the smart thing for the conference would have been to stabilize itself last year and retain the marquee teams. You can't measure the loss of an SU and Pitt in basketball and a WVU in football. That's practically the heart of your conference.

They may get the same money, but they are far less stabile and much less of a product now when it comes to the major sports. If SU was getting 13.5 million from a newly signed BE contract, they may not have jumped when Swofford called last September. I know it's not as simple as that, but having $13.5 million coming in and having to pay $5 million, or more, to get out just to have $17 million coming in may have had Cantor and TGD thinking a little harder about the move. As the situation stood, it was a no-brainer.

I still say the BE screwed up not signing that deal.

 

[OrangePA]

Tim Pernetti was the Executive VP for the CBS College Sports Network (formerly CSTV).

He was never a President at CBS in charge of college sports.

Sorry.

My bad.

He was Executive VP for the CBS College Sports Network.

Still sounds like a decent title.

Does that mean that he doesn't know the business?

 

[OrangePA]

Isn't this pretty much the same amount of money that the BE would have had last year had they voted YES on the ESPN contract? If so, did your source think the BE was stupid for turning it down, thereby losing Syracuse, Pitt, WVU and TCU in the process? Seems to me the smart thing for the conference would have been to stabilize it last year and retain your marquee teams.

They may get the same money, but they are far less stabile and much less of a product now when it comes to the major sports. If SU was getting 13.5 million from a newly signed BE contract, they may not have jumped when Swofford called last September. I know it's not as simple as that, but having $13.5 million coming in and having to pay $5 million, or more, to get out just to have $17 million coming in may have had Cantor and TGD thinking a little harder about the move. As the situation stood, it was a no-brainer.

I still say the BE screwed up not signing that deal.

I guess that might be true.

I really don't know what role the Rutgers AD played in the TV deal.

I have heard a bunch of different stories in that regard.

I'm not sure any of us really knows what happened in that regard.

 

[OrangePA]

OrangePa, you know I love you, but why does anyone here give a **** about the Big Least TV contract?

I don't know exactly, but it does seem to be topic that generates discussion on this board.

It may be that many on this board like the idea of the BE falling apart - they like to hear that the conference may have blown its TV deal.

It may be that many on this board are angry that last year's reported deal was turned down by the conference - that many wanted SU to stay in a vital BE.

It may be that the topic has relevance to some because of the impact it might have on the ACC.

Or some like me just find the business of TV sports interesting.

Frankly this board has been pretty dead lately - I'm glad my post has generated some discussion.

 

[Cuseman78]

I think maybe you missed the point.

The BE conference would cover the entire USA - the expanded market for the conference would allow for more prime time sports viewership for all the time zones. I think that's what the TV people are contemplating.

I know that we SU Football snobs might find it hard to believe - we are such a dominant force in TV viewership - but college football fans in Houston, Dallas, Tampa/Orlando, San Diego and the Rocky Mountain Boise State fans might actually have some interest in what the BE and NBC apparently envision.

I find it all interesting.

And I do get a kick out of those SU Football fans who seem to pooh, pooh this BE stuff.

I am as big an SU Football as anybody I know - I think about it and talk about every day of the year.

But I am not so naive to believe that right now at least SU Football is not in a position to look down upon others in teh business from a high perch. We have a lot of work to do when it comes to supporting the program with attendance, TV viewership and fan travel to away games.

Do you have any idea how small the fan bases of the SMU's and UCF's and SDSU's of the world are? None of those teams move the meter in any of their respective markets. That's one of the reasons why the BE Conference doesn't stand a chance to be a success in the long term. No flagships, no football tradition, no fan bases. Its doomed to fail.

Now their only potential saving grace in the short term is (a) the existence of NBC Sports Network and (b) their partnership with ND. I think they actually do have a shot at getting a pretty decent deal, (maybe 10mill/team for example) because NBCSN simply needs inventory and are willing to overpay to do so. Using ND as the anchor and having some JV games as lead ins is a good idea and the best they can hope for.

That said, in the long term, it won't matter. A league can not flourish as long as its teams are looking for exits. That will continue to be the case for at least Louisville, Cincy, Uconn, and Rutgers. That's just reality. Those 4 teams are going to be looking to make the jump to the big leagues. The Big East is no longer one of them (as DeLoss Dodds mentioned quite candidly today).

 

[Noexcuse]

I hope it works out for the Big East. Still, at the end of the day the product will push viewership. There are some good football programs in there, but realistically it will be a stretch for any of them to ever get a sniff at a national championship game unless all the heavens are in alignment.

 

[kingottoiii]

I think maybe you missed the point.

The BE conference would cover the entire USA - the expanded market for the conference would allow for more prime time sports viewership for all the time zones. I think that's what the TV people are contemplating.

I know that we SU Football snobs might find it hard to believe - we are such a dominant force in TV viewership - but college football fans in Houston, Dallas, Tampa/Orlando, San Diego and the Rocky Mountain Boise State fans might actually have some interest in what the BE and NBC apparently envision.

I find it all interesting.

And I do get a kick out of those SU Football fans who seem to pooh, pooh this BE stuff.

I am as big an SU Football as anybody I know - I think about it and talk about every day of the year.

But I am not so naive to believe that right now at least SU Football is not in a position to look down upon others in teh business from a high perch. We have a lot of work to do when it comes to supporting the program with attendance, TV viewership and fan travel to away games.

The thing is the BE teams are not even close to the #1 CFB teams in their market. That is why it would be ridiculous for a network to over pay for the content. You are from the Philly area correct? How many people follow Temple FB? Who do they follow? How often did you follo Temple last year? It is great that they are in the Philly market but just being in a large market doesn't mean the eyeballs are watching it.

A lot of the BE schools aren't even Top 3 in their given markets:

RU vs ND, PSU, B1G, SEC - NYC
UConn - Hartford
Temple vs PSU, ND - Philly
USF vs Fla, FSU, Miami - Tampa
UCF vs Fla, FSU, Miami - Orlando
SD St vs USC - San Diego
Cincy vs Ohio St - Cincinnati
Navy vs MD, WV, VT, UVA - Baltimore/DC
Memphis vs Tenn - Memphis
TCU vs Texas, A&M, OU - Dallas
Houston vs Texas, A&M, Baylor - Houston
Boise - Boise
Louisville - Louisville

UConn, Boise, and Louisville are the only schools that carry their markets and they are the small markets.

 

[texasorange]

Sorry OrangePA, but I have lived in Texas for 20 years now (3 in Houston), but other than Texas, Texas A&M, and to a lesser degree Texas Tech (primarily in West Texas) the other Texas universities barely matter. Even in Houston, & to a lesser extent Dallas/Ft. Worth; LSU & Arkansas have huge followings that dwarf Houston & SMU.

 

[mscanlo]

Ridiculous. NBC can't be that stupid or desperate. According to this, NBCSN gets only 30 cents per subscriber. They can't pay anywhere near what ESPN can pay without incurring a huge loss.

generally speaking, a tv channel gets half their revenue from subscriptions and half their revenue from ad sales. with NBCSN in its early stages they are probably just looking for anything to attract a few eyeballs right now and get the awareness out there that NBCSN exists (most people probably don't). once people start watching NBCSN they are probably counting on a snowball effect (people keep flipping back and more new eyeballs) and willing to dump a lot of money into it right now as an investment knowing how much ESPN currently makes from subscriptions and ad sales. subcribers will start demanding NBCSN and they will be able to negotiate more for ad sales and subscription revenue. also, one of the biggest points of leverage is NBC (comcast/universal i believe) will package all of their channels together and tell the tv providers to take it or leave it, so they will be able to get a premium for all their channels since tv provider is willing to risk making their subscribers upset for not offering NBC or whatever channel that might be.