(03-21-2013 05:12 PM)mikeinsec127 Wrote:  I understand the B12/SEC model. Football drives the bus. That is their money sport and everything else is secondary. Point taken.

The BIG/Pac12/acc model is just as good if not better. A poster asked why 33 sports for OSU and mentioned that many are regional or non revenue. Well, if you are the BIG and you have four channels broadcasting 24/7 you need that many sports to allow for constant fresh programing inventory. Those regional sports fit perfectly with the regional target of your network. Hockey may not pack them in to an arena or drive ratings in the SEC, but it does in the BIG.

The Big Ten only has one channel broadcasting 24/7 (the overflow channels are used on Football Saturdays, but they mirror the main channel most of the rest of the time), but they also are building their streaming on demand Big Ten Digital, and their live sporting events on cable in BTN prime time programming are growing.

So soccer makes a good midweek complement to Football Saturdays, ice hockey ~ which is a break-even sport in the Big Ten, compared to most subsidy sports ~ makes an excellent complement to Big Ten BBall in the winter, and Lacrosse would make a fine Spring season addition.

With the relatively limited number of SEC basketball games of interest getting picked up by the Tier 1 and Tier 2 carriers, an SEC Network in an area where it doesn't make basic cable is going to go through a wave of subscriptions in August and September, followed by a wave of drops in early January.