(03-03-2018 12:14 PM)Kittonhead Wrote:  

(03-03-2018 11:56 AM)bluesox Wrote:  Byu all sports but football to offset Hawaii football only is the best move for the mwc plus make them play 6 teams per year. Im not sure why Gonzaga needs to leave the wcc either, good institutional fit and they are doing fine.

Its a mad scramble among high mid major leagues to stay in the linear game.

CUSA's TV deal was diminished severely. SBC had to sell its soul to ESPN+ to stay in the game. MVC's linear distribution in basketball is now less than the MAC's. A10 has a lot of TV because they cashed in with the moment they had Butler.

The MWC is worried about its next linear deal. They've been off the national stage in FB in recent years and done nothing in the NCAA tourney. The WCC is downright petrified of being reduced to a streaming only package after 2 decades of Gonzaga conveniently serving as a widget for them on ESPN.

The only conference with any real optimism on the linear front is the AAC because of how football has been performing and with valued basketball names. For everyone else its a panic situation right now.

Im not sure how worried the MW is about linear television. In fact, I think their concerns lie elsewhere. I think they are concerned about their fan base. They have been seeing a disconcerting erosion in their attendance numbers. Their statements have made it pretty clear they have used fan feedback to identify late television start times as a major reason fans did not attend.

The MW has essentially said they are willing to go all digital on their own network in order to largely return to more traditional start times that are optimal for fan attendance. Basically, the MW has figured out that the low 1 million a team revenue year they derive for TV is essentially costing them about the same amount in "in stadium" revenue (from lost ticket/concession/parking sales) but also is slowly costing them their fan base.

Perhaps its just a ploy for more money--but I dont think so. I think we will see far fewer late slot games and I think those late slots will be spread around so no MW team gets stuck with more than one late home game. I also think they use that leverage for a raise (by selling the late night games for a big premium)---and they end up carrying more of their games on their own digital network (where start times are completely at the whim of the individual schools). They will end up with less linear TV--but greater overall revenue--and hopefully, stem the tide of declining attendance (or better yet, start growing attendance).

As for adding high end basketball only schools-I think thats about trying to be a high major league and manufacturing more NCAA bids and more NCAA credits (which is can be a another good revenue stream).