MWC went with CSTV of course. But I put this info here to perhaps provide some kind of parameter of what the CUSA money might shape up to be. It is hard to pin down the MWC Press, which most papers are just cheerleaders and don't report the facts. But the San Diego Union-Trib let it slip if you read carefully what the MWC/ESPN deal was for. Yoda, a longtime WAC poster who I believe has info sources out of WAC office, posted that the offer was $6.2 million...the San Diego article confirms Yoda's post.

Another factor for CUSA is exposure. The MWC gave up with its ESPN deal...that 76% of its football games were telecast by ESPN. MWC had the advantage of late Saturday time slots available in the Far Western Times zones (and the reverse of that same coin....is worst ratigns). So many late nite slots are not probably available in CUSA's eastern and central time zones.

I put this information to provide some kind of parameter of what CUSA negotiations might be dealing with.

MWC MAKES RISKY, BUT LUCRATIVE MOVE
San Diego Union
August 27, 2004

"The (CSTV) deal certainly is not without its positives, starting with the cash. Each of the nine schools will receive $1.3 million a year, ABOUT DOUBLE WHAT ESPN WAS SAID TO OFFER."

<a href='http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/20040827-9999-1s27media.html' target='_blank'>http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/20040...-1s27media.html</a>

MWC WILL PART WITH ESPN
Deseret Morning News
by Dick Harmon, August 26, 2004

"In five years, 76 percent of MWC football games were televised under the ESPN pact."

<a href='http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,595086830,00.html' target='_blank'>http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,5950...5086830,00.html</a>

Forgot this important caveat. The $6.2 ESPN/MWC proposed deal was based on MWC playing weekday night games which MWC refused to do. The bitter cold of Rocky Mountain nights absolutely kills attendance. This is not so severe for CUSA.

So the ESPN/MWC would have been probably much lower, if MWC played no weeknite games.

One other point. The MWC did not have to compete with the PAC for late Saturday slots on ESPN. My post above was not as clear as it could have been.

CASPER STAR TRIBUNE
MWC GAMBLES ON FLEDGLING NETWORK
By Jack Daly, Friday, August 27, 2004

"For two, the contract has a provision where the MWC's five northern schools--Wyoming, Utah, Brigham Young, Colorado State, and Air Force--can decline to play a football game on Thursday or Friday after November 1. In addition, those schools can't be forced to start after 4PM after Halloween.

From the standpoint of the weather and the 15,000 scheduling requirement, this keeps our (Wyoming) games basically on Saturday IN THE WARM HOURS, Dubois said. It's a big deal for us."

The MWC was in a tough spot. ESPN wasn't going to give them any money for poor ratings. I really think ESPN is going to try to screw the C-USA too. The C-USA can deliver better ratings, but I'm not sure we are going to get more money than the CSTV gave the MWC. Our basketball league will have to prove we have valuable games to show on T.V. I think we will have plenty of football games that is ESPN worthy.

If I had to guess we will get 2X's what the MWC was offered.

O'LearyIsGod Wrote:The MWC was in a tough spot. ESPN wasn't going to give them any money for poor ratings. I really think ESPN is going to try to screw the C-USA too. The C-USA can deliver better ratings, but I'm not sure we are going to get more money than the CSTV gave the MWC. Our basketball league will have to prove we have valuable games to show on T.V. I think we will have plenty of football games that is ESPN worthy.

If I had to guess we will get 2X's what the MWC was offered.

I doubt we will get double what the MWC was offered. That would be 12.4 million a year, or 1 million for each school.

My bet is that we end up with something like 10 mil a year, just under 1 million for each school. We will be making about 200k less per school than the MWC, but we'll be getting much better exposure.

OUGwave Wrote:

O'LearyIsGod Wrote:The MWC was in a tough spot.&nbsp; ESPN wasn't going to give them any money for poor ratings.&nbsp; I really think ESPN is going to try to screw the C-USA too.&nbsp; The C-USA can deliver better ratings, but I'm not sure we are going to get more money than the CSTV gave the MWC.&nbsp; &nbsp; Our basketball league will have to prove we have valuable games to show on T.V.&nbsp; I think we will have plenty of football games that is ESPN worthy.&nbsp;

If I had to guess we will get 2X's what the MWC was offered.

I doubt we will get double what the MWC was offered. That would be 12.4 million a year, or 1 million for each school.

My bet is that we end up with something like 10 mil a year, just under 1 million for each school. We will be making about 200k less per school than the MWC, but we'll be getting much better exposure.

That sounds pretty realistic

OUGwave Wrote:My bet is that we end up with something like 10 mil a year

$10 million per year is about what CUSA is getting under the current contract. I think $10 million per year, including the football championship game, is the most we could hope for in a new deal, and that would also include playing as many weeknight football games as E$PN wants, plus E$PN would want to lock CUSA in for at least 7 or 8 more years just so CUSA can't go elsewhere if the value of the league increases.

OwlSD Wrote:

OUGwave Wrote:My bet is that we end up with something like 10 mil a year

$10 million per year is about what CUSA is getting under the current contract. I think $10 million per year, including the football championship game, is the most we could hope for in a new deal, and that would also include playing as many weeknight football games as E$PN wants, plus E$PN would want to lock CUSA in for at least 7 or 8 more years just so CUSA can't go elsewhere if the value of the league increases.

I think the current contract is something like 11 million per year.

Basketball will diminish, but Banowsky has structured things in such a way that games with the departing members will continue for Memphis, UAB, etc, in order to preserve the value of the hoops contract. The hoops part of the contract will probably be cut in half, but the championship and the division structure adds value to the football league, and we may actually have more leverage with the MWC going to CSTV. They did us a huge favor in that regard, it gives any threat we might make to leave ESPN much more credibility.

The ideal contract we should look for is getting 1-2 telecasts weekly (weeknights included) on ESPN or ESPN2 for a total of about 10 mil a year and a saturday title game spot, and a deal that allows us to televise our other games regionally on Fox Sports (FSN would LOVE to have SMU-UH, UAB-UCF, etc). Whether we get all of that, I don't know, but we should definitely try hard. If not, go to FSN and strike a deal with them.

One thing that we should definitely look into is the possibility of getting at least the end of our league baseball tournament on ESPN2. With Rice, UH, Tulane, UCF, USM, and ECU, we have 6 top 25 baseball programs, and I think UAB and Memphis have real potential too. We could easily see a season in 2005 when 2/3rds of our league is in the preseason top 25. Baseball is a growing sport, and by 2005, ESPN may be interested in televising league title games. A UH-Rice baseball game would probably pull down a higher rating than a MWC football game, come to think of it.

The current contract of $11 million was partly due to the power basketball schools CUSA HAD!

Now that they left for greener pastures like TCU did for football, the newCUSA contract looks to be around what the WAC got, 6 year $6 million with mostly Mon,Tue and Wed. football. I do think newCUSA can probably get more but nowhere near $ 1 million per school per year!!

OUGwave Wrote:

O'LearyIsGod Wrote:The MWC was in a tough spot.&nbsp; ESPN wasn't going to give them any money for poor ratings.&nbsp; I really think ESPN is going to try to screw the C-USA too.&nbsp; The C-USA can deliver better ratings, but I'm not sure we are going to get more money than the CSTV gave the MWC.&nbsp; &nbsp; Our basketball league will have to prove we have valuable games to show on T.V.&nbsp; I think we will have plenty of football games that is ESPN worthy.&nbsp;

If I had to guess we will get 2X's what the MWC was offered.

I doubt we will get double what the MWC was offered. That would be 12.4 million a year, or 1 million for each school.

My bet is that we end up with something like 10 mil a year, just under 1 million for each school. We will be making about 200k less per school than the MWC, but we'll be getting much better exposure.

The CUSA-lite contract is likely to be: $12 million dollars for six years. That is including the CUSA Championship game.

What many of you fail to recognize is that you are no longer a valued commodity.

CUSA does not offer any games to ESPN that they would be willing to pay for.

In Basketball, what games do you offer? Do you really believe ESPN is going to pay for UTEP vs. Memphis? Get a clue, nobody wants to watch that garbage.

Do you think people want to watch Tulsa vs. ECU in Basketball? HELL NO

In Football what do you offer conference wise? Nothing!

Marshall vs. Houston? Get real, that is not TV quality.

Southern Miss vs. Rice? Who in their right minds would watch that? CUSA fans won't watch that.

Tulane vs. Central Florida? That is ratings winner.

Wake UP! Nobody is going to pay for this crap.

$12 million for six years if you are lucky. That is the most you will get.

CUSA-lite doesn't offer one conference game that ESPN would ever consider showing. CUSA has been destroyed, you no longer have any television worthy matchups.

Most of you are in a dreamland believing that your contract will be anywhere close to what the MWC got. CUSA can't compete, you have nothing to offer. Nobody wants to watch that nonsense. CUSA lost all its valuable TV worthy programs.

You will be lucky to get $150,000 a year for each school. In my opinion that is still shooting high.

In the ESPN renegotiation they may agree to show 3 CUSA basketball games a year. That is alot considering you don't even have one good matchup all season.

In Football they may want to show 5 games a year if you are lucky. The CUSA-lite Championship and four other non-conference games. No way they will want to cover CUSA-lite Conference games, you don't have even one compelling matchup.

You stole WAC school who never got on ESPN. Now you honestly believe ESPN is going to pay you money to show these WAC schools? Get a clue brain dead CUSA morons.

Nobody wants to watch that garbage.

$12 million if you are lucky for six years.

Most likely $8 million for six years. You aren't even worth that.

CUSA is nothing. You can't hang with the MWC.

Wise up.

Lobo, RR, you guys seem to be forgetting the major difference between C-USA and the MWC. People actually live and own television sets within our footprint. ESPN doesn't look at power ratings to determine the value of a contract, they look at what kind of ratings you can bring them. C-USA, including games between CURRENT C-USA schools, consistently delivers higher ratings than the MWC.

Sagarin ratings only matter to computer geeks. People in the corporate world care about money, and in the media industry that means access to potential advertising viewers.

8 million spread out over 6 years? Ok, buddy... Let's follow up on this in a few months. Are you willing to say now that if it is any higher than $1.25m a year that you will never post here again? Come on, bucko, put your credibility where your mouth is. You're from the school who offers a major in the arts of the gaming industry. Lets see if you can take a gamble, big boy? My guess is that you'll never agree to that, because your inferiority complex with C-USA will always keep you trolling around here like a sewer rat.

You are talking about "current" CUSA teams! RR is talking about CUSAlite, as in the WAC and MAC additions and the loss of all the valuable basketball/football programs.

Any way you want to put it, ESPN will not pay CUSAlite the kind of money everybody here wishes for. They paid the WAC chump change, tried to do that to MWC and guess what?? they'll do that to a depleted confs. that now consist of WAC and MAC schools!!