The FOX strategy has been to encompass the entire country while ESPN has concentrated itself in the Southeast/Southwest.

FOX has promoted Big 12 basketball even at the expense of the B1G to carve out a market, while ESPN has favored SEC basketball at the expense of the ACC.

A FOX team won the national championship this year for the first time in a long time while Ohio State is buying up players for a championship run next year.

One side seems to be on the rise while the other is starting to slip. Are the lack of funds at ESPN hindering their marketing might? Is FOX's decision to bring in "partners" to share the expense and increase OTA content an end run around ESPN's dominance?

Is FOX winning the war?

I’ve discussed this on another board. ESPN has regionalized itself with the ACC and SEC. If ESPN allows any teams from the ACC to flee to Fox, The floodgates open and it’s a free for all. The east coast has the population, but it won’t take much for Fox to flip the script on ESPN.

ESPN cannot afford to loose the northeast nor the middle Atlantic. The southeast is secure with SEC schools, whether the SEC takes FSU, Clemson, Miami and/GATech.

Fox was willing to pay more for hoops, which was one catalyst for my assessment that hoops has been underpaid for decades with the “Football drives the bus” mantra. There simply is less ad time available per season and the football super conference all minimizes all other sports, neglecting massive ad revenue opportunities.

ESPN makes money off both the ACC and SEC, there is no reason to let properties go. If SU and Pitt flip to Fox, ESPN will be cut out of the northeast for decades. If UVA and UNC leave for Fox, ESPN will be cut out from NC to the north. That is a sizable population to ignore in the college sports world. Lots of eyes and lots of money.

I think Fox saw this and has worked towards it for many years. I think ESPN is facing an existential threat and will either pay to keep what it has and expand or shrink to the SEC in college with, basically ceding college sports to Fox/CBS/NBC.

(01-24-2024 06:11 AM)XLance Wrote:  The FOX strategy has been to encompass the entire country while ESPN has concentrated itself in the Southeast/Southwest.

FOX has promoted Big 12 basketball even at the expense of the B1G to carve out a market, while ESPN has favored SEC basketball at the expense of the ACC.

A FOX team won the national championship this year for the first time in a long time while Ohio State is buying up players for a championship run next year.

One side seems to be on the rise while the other is starting to slip. Are the lack of funds at ESPN hindering their marketing might? Is FOX's decision to bring in "partners" to share the expense and increase OTA content an end run around ESPN's dominance?

Is FOX winning the war?

It seems that ESPN was at one time, satisfied with the premier fb conference and the premier bb conference. With those 2 leagues, college football and basketball fans from all over the country would tune in. Meanwhile, it seems that Fox has been positioning itself pretty good. Never really thought about this before until this post.

(01-24-2024 06:11 AM)XLance Wrote:  The FOX strategy has been to encompass the entire country while ESPN has concentrated itself in the Southeast/Southwest.

FOX has promoted Big 12 basketball even at the expense of the B1G to carve out a market, while ESPN has favored SEC basketball at the expense of the ACC.

A FOX team won the national championship this year for the first time in a long time while Ohio State is buying up players for a championship run next year.

One side seems to be on the rise while the other is starting to slip. Are the lack of funds at ESPN hindering their marketing might? Is FOX's decision to bring in "partners" to share the expense and increase OTA content an end run around ESPN's dominance?

Is FOX winning the war?

Nope they are not winning the war. Did you notice that Texas & Oklahoma just joined the SEC?

ESPN 's problem is that current media consumption trends are starting to hit its paid linear programming financial model more than Fox's advertisement based financial model.

The modern trend of media consumers chord cutting ties to paid linear programming is reducing the number of customers paying for sports towards the smaller sports interested fraction of the customer base. ESPN is getting hit twice, by seeing it's linear programming base decrease, plus the loss in advertising from reduced casual sports content consumers. Throw in some questionable company management directives by Disney, that drove away customers, and ESPN appears to be struggling.

Fox's advertisement based financial model is more stable during this current era of media consumption transition from bundled linear programming to on demand al le carte. Sports content is still best suited to linear programming, but on demand has cut the number of customers that can be forced to pay for that content.

ESPN needs to figure out how to rebalance its financial model to make up for the reduced customer base. But also not alienate their content providers by being stuck in a media distribution model that does them disservice.

ESPN has exclusivity. FOX does not.

(01-24-2024 06:11 AM)XLance Wrote:  The FOX strategy has been to encompass the entire country while ESPN has concentrated itself in the Southeast/Southwest.

FOX has promoted Big 12 basketball even at the expense of the B1G to carve out a market, while ESPN has favored SEC basketball at the expense of the ACC.

A FOX team won the national championship this year for the first time in a long time while Ohio State is buying up players for a championship run next year.

One side seems to be on the rise while the other is starting to slip. Are the lack of funds at ESPN hindering their marketing might? Is FOX's decision to bring in "partners" to share the expense and increase OTA content an end run around ESPN's dominance?

Is FOX winning the war?

Are you @Genetics 56 on Twitter??

Texas A&M to the B1G?

https://www.sportskeeda.com/college-foot...gies-coast

I know from my sources that TAMU are not happy with UT joining the SEC. Could it happen? Yes. Will it happen, I think this is a longshot at this time.

(01-24-2024 10:29 AM)HtownOrange Wrote:  Texas A&M to the B1G?

https://www.sportskeeda.com/college-foot...gies-coast

I know from my sources that TAMU are not happy with UT joining the SEC. Could it happen? Yes. Will it happen, I think this is a longshot at this time.

Insider is Greg Swaim. LMFAO.

(01-24-2024 10:40 AM)CrazyPaco Wrote:  

(01-24-2024 10:29 AM)HtownOrange Wrote:  Texas A&M to the B1G?

https://www.sportskeeda.com/college-foot...gies-coast

I know from my sources that TAMU are not happy with UT joining the SEC. Could it happen? Yes. Will it happen, I think this is a longshot at this time.

Insider is Greg Swaim. LMFAO.

Yawnn. Exactly.

(01-24-2024 08:21 AM)GTFletch Wrote:  

(01-24-2024 06:11 AM)XLance Wrote:  The FOX strategy has been to encompass the entire country while ESPN has concentrated itself in the Southeast/Southwest.

FOX has promoted Big 12 basketball even at the expense of the B1G to carve out a market, while ESPN has favored SEC basketball at the expense of the ACC.

A FOX team won the national championship this year for the first time in a long time while Ohio State is buying up players for a championship run next year.

One side seems to be on the rise while the other is starting to slip. Are the lack of funds at ESPN hindering their marketing might? Is FOX's decision to bring in "partners" to share the expense and increase OTA content an end run around ESPN's dominance?

Is FOX winning the war?

Nope they are not winning the war. Did you notice that Texas & Oklahoma just joined the SEC?

I did notice that the SEC has expanded west with Texas and Oklahoma. I also realize that the SEC operates in only two time zones (Eastern and Central), while the B1G now operates in three and has cherry picked the best of the west coast.

ESPN has become the most provincial of the P4, and even if they could expand with the best of the ACC, the conference would still be hemmed in to the same area of the country.

The B1G's strategy of featuring their best game at noon is taking a toll on ESPN's marketing. Game Day is really getting long in the tooth and the original talking heads move on the lead in show continues to slip.

FOX's decision to grab 60% of the Big 12's basketball is paying off also. The Big 12 has multiple teams ranked in the top 25 and raucous crowds. The SEC also has several highly ranked teams, but the SEC basketball venues don't give off the same vibe as their football stadiums, but ESPN continues to promote SEC basketball over the ACC.

(01-25-2024 05:53 AM)XLance Wrote:  ...ESPN continues to promote SEC basketball over the ACC.

I've noticed this too, but I also wonder whose idea this was - ESPN's, or the ACC's?
Why would I ask that? Before Phillips was hired as Commish, it was clear that the ACC was promoted as ESPN's college basketball league - something that many ACC fans bristled at! I mean, the ACCN was launched at the beginning of football season, yet the first documentary on the ACCN was about Duke basketball!

When he first got on the job, Phillips made some statements about the need to feature ACC football. We are seeing that in many ways:
- ACC Spring games are all televised now
- the ACC schedule announcement was simulcast on ESPN2
- the Orange Bowl has been simulcast on ACCN in recent years
- the ACCN does a remote broadcast every week during football season (but not during basketball season!)
I could go on, but those are some biggies.

Now, do I want ACC basketball to dominate? OF COURSE! But if ESPN pushes ACC football a little more and basketball a little less, that's ok with me.

Every single SEC would be considered "football-first" besides Kentucky, the women's bowling school in Nashville, and perhaps Mizzou, but that's highly debatable anymore.

Some of these schools in the Big Ten might be "football-first", but they very well could become an albatross on future football-driven contracts:

Rutgers
Maryland
Indiana
Purdue
Illinois
Northwestern

While they might have many alumni and large fanbases, they will never win the Big Ten and have a very low probability of even making the expanded playoff. It's like a half dozen 1995 Toronto Raptors that they're stuck with.

(01-25-2024 05:53 AM)XLance Wrote:  

(01-24-2024 08:21 AM)GTFletch Wrote:  

(01-24-2024 06:11 AM)XLance Wrote:  The FOX strategy has been to encompass the entire country while ESPN has concentrated itself in the Southeast/Southwest.

FOX has promoted Big 12 basketball even at the expense of the B1G to carve out a market, while ESPN has favored SEC basketball at the expense of the ACC.

A FOX team won the national championship this year for the first time in a long time while Ohio State is buying up players for a championship run next year.

One side seems to be on the rise while the other is starting to slip. Are the lack of funds at ESPN hindering their marketing might? Is FOX's decision to bring in "partners" to share the expense and increase OTA content an end run around ESPN's dominance?

Is FOX winning the war?

Nope they are not winning the war. Did you notice that Texas & Oklahoma just joined the SEC?

I did notice that the SEC has expanded west with Texas and Oklahoma. I also realize that the SEC operates in only two time zones (Eastern and Central), while the B1G now operates in three and has cherry picked the best of the west coast.

ESPN has become the most provincial of the P4, and even if they could expand with the best of the ACC, the conference would still be hemmed in to the same area of the country.

The B1G's strategy of featuring their best game at noon is taking a toll on ESPN's marketing. Game Day is really getting long in the tooth and the original talking heads move on the lead in show continues to slip.

FOX's decision to grab 60% of the Big 12's basketball is paying off also. The Big 12 has multiple teams ranked in the top 25 and raucous crowds. The SEC also has several highly ranked teams, but the SEC basketball venues don't give off the same vibe as their football stadiums, but ESPN continues to promote SEC basketball over the ACC.

FOX practically begged Texas to join the B1G. You see what happened right??

The BigTen is not getting FSU unless it's FSU+3, similarly to USC+3.

The ACC can really just nip this in the bud and actually make FSU want to stay without all of this hardball posturing. There are several paths to take including doing something similar to the MWC arrangement with BSU between 2013-19, I'd prefer FSU get a ND type of arrangement, but if the ACC expanded a little more and could get ESPN to pay for a 20 team football conference (as I mentioned in another thread), the new members would start off at reduced shares, bumping up everyone else and also give the playoff teams a double share and a bonus for each round they advance, I think that would appeal to FSU and simultaneously give everyone else a (outside) chance.

The long term economic effects of FSU leaving will be much more than $570m. Those 10,000+ t-shirt fans and alumni living in Atlanta is not going to be traveling to Charlotte, Winston-Salem, Raleigh, Clemson, but rather to Athens, Columbia, Knoxville, Nashville, Tuscaloosa. That next contract is not paying out more per member, it will shrink considerably. Despite all the screwy officiating over the years and this lawsuit, the ACC is where FSU would prefer to be if it was "tenable". In the end, it's the ACC fans that get screwed by the decisions those in power make.

(01-24-2024 10:29 AM)HtownOrange Wrote:  Texas A&M to the B1G?

https://www.sportskeeda.com/college-foot...gies-coast

I know from my sources that TAMU are not happy with UT joining the SEC. Could it happen? Yes. Will it happen, I think this is a longshot at this time.

Fan hooey! Administration at A&M just got rid of part of the source for this fiction.

(01-25-2024 09:23 AM)Hokie Mark Wrote:  

(01-25-2024 05:53 AM)XLance Wrote:  ...ESPN continues to promote SEC basketball over the ACC.

I've noticed this too, but I also wonder whose idea this was - ESPN's, or the ACC's?
Why would I ask that? Before Phillips was hired as Commish, it was clear that the ACC was promoted as ESPN's college basketball league - something that many ACC fans bristled at! I mean, the ACCN was launched at the beginning of football season, yet the first documentary on the ACCN was about Duke basketball!

When he first got on the job, Phillips made some statements about the need to feature ACC football. We are seeing that in many ways:
- ACC Spring games are all televised now
- the ACC schedule announcement was simulcast on ESPN2
- the Orange Bowl has been simulcast on ACCN in recent years
- the ACCN does a remote broadcast every week during football season (but not during basketball season!)
I could go on, but those are some biggies.

Now, do I want ACC basketball to dominate? OF COURSE! But if ESPN pushes ACC football a little more and basketball a little less, that's ok with me.

It's solid business to hype the one against the other. It makes the quality of any ACC hoops victory shoot up if the counterparts in the SEC are ranked. And SEC basketball is steadily improving. ESPN is in the get 'em ranked, get 'em watched business and are masters at that game. That's all that is going on with this.

(01-25-2024 02:50 PM)Garrettabc Wrote:  The BigTen is not getting FSU unless it's FSU+3, similarly to USC+3.

The ACC can really just nip this in the bud and actually make FSU want to stay without all of this hardball posturing. There are several paths to take including doing something similar to the MWC arrangement with BSU between 2013-19, I'd prefer FSU get a ND type of arrangement, but if the ACC expanded a little more and could get ESPN to pay for a 20 team football conference (as I mentioned in another thread), the new members would start off at reduced shares, bumping up everyone else and also give the playoff teams a double share and a bonus for each round they advance, I think that would appeal to FSU and simultaneously give everyone else a (outside) chance.

The long term economic effects of FSU leaving will be much more than $570m. Those 10,000+ t-shirt fans and alumni living in Atlanta is not going to be traveling to Charlotte, Winston-Salem, Raleigh, Clemson, but rather to Athens, Columbia, Knoxville, Nashville, Tuscaloosa. That next contract is not paying out more per member, it will shrink considerably. Despite all the screwy officiating over the years and this lawsuit, the ACC is where FSU would prefer to be if it was "tenable". In the end, it's the ACC fans that get screwed by the decisions those in power make.

Sorry to break this news, but Sonny and Cher are not getting back together.

(01-25-2024 03:22 PM)Gitanole Wrote:  

(01-25-2024 02:50 PM)Garrettabc Wrote:  The BigTen is not getting FSU unless it's FSU+3, similarly to USC+3.

The ACC can really just nip this in the bud and actually make FSU want to stay without all of this hardball posturing. There are several paths to take including doing something similar to the MWC arrangement with BSU between 2013-19, I'd prefer FSU get a ND type of arrangement, but if the ACC expanded a little more and could get ESPN to pay for a 20 team football conference (as I mentioned in another thread), the new members would start off at reduced shares, bumping up everyone else and also give the playoff teams a double share and a bonus for each round they advance, I think that would appeal to FSU and simultaneously give everyone else a (outside) chance.

The long term economic effects of FSU leaving will be much more than $570m. Those 10,000+ t-shirt fans and alumni living in Atlanta is not going to be traveling to Charlotte, Winston-Salem, Raleigh, Clemson, but rather to Athens, Columbia, Knoxville, Nashville, Tuscaloosa. That next contract is not paying out more per member, it will shrink considerably. Despite all the screwy officiating over the years and this lawsuit, the ACC is where FSU would prefer to be if it was "tenable". In the end, it's the ACC fans that get screwed by the decisions those in power make.

Sorry to break this news, but Sonny and Cher are not getting back together.

It aint over till it's over.

(01-25-2024 03:27 PM)Garrettabc Wrote:  

(01-25-2024 03:22 PM)Gitanole Wrote:  

(01-25-2024 02:50 PM)Garrettabc Wrote:  The BigTen is not getting FSU unless it's FSU+3, similarly to USC+3.

The ACC can really just nip this in the bud and actually make FSU want to stay without all of this hardball posturing. There are several paths to take including doing something similar to the MWC arrangement with BSU between 2013-19, I'd prefer FSU get a ND type of arrangement, but if the ACC expanded a little more and could get ESPN to pay for a 20 team football conference (as I mentioned in another thread), the new members would start off at reduced shares, bumping up everyone else and also give the playoff teams a double share and a bonus for each round they advance, I think that would appeal to FSU and simultaneously give everyone else a (outside) chance.

The long term economic effects of FSU leaving will be much more than $570m. Those 10,000+ t-shirt fans and alumni living in Atlanta is not going to be traveling to Charlotte, Winston-Salem, Raleigh, Clemson, but rather to Athens, Columbia, Knoxville, Nashville, Tuscaloosa. That next contract is not paying out more per member, it will shrink considerably. Despite all the screwy officiating over the years and this lawsuit, the ACC is where FSU would prefer to be if it was "tenable". In the end, it's the ACC fans that get screwed by the decisions those in power make.

Sorry to break this news, but Sonny and Cher are not getting back together.

It aint over till it's over.

It aint over til its over- Lenny Kravitz

One of my favorite songs.