ORLANDO, Fla. -- Conference USA could be at a crossroads. The conference is starting to renegotiate lucrative television contracts that could be vital to the long-term health and stability of a collection of schools brought together partly with TV in mind.
<B>By Iliana Limsn
The Orlando Sentinel<P>
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Conference USA could be at a crossroads. The conference is starting to renegotiate lucrative television contracts that could be vital to the long-term health and stability of a collection of schools brought together partly with TV in mind.
C-USA's $67.8 million agreements with CBS College Sports and ESPN expire at the conclusion of the 2010-11 season.
The numbers might sound like a pittance compared to the Southeastern Conference's blockbuster $3 billion television deals with ESPN and CBS, but it is huge money for a non-BCS conference.
The TV money binds teams urban and rural, public and private, East and West. It made it possible for the 12-team league to survive defections of its former marquee programs such as Louisville and Cincinnati to the Big East, and be spread 1,500 miles from Orlando, Fla., to the western tip of Texas.
The television agreements will help determine whether C-USA keeps up with the Mountain West Conference, which has established itself as the strongest non-BCS league thanks to a combination of signature upsets and an $82 million contract with CBS College Sports, or slips closer to funding levels of the Western Athletic, Mid-American and Sun Belt conferences.
C-USA's teams have come to expect quite a bit more than the reported $330,000 per school WAC teams get each year from ESPN.
"They (television contracts) have become lifeblood for sustaining contracts, facility improvements and paying off debt,'' said Karen Weaver, president of Intelligent Recruiting and an educator who has studied college football television deals extensively. "It's important to make money off of a national audience in order to compete at the highest levels of college football.''
If C-USA finds the TV marketplace less lucrative than in the past, its future becomes less stable. Its strengths - diverse schools and broad geographic base - could become weaknesses. Without TV money and exposure, it could become hard to justify such expansive territory with little else tying the schools together, especially in non-revenue sports.
"It's a ripe situation to either align with a conference that has better TV coverage or find a way to get into major media markets (through expansion or defections),'' Weaver said. "Without a good television deal, no one would think twice about leaving.''
Hitt said the league is optimistic negotiations will go well, though other experts wonder what the market might bear in both a bad economy and with other, more prominent leagues such as the Big 12, ACC and Pac-10 lining up to chase SEC-type dollars.
"The consultants that we're dealing with are pretty encouraging,'' Hitt said. "Obviously, we'd like to be able to be doing this in a better economic climate, but so far the investment information that we can get suggests that we'll be able to continue to have some really good revenue.''
C-USA Commissioner Britton Banowsky said he does not believe other leagues' deals will affect C-USA.
"It's possible that other agreements could have an impact elsewhere, but the truth of the matter is college football continues to be a very popular sport and a very popular enterprise,'' Banowsky said. "There are more platforms reaching broader audiences than ever before in the history of college sports. We feel we're relatively confident we'll be able to expand our distribution and hopefully grow revenue.''
C-USA will pitch the quality of its competition as part of the package - evenly matched teams that often produce drama.
<B>By Iliana Limsn
The Orlando Sentinel<P>
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Conference USA could be at a crossroads. The conference is starting to renegotiate lucrative television contracts that could be vital to the long-term health and stability of a collection of schools brought together partly with TV in mind.
C-USA's $67.8 million agreements with CBS College Sports and ESPN expire at the conclusion of the 2010-11 season.
The numbers might sound like a pittance compared to the Southeastern Conference's blockbuster $3 billion television deals with ESPN and CBS, but it is huge money for a non-BCS conference.
The TV money binds teams urban and rural, public and private, East and West. It made it possible for the 12-team league to survive defections of its former marquee programs such as Louisville and Cincinnati to the Big East, and be spread 1,500 miles from Orlando, Fla., to the western tip of Texas.
The television agreements will help determine whether C-USA keeps up with the Mountain West Conference, which has established itself as the strongest non-BCS league thanks to a combination of signature upsets and an $82 million contract with CBS College Sports, or slips closer to funding levels of the Western Athletic, Mid-American and Sun Belt conferences.
C-USA's teams have come to expect quite a bit more than the reported $330,000 per school WAC teams get each year from ESPN.
"They (television contracts) have become lifeblood for sustaining contracts, facility improvements and paying off debt,'' said Karen Weaver, president of Intelligent Recruiting and an educator who has studied college football television deals extensively. "It's important to make money off of a national audience in order to compete at the highest levels of college football.''
If C-USA finds the TV marketplace less lucrative than in the past, its future becomes less stable. Its strengths - diverse schools and broad geographic base - could become weaknesses. Without TV money and exposure, it could become hard to justify such expansive territory with little else tying the schools together, especially in non-revenue sports.
"It's a ripe situation to either align with a conference that has better TV coverage or find a way to get into major media markets (through expansion or defections),'' Weaver said. "Without a good television deal, no one would think twice about leaving.''
Hitt said the league is optimistic negotiations will go well, though other experts wonder what the market might bear in both a bad economy and with other, more prominent leagues such as the Big 12, ACC and Pac-10 lining up to chase SEC-type dollars.
"The consultants that we're dealing with are pretty encouraging,'' Hitt said. "Obviously, we'd like to be able to be doing this in a better economic climate, but so far the investment information that we can get suggests that we'll be able to continue to have some really good revenue.''
C-USA Commissioner Britton Banowsky said he does not believe other leagues' deals will affect C-USA.
"It's possible that other agreements could have an impact elsewhere, but the truth of the matter is college football continues to be a very popular sport and a very popular enterprise,'' Banowsky said. "There are more platforms reaching broader audiences than ever before in the history of college sports. We feel we're relatively confident we'll be able to expand our distribution and hopefully grow revenue.''
C-USA will pitch the quality of its competition as part of the package - evenly matched teams that often produce drama.
"We know we have a very good product,'' UCF Athletic Director Keith Tribble said.
But even though they have confidence in their leadership at the negotiating table, athletic directors - including Hitt's own - are bracing for bad news.
"I think we all as athletic directors are realistic,'' Tribble said. "To try to maintain those same numbers may be tough. We're prepared that we may have to accept less.
"We don't want to go into the negotiation thinking this will be a real big bonanza for us in the TV contract. We understand the economic situation does not present that.''
In several interviews with the Sentinel, Banowsky said he is optimistic about hanging on to one of C-USA's unique features: national TV deals with more than one network. ESPN and CBS College Sports have typically signed exclusive agreements with non-BCS conferences, but C-USA was able to introduce contract language that allowed it to sign with both.
In this next round of talks, the networks might demand exclusivity, which could cut into the overall TV profits and decrease the amount of TV games available to fans. Midweek games could become a negotiating point, too.
The MAC has sacrificed playing on traditional football game days in exchange for a television deal with ESPN. Financial terms of the agreement have not been disclosed, but reports indicate it was not an especially lucrative deal for the conference.
The move was more about exposure.
Conference USA is scheduled to have at least 49 football games broadcast on ESPN, CBS College Sports and Comcast regional television. The league has only three games on nontraditional nights this season - two Thursdays and one Tuesday.
Of the MAC's 40 games on the ESPN family of networks, almost one-fourth (9) will be played on nontraditional nights.
"This past year, I think the administration made a concerted effort to stay away from mid-week games,'' UCF Coach George O'Leary said. "I think that's great. We had one year where I think we had three of them mid-week. That weighs on your team and hurts you from a consistency standpoint.''
The best negotiating ploy for C-USA? O'Leary said it's simple.
"You only get the good things if you win,'' O'Leary said. "If we're winning games, you're going to get picked up more on TV. Hopefully when you're on TV, you can take advantage of the opportunity and get exposure instead of being exposed.''
Post a comment