Mountain West media rights!

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Historian

This is what leadership brings.

https://collegefootballtalk.nbcsport...o-tv-partners/

Yeah, I read this on the CUSA board a few days ago. This is a really good deal for the MWC, and it has left the AAC boys pretty jealous.

First, the MWC signed with Fox & CBSSN, not ESPN. It's also a shorter deal --6 yrs for the MWC vs 12 yrs for the AAC. That's the sweet spot for a media deal. While the AAC deal will lose value every year --due to time value of money-- for the 12 remaining years, the MWC can renegotiate for a bigger deal in 6 years.

One of the best parts of this new MWC deal is, the MWC schools retain their 3rd tier TV rights. That has real value to some of these schools. Boise State for example, can sell it’s 3rd tier TV rights for at least an extra $2+million per year. The AAC deal sold all tiers to ESPN, not allowing their schools to negotiate their third tier rights. UCONN recently left the AAC over the lack of control of their 3rd tier rights. That's how valuable these 3rd tier rights are to some of these schools. UCONN basketball (men’s and women’s) was the most valuable brand in the AAC, and yet they had separate deals broadcasting their valuable women's and mens games.

This appears to be a better TV deal than the AAC's and the Sunbelt's recent deals with ESPN. In both of those contracts, ESPN reserves the right to put the games behind a paywall (e.g., ESPN+) that nobody watches, and the schools have to foot the bill for the production expenses. By contrast, the MWC signed with Fox & CBSSN, and is not on the hook for the TV production costs like they would have been for ESPN+. Some estimates have put the AAC schools production costs close to a 1 million year for all of their ESPN content production. I am told that it costs about 75K-100K for a school to produce a single TV football game. The costs includes a remote truck, cameramen, equipment, announcers, studio production, etc...

To your point about "leadership", CUSA Commissioner Judy MacLeod could never put a deal like this together for CUSA. She needs to be fired and replaced ASAP. CUSA's current TV deal is literally nothing. We need to get a CUSA commissioner in place that can make stuff like this happen.