ESPN TV Contract Signed.

[Lobot]

http://snyrutgers.com/rutgers/footba...eal-with-espn/

[True Bearcat]

Interesting to say the least. The Tier A teams are Cincinnati, Connecticut, Temple, and Houston. Two of the four teams are on the rumored next two in for realignment. No mentions of Central or South Florida. Two thoughts on this.

1. Since ESPN holds all the cards, could they sink the conference by suggesting to the Big XII or ACC to take two of the Tier A teams? Thus making the contract null and void.

2. This thought is based on rumors flying around the internet that the Big XII is interested in adding Central Florida and South Florida which are Tier B schools. Would ESPN "allow" the Big XII to have them to have a greater tv audience in Florida for BIG XII games?

It seems with each passing day that ESPN is the sole responsible party for realignment.

[RedRocker]

Interesting to say the least. The Tier A teams are Cincinnati, Connecticut, Temple, and Houston. Two of the four teams are on the rumored next two in for realignment. No mentions of Central or South Florida. Two thoughts on this.

1. Since ESPN holds all the cards, could they sink the conference by suggesting to the Big XII or ACC to take two of the Tier A teams? Thus making the contract null and void.

2. This thought is based on rumors flying around the internet that the Big XII is interested in adding Central Florida and South Florida which are Tier B schools. Would ESPN "allow" the Big XII to have them to have a greater tv audience in Florida for BIG XII games?

It seems with each passing day that ESPN is the sole responsible party for realignment.

Link? I don't see any mention (or lack thereof) in this article. If you're going to reference an article, at least provide the link.

Edit: here's the link: http://espn.go.com/college-sports/st...ording-sources

[True Bearcat]

Central Florida and South Florida aren't in the Tier A groupings. They are in the Tier B grouping that doesn't have the portion of the contract that says if they leave the contract can be voided.

[East side Bearcat]

Makes you wonder if the newbies are regretting joining this conference, uc and uconn have made it known that they want out.

[RedRocker]

Makes you wonder if the newbies are regretting joining this conference, uc and uconn have made it known that they want out.

Conference TBA > Conference USA. Conference TBA is the waiting room for the big 5. I doubt any of the big 5 would take anyone directly from C-USA, MAC or Sunbelt. PAC12 could take a team or two from MWC though.

[Bearcat Otto]

Unfortunately it will be the Big 4 though. I just hope that UC finds a spot within those four conferences. If not, we are left behind again.

[cpawstoney]

More Details:

http://www.journalinquirer.com/artic...b802189340.txt


From Dallas:

For SMU, the new conference remains an upgrade from Conference USA in terms of exposure and money. All football games involving league teams will be televised.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sports/col...up-for-smu.ece

Fom Connecticut:

Now for the bad news: according to ESPN.com's Brett McMurphy, ESPN's TV deal has an out clause. If two more teams leave the conference, the media deal can be terminated, industry sources said. The seven-year deal is worth $126 million.

(We need to be one of those two teams)
http://www.nbcconnecticut.com/blogs/...199148971.html

Update from Navy:

Navy will retain the television rights to its home and selected rivalry games as part of the Big East deal announced formally with ESPN on Tuesday, CBSSports.com has learned.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefoot...n-new-big-east

Orlando Update:
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/...etball-schools

Houston:

Regarding home scheduling for UH and SMU, he said the league will be "very sensitive" to the potential for competition with Texas high school football games on Thursdays and Fridays and "will work with (schools) and our partners" on scheduling issues in Texas.

UH athletic director Mack Rhoades said he was pleased with the financial terms of the agreement and the extra attention ESPN will bring to UH athletics.

"It's an improvement, in terms of the TV numbers, from Conference USA, and we are excited about being affiliated with ESPN," Rhoades said.

http://www.chron.com/sports/cougars/...on-4368345.php

[RedRocker]

Unfortunately it will be the Big 4 though. I just hope that UC finds a spot within those four conferences. If not, we are left behind again.

Unless each conference goes to 20, I don't see that happening. The B12 is quite content @ 10. I could see them adding 2 more to get to 12 and have a CCG to appease Fox. Plus they could finally get the math right. With current grant of rights each school signed over last year, I don't see anybody (UT or OU) leaving the B12.

The PAC12 has a limited area to draw from. They could add BYU and Boise along with SDSU and maybe NM, the only other schools would be UH and SMU to gain a foothold in TX.

The ACC will still be a player despite losing a few teams along the way. It will have definite "Big East" feel to it.

[longtimefan]

We are working expeditiously to rename and rebrand the Conference, Aresco said. We have an outstanding group of institutions that are excited to work together to establish a dynamic new identity.

If you ask me this has been one of the major problems plaguing our part of the conference both before the breakup and after. Now is the time for bold, agressive action, but instead it seems to take forever to settle on anything. The day they sold the old name to the little guys, they should have announced the new conference name and began marketing the **** out of it. Instead, with no name we are again the butt of jokes by both the uninformed and those who are supposed to know something. Today in the Enquirer, Koch (as usual) played up an angle that now Creighton is moving to the big time and we are going to be mid major, as usual ignoring the real history of the teams in both leagues. All that crap happens because the leadership continues to sit on their hands and take far too long to get things moving.

Mr. Aresco, you are down 4 points with 25 seconds left, you cannot afford to run down the clock looking for a good shot. Fire something up NOW, and try to win the game.

[red_n_black_attack]

I could see 4 super conferences with 18 teams each, for the sole purpose of destroying the stranglehold the NCAA has over much of the money involved in sports not named football. I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but there is merit to the belief the college presidents want all of the money going to their schools and they can make the argument they are doing it for the student athlete. I can see the Super 72 split from NCAA and have both a really tough regular season schedule as well as post season tournaments without the Cinderella stories.

Football:
Top 2-4 teams from each conference advance to post season play. Everyone plays eight league games within their division, two more games (one home and one away within conference) and two more games also (one home and one away) non-conference made for tv match-ups. Every conference has a championship game. From there you can pick Confernce champion game winner and best record (if not champion game loser) or simply top four to compete in either 8 or 16 game playoff using Bowl sites for play-offs. The other bowl games can still pick from "dregs" of the Super 72 or decide to pick an NCAA team to fill out the Bowl matchups.

Basketball:
Full slate of games against 14 teams, and then home and away against three teams to get 20 conference games, add in 6-8 non-conference games and you have a great regular season. Each conference splits their conference tournament over two weekends (more prime time weekend games). Because of the extra weekend in conference tourneys, only 24 teams are selected at large with the conference tournament winners getting a bye to the Sweet Sixteen). The 24 at-large teams are seeded with a home game going to the higher seed. When you get down to 12, add in the conference tourney winners and re-seed. This could work with 48 at-large bids and give conference tourney winners a double bye (more Big East humor). I think 24 is enough as thet should get top seven from each conference. If tourney champ is below top 7, #7 gets chopped. It makes regular season and post season meaningful.

No matter who you are, You gotta believe a Syracuse Vaderbilt matchup will get more viewers than a Creighton Xaiver match-up.


The key to this is money control battles between the universities and the NCAA. If I can figure this out, believe me so can Gordon Gee.