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The MWC negotiations have dragged on, and rumors in the MWC camp & board are that a deal with Fox appears likely. They had an exclusive window with CBS & ESPN and nothing ever developed.

The Air Force leadership made comments awhile ago that it would be nice to be in a conference with Navy, so it's possible there is more going on with membership configuration.

That being said, this author is speculating on a 3.5-5 million dollar deal, which would put the MWC at about the same payout as the NBE.

IMO, adding the MWC may have implications. It could help UConn with their FB scheduling, if the network throws a bone to the Huskies and acts as intermediary between them and the MWC for scheduling purposes.


The MWC's Craig Thompson was asked a lot about the impending media deal in his press conference. Surprisingly, he gave quite a few interesting nuggets that can serve as talking points.

Revenue

Thompson said he expects an increase from the $1.1 the ten schools currently receive (more on Hawaii and Boise State in a bit). The immediate thought is, “Sure hope so Craig!”. Seriously, if the revenue didn’t increase, Craig should be immediately fired. That point aside, more revenue is a good thing. Thompson conceded it wouldn’t be as much as the AAC got (for a few reasons, which make sense), and that’s okay, as long as it’s in the competitive range. $3.5-$5 million sounds about right, since the American Conference has had better on the field results, and the schools are in better TV markets. Plus, it doesn’t sound like they want many games on streaming services and are looking for a shorter deal. Again, more on those points later.

https://www.mwcconnection.com/2019/8/7/ ... -follow-up

Rumor has it Fox is helping us get some PAC schools on our football schedule. Makes sense they'd do the same with the MWC.

Or maybe we'll just join the MWC for football only!

That seems like an awful lot of money for the MWC, the Big East has yet to receive $3.5 million a year per school from Fox.

HallHoops wrote:That seems like an awful lot of money for the MWC, the Big East has yet to receive $3.5 million a year per school from Fox.

Remember thats for their football AND basketball...

Mountain West is a great football conference. Boise State, San Diego State, Fresno State, Air Force and Utah State are pretty strong. (Of course I'm not talking Alabama strong)

FOX/FS1 needs more college conferences on it's networks. Getting different eyeballs on your network will make it grow. I still wonder what the goal is for FS2. So much more room to put live games on that network.

The Big Ten joining FS1 had been good for the Big East. If the Pac-12 can get things going. FS1 will have a very nice thing going.

Where is there a link that the MW is talking to FOX Sports?

HallHoops wrote:That seems like an awful lot of money for the MWC, the Big East has yet to receive $3.5 million a year per school from Fox.

I'm just curious as to where the rest of the money went. Per Forbes' look at tax records:

The conference received over $31.5 million in rights fees from FOX in 2015 and more than $32.8 million in 2016, according to tax records I obtained. Figures for 2017 were not available.

Yet the announced figure for the deal was $500 million over 10 years, or $50 million/year, or $5 million/team/year.

Did the rest of the money go to paying "leaving fees" as we split from the other teams, or is the contract back-loaded and we'll get more than $5 million/year in the later years?

paulxu wrote:

HallHoops wrote:That seems like an awful lot of money for the MWC, the Big East has yet to receive $3.5 million a year per school from Fox.

I'm just curious as to where the rest of the money went. Per Forbes' look at tax records:

The conference received over $31.5 million in rights fees from FOX in 2015 and more than $32.8 million in 2016, according to tax records I obtained. Figures for 2017 were not available.

Yet the announced figure for the deal was $500 million over 10 years, or $50 million/year, or $5 million/team/year.

Did the rest of the money go to paying "leaving fees" as we split from the other teams, or is the contract back-loaded and we'll get more than $5 million/year in the later years?

My best guess is that Fox provided some front-loaded payments to the conference as start-up cash after they left the vast majority of the money with the AAC in the split.

paulxu wrote:

HallHoops wrote:That seems like an awful lot of money for the MWC, the Big East has yet to receive $3.5 million a year per school from Fox.

I'm just curious as to where the rest of the money went. Per Forbes' look at tax records:

The conference received over $31.5 million in rights fees from FOX in 2015 and more than $32.8 million in 2016, according to tax records I obtained. Figures for 2017 were not available.

Yet the announced figure for the deal was $500 million over 10 years, or $50 million/year, or $5 million/team/year.

Did the rest of the money go to paying "leaving fees" as we split from the other teams, or is the contract back-loaded and we'll get more than $5 million/year in the later years?

It was $500 million for 12 years if I'm not mistaken, roughly $4 million per team per year. If, as it appears from the Forbes' article, the contract is escalating every year, I'd guess we are looking at a back-loaded situation. Remember, Fox Sports was also brand new at the time and may have needed or preferred to spend some time getting its' own finances in order.

marquette wrote:It was $500 million for 12 years if I'm not mistaken, roughly $4 million per team per year.

My bad. You are correct.

The Big East additionally was "only" allowed to keep $10 million from the AAC divorce as start-up cash to to start the new incarnation of the league. Between setting up new offices, hiring new personnel, renting MSG for the Big East Tournament, and creating/reforming the brand via new website, social media and digital content, I'm sure much of that was spent. It would not shock me at all if the C7 negotiated for a front-loaded deal to help establish some early momentum. For the next deal, it will probably be back-loaded with teams earning around $6 million near the end of it.