ESPN is at it again

[billyjack]

"...we were even mentioned on the PTI show..."

That's the first time I've heard PTI-attention as being a measure of success. I didn't even know the show was still on.

Based on the treatment all of us got over recent years, there is no freakin way I would want to still want to be on ESPN or any of their channels. They would be urinating on us during our telecasts and promoting upcoming ACC games, and all the while we'd be paying extortionists' protection money to hopefully get them to not insult us on their network, probably ESPN-3.

To the Cincinnati fan... most of us have no problem with the Bearcats or the AAC, and the Big East is not your enemy (well, Xavier is your rival)... we're actually cutting a new path that will open up better opportunities for the AAC and others due to (1) more sports network options when you're shopping your league around next time and (2) different paths/options/possibilities to take when fending off the Power-5 a-holes that are ready to leave the AAC, MWC and others behind as we speak... the P-5 are the hyenas that can't be trusted...

[Bluejay]

I love the comments from AAC member schools about our TV ratings.

Those ratings certainly don't seem to have hurt us in recruiting. My understanding is that the availability of our games has been an overwhelming hit with recruits and their families. Every team in our league can boast about having every single conference game on TV along with most of the nonconference games.

As far as I can tell AAC fans are jealous of the money our TV package pays and jealous of our success in the recruiting game. Otherwise why would they feel the need to come here?

[NJRedman]

TV ratings and overall coverage show the Big East's failure on FS1 (for year 1 at least). Whatever money is lost between the AAC and Big East TV contract is gained back through exposure. I believe we only had 13 of the 18 BE games televised (when UC was grouped in the top 4 pod) compared to last year where all 18 games were on ESPN or CBS.

How is money gained back "through exposure"? They're 2 different things. Apples and oranges.

How did the Big East "fail" and what was that failure? What were your expectations of a brand new TV network that a lot of people didn't even know existed? I have DirecTV and FS1 wasn't even on my basic sports package. I had to add a special package to get it. That was a Fox failure, not a Big East failure. You can't get viewers if they don't even have access to the network without paying a premium for it. As a Big East fan, I did that, but casual fans won't.

The AAC has a bigger problem regardless of whatever network they're on. Other than the premium match ups, UConn-Cincy-Memphis and SMU for the time being, no one wants to watch their games even if it involves one of their premium programs when the other half of the pairing is anyone from the rest of the pack.

I have Direct TV and FS1 was most certainly in the basic package. I did NOT have to order a new package to get it.

[stever20]

I love the comments from AAC member schools about our TV ratings.

Those ratings certainly don't seem to have hurt us in recruiting. My understanding is that the availability of our games has been an overwhelming hit with recruits and their families. Every team in our league can boast about having every single conference game on TV along with most of the nonconference games.

As far as I can tell AAC fans are jealous of the money our TV package pays and jealous of our success in the recruiting game. Otherwise why would they feel the need to come here?

We'll know the impact of FS1 in recruiting THIS upcoming year. Not the 2014 recruiting year which was over before FS1 came around.

[NJRedman]

TV ratings and overall coverage show the Big East's failure on FS1 (for year 1 at least). Whatever money is lost between the AAC and Big East TV contract is gained back through exposure. I believe we only had 13 of the 18 BE games televised (when UC was grouped in the top 4 pod) compared to last year where all 18 games were on ESPN or CBS.

You're on a channel that will gleefully degrade you to the new version of the FCS. Have fun with that.

[NJRedman]

[

The ONE thing that we can not allow is to permit Fox to put all or even most of our games on FS2. This is literally a death decree. We can probably find a way to live with all our games on FS1 especially with the money the contract pays but FS2 would kill us even if the money was doubled. I agree with you there is nothing like having your games on ESPN although I have grown to hate their commentators. Their game broadcast is still outstanding and far superior to Fox.

Again I believe we can stay alive on FS1, not on FS2. I must admit I don't know the answer but were we not promised a minimum number of games on FS1? That surely should have been in the contract. If so this will save us if Fox abides by the contract.

I think we're getting WAY ahead of ourselves here. Even if Fox gets the rights to the NBA and B1G they will still need a lot of our games to fill out their lineup. Fox would only be getting a package of NBA games that they will show one or two nights a week. The rest of the week will be college basketball mixed between the B1Gm Pac, Big XII and ourselves. The thing is except for us Fox only gets SOME of those games from those conferences. ESPN gets half of the Pac and Big XII games and the BTN will get some of the B1Gs games. We will probably see some of our lower OOC games moved to FS2 and maybe a few of the undesirable conference games down there like DePaul vs whoever else is at the bottom os the league. Other than that FS1 still needs a majority of our games especially the big name ones.

The thing is if they got the NBA and Big Ten- they'd have a dh night with the NBA(Mon-Thu, as ESPN gets Fri), a UFC night on Wed. Basically would leave 2 nights during the week- Monday/Tuesday and Thursday. And we would be sharing that with Big Ten, Pac 12.

Right now, the Big East got about 65-70 conference games on FS1. The rest was CBSSN(think you forgot about that).

I think the key is what the contract is with the minimum requirement is for FS1. One thing- it's for the overall number of games. So say FS1 has to have 100 games. Those 4 Big East/Big Ten challenge games... Those count. Those better OOC games. Those count. Those average OOC games. Each team gets 4-5 OOC games on FS1 and all of a sudden you're up to 40-50 games already. Would leave only 50-60 games left as a minimum.

In your situation we would just see most of our bad games get moved to FS1 along with a bunch of Pac and B1G games. Thats fine by me. Just looking at this past season games like DePaul/Seton Hall which aired Jan 25th, St. John's Seton Hall Jan 23rd, DePaul/Butler March 6th etc would have just been on FS2 if that meant that FS1 was airing Michigan/MSU Jan 25th, Wisconsin/Minny Jan 23rd MSU/Iowa March 6th. Thats good for everyone. The best games draw attention to our new network. The added amount of content would also help our coaches pleas for more uniformed time between games. Everyone knowing what days are generally game days.

I don't see FS1 expanding it's brand with new properties as a bad thing but a good one.

[stever20]

It would be more than just that. likely 15 other conference games that would have gotten moved to FS2. That's the thing- you're just saying move the bad games. Well, the bad games aren't going to be the only ones moved. Can't just move off all the DePaul and Seton Hall games off. Likely have minimum appearance per school requirements.

Also, given that Fox would be competing with ESPN- Big Ten will likely require all their games to be on FS1. Pac 12 really isn't impacted either as they have the 11pm start times. Our games would likely be the majority of ones moved to FS2- or FSN.

[hoyahooligan]

I think it's pretty amazing when you look at the AAC contract now compared to the old Big East Contract. You could make a case that outside of Big Monday, the new AAC contract for exposure is better than the old Big East deal. That's the only difference. It's remarkable how poor the old Big East TV deal was quite frankly. It was basically Big Monday, the BET, and then some games here and there.

I don't know about that. I know every single Georgetown game was televised. Some were on MASN sold of by ESPN, but the majority of our conference games were on ESPN, 2 or U. It wasn't just Big Monday, the BET and then some games here and there. Every Saturday they had BE games, and games through out the week as well.

Last year with ESPN: Every single game on TV: OOC: 1 NBCSN,6 MASN,1 ESPNU,1 ESPN2, 3 ESPN; Conference: 6 MASN, 2 ESPNU, 3 ESPN2, 4 ESPN, 2 CBS.

I know it's different for other teams, but Georgetown got plenty of coverage on ESPN.

[Jet915]

TV ratings and overall coverage show the Big East's failure on FS1 (for year 1 at least). Whatever money is lost between the AAC and Big East TV contract is gained back through exposure. I believe we only had 13 of the 18 BE games televised (when UC was grouped in the top 4 pod) compared to last year where all 18 games were on ESPN or CBS.

You do realize that almost ALL of our games were on national TV. That includes a ton of non-conference stinkers vs. MEAC/SWAC/DII/DIII teams. If you showed the equivalent of "Butler vs. Manchester" on national TV, what do you think your ratings would look like? It's almost the equivalent of asking what AAC ESPN3 ratings were. Our ratings increased through the season as matchups improved (conference games). The AAC does get a natural boost from being on ESPN networks but having the majority of your games on ESPNU/ESPN News and CBS Sports Network is something hardly worth boasting about.

[stever20]

I think it's pretty amazing when you look at the AAC contract now compared to the old Big East Contract. You could make a case that outside of Big Monday, the new AAC contract for exposure is better than the old Big East deal. That's the only difference. It's remarkable how poor the old Big East TV deal was quite frankly. It was basically Big Monday, the BET, and then some games here and there.

I don't know about that. I know every single Georgetown game was televised. Some were on MASN sold of by ESPN, but the majority of our conference games were on ESPN, 2 or U. It wasn't just Big Monday, the BET and then some games here and there. Every Saturday they had BE games, and games through out the week as well.

Last year with ESPN: Every single game on TV: OOC: 1 NBCSN,6 MASN,1 ESPNU,1 ESPN2, 3 ESPN; Conference: 6 MASN, 2 ESPNU, 3 ESPN2, 4 ESPN, 2 CBS.

I know it's different for other teams, but Georgetown got plenty of coverage on ESPN.

Conference games not adding up- only 17 conference games there. Still- to have at least 6 conference games on RSN is a joke compared to what even the AAC got this year. I'd rather have ESPNU or ESPNews than on a RSN any time. Also, you have to remember Georgetown was like the BEST of the ESPN package. How much did a school like a Providence have? The old package had WAY too much on RSN's for example. RSN great if you are in city but if you are out of town, you are out of luck. If you don't/can't have Directv, you are SOL.

Just look at UConn this year in conference compared to Georgtown last year....
5 ESPN, 1 CBS, 4 ESPN 2, 4 ESPNU, and 4 CBSSN . And you say well Louisville was a ESPN and CBS game. True. But, SMU was ESPNU and CBSSN games. Next year both SMU games will be on either ESPN or CBS.

Just my point is that the old deal was just not that great. At worst you could say that comparing UConn in 14 to Georgetown in 13- it's very similar. I think I'd prefer more on CBSSN and ESPNU than I would like on MASN quite frankly. And that's at the top of the food chain. If you look lower, if you did the same comparison between say Providence and say Rutgers- look at it...
Rutgers
ESPNU 4
CBSSN 5
ESPNews 8
ESPN2 1

Providence
RSN 12
ESPN2 3
ESPNU 3

to me, that's not even close. And, I'd argue that Rutgers was at the bottom of the food chain this year, while PC wasn't in '12-13.