Awful Announcing: Will Big East Low Ratings Scare B1G Away?

[HoosierPal]

It doesn't matter what they pick. Minny/Nebraska isn't going to push Nova/Gtown off FS1. Fox gets the final say guys, they are the ones who write the checks (if they win the B1G rights).

Really going out on a limb there.....comparing two of the lower Big Ten brand names to the top two Big East Brands. Let's hope Villanova and Georgetown can hold the viewers over a Nebraska/ Minnesota game. But try Wisconsin / Indiana up against a Butler / Marquette game. You know what happens there.

We both agree. Fox writes the checks and Fox will put the product on the main channel in the good time slots that will bring them to most revenue. IU of 10X bigger than Butler, they have 10X the alumni, they have 10X the viewers. What do you think Fox will do? Will they pick my Bulldogs over the Hoosiers simply because, well simply because they are in the Big East.

[NJRedman]

It doesn't matter what they pick. Minny/Nebraska isn't going to push Nova/Gtown off FS1. Fox gets the final say guys, they are the ones who write the checks (if they win the B1G rights).

Really going out on a limb there.....comparing two of the lower Big Ten brand names to the top two Big East Brands. Let's hope Villanova and Georgetown can hold the viewers over a Nebraska/ Minnesota game. But try Wisconsin / Indiana up against a Butler / Marquette game. You know what happens there.

We both agree. Fox writes the checks and Fox will put the product on the main channel in the good time slots that will bring them to most revenue. IU of 10X bigger than Butler, they have 10X the alumni, they have 10X the viewers. What do you think Fox will do? Will they pick my Bulldogs over the Hoosiers simply because, well simply because they are in the Big East.

You really don't get it do you? Fox will work with both conferences to make sure the high profile games aren't on the same night unless they are trying to do a double header. ESPN has the B1G, ACC, Big XII, SEC and Pac-12. How do they ever manage?

You think we will not be on the TV anymore? I don't get your complaint. Do you think we can only get air time if we're the only conference on the network? I don't get this idea that if anyone else is on TV we're somehow getting screwed. There are 7 days in a week, and we'll be sharing the air time with one other conference and a handful of Pac-12 games. Oh heavens no, how will we ever get our games on TV? They only paid us 500 million dollars over 12 years, they'll easily just put us on FS2 to make room for the B1G.

Thats great for Indiana and your Hoosiers. Butler will never get a game on FS1 because Indiana is in the B1G.

[HoosierPal]

You really don't get it do you? Fox will work with both conferences to make sure the high profile games aren't on the same night unless they are trying to do a double header. ESPN has the B1G, ACC, Big XII, SEC and Pac-12. How do they ever manage?

You think we will not be on the TV anymore? I don't get your complaint. Do you think we can only get air time if we're the only conference on the network? I don't get this idea that if anyone else is on TV we're somehow getting screwed. There are 7 days in a week, and we'll be sharing the air time with one other conference and a handful of Pac-12 games. Oh heavens no, how will we ever get our games on TV? They only paid us 500 million dollars over 12 years, they'll easily just put us on FS2 to make room for the B1G.

Thats great for Indiana and your Hoosiers. Butler will never get a game on FS1 because Indiana is in the B1G.

As usual you missed the point. Keep thinking what you want.

[DudeAnon]

We aren't degree factories like public schools so we will never have the alumni/fanbase that those schools do. So we can just give that up right now. What we do have is 10 like-minded universities with good basketball tradition.

There are 2 things NBE has to do.

1) Win NCAA games and get ranked. This will bring the national prestige

2) Own their market's fanbase. We have a lot of HUGE markets with very little competition. In order of importance.

- St. Johns: Need to up their game and ensure that NYC is filled with St. Johns fans and not Syracuse fans
- DePaul: Chicago is second only to NYC in basketball royalty. They really need to fill the CBB gap there.
- Georgetown: Already best team in D.C., but need to make a deep run to reinvigorate the D.C. fanbase (no more half-full arenas).
- Nova: They are probably the best basketball team in Philly (mission accomplished)
- Marquette: Need to beat Wisconsin. Tall task.
- Butler: Need to beat IU. Tall task.
- Xavier: Need to beat UC. Need to make a deep run to finally convert the casuals from the constant disappointment that is UC.
- Creighton: (Mission Accomplished)

- Providence & Seton Hall: I don't know much about their area. Whats their competition?

[stever20]

The thing with the Big Ten- yes we'd still get games on FS1(not as many as we have been)- but the schedule would look a whole lot more like it did last season than it did this season. A lot more of those short 2 day turnarounds.

[NJRedman]

You really don't get it do you? Fox will work with both conferences to make sure the high profile games aren't on the same night unless they are trying to do a double header. ESPN has the B1G, ACC, Big XII, SEC and Pac-12. How do they ever manage?

You think we will not be on the TV anymore? I don't get your complaint. Do you think we can only get air time if we're the only conference on the network? I don't get this idea that if anyone else is on TV we're somehow getting screwed. There are 7 days in a week, and we'll be sharing the air time with one other conference and a handful of Pac-12 games. Oh heavens no, how will we ever get our games on TV? They only paid us 500 million dollars over 12 years, they'll easily just put us on FS2 to make room for the B1G.

Thats great for Indiana and your Hoosiers. Butler will never get a game on FS1 because Indiana is in the B1G.

As usual you missed the point. Keep thinking what you want.

Then explain it to me since you've done a poor job illustrating your point if I keep missing it. Tell us again how it's bad for the Big East if the Big Ten signs with Fox. Explain it in detail. If you can't then stop telling people they don't understand you and your awesome thoughts.

[Frank the Tank]

B1G isn't making a decision based off of current ratings. They are going to take what puts the most cash in their pockets. TV contract, advertising fees, etc. FS1 can get them by paying regardless of the current FS1 place in the world.

That's not entirely true. The Big Ten isn't short-sighted - it does consider the ESPN exposure to be extremely important. As much as the Big Ten is perceived to be a "Fox" property due to the BTN, the conference is the most important property for ABC/ESPN college football and the league has prized ESPN basketball time slots. So, the Big Ten would be very concerned if being on FS1 means an automatic 20% or more reduction in viewers.

That being said, it's not necessarily a zero sum game. My guess is that ESPN and Fox will end up sharing the Big Ten rights (similar to the Pac-12 deal), which would make both ESPN and Fox partisans happy.

[stever20]

B1G isn't making a decision based off of current ratings. They are going to take what puts the most cash in their pockets. TV contract, advertising fees, etc. FS1 can get them by paying regardless of the current FS1 place in the world.

That's not entirely true. The Big Ten isn't short-sighted - it does consider the ESPN exposure to be extremely important. As much as the Big Ten is perceived to be a "Fox" property due to the BTN, the conference is the most important property for ABC/ESPN college football and the league has prized ESPN basketball time slots. So, the Big Ten would be very concerned if being on FS1 means an automatic 20% or more reduction in viewers.

That being said, it's not necessarily a zero sum game. My guess is that ESPN and Fox will end up sharing the Big Ten rights (similar to the Pac-12 deal), which would make both ESPN and Fox partisans happy.

I think the question for that would be would that be enough to keep FS1 going? We'd be talking 25 football games(with several going to Fox) and not all that many basketball games if it was split in half- also keeping in mind that CBS will almost certainly be a part for hoops of course. It definitely wouldn't be the savior that folks here would want it to be.

Also, I would caution that if it got down to it, ESPN would likely outbid Fox. ESPN knows the position that Fox is in right now. If Fox doesn't agree to split, I could easily see ESPN pushing hard.

[Gopher+RamFan]

We aren't degree factories like public schools so we will never have the alumni/fanbase that those schools do. So we can just give that up right now. What we do have is 10 like-minded universities with good basketball tradition.

There are 2 things NBE has to do.

1) Win NCAA games and get ranked. This will bring the national prestige

2) Own their market's fanbase. We have a lot of HUGE markets with very little competition. In order of importance.

- St. Johns: Need to up their game and ensure that NYC is filled with St. Johns fans and not Syracuse fans
- DePaul: Chicago is second only to NYC in basketball royalty. They really need to fill the CBB gap there.
- Georgetown: Already best team in D.C., but need to make a deep run to reinvigorate the D.C. fanbase (no more half-full arenas).
- Nova: They are probably the best basketball team in Philly (mission accomplished)
- Marquette: Need to beat Wisconsin. Tall task.
- Butler: Need to beat IU. Tall task.
- Xavier: Need to beat UC. Need to make a deep run to finally convert the casuals from the constant disappointment that is UC.
- Creighton: (Mission Accomplished)

- Providence & Seton Hall: I don't know much about their area. Whats their competition?

I can only speak to DC and Chicago. The Big Ten has 1 million alums between NYC and VA (500k from MD/Rutgers, 500k from original members). DC is a transient town, growing up there our neighbors were from everywhere. My dad is a a Wisconsin alum, my mom Minnesota. DC is not owned by Georgetown, they're competing against Maryland, Michigan St., Duke etc.... That's why the Verizon Center is rarely full, the locals have different allegiances - and even if living there 20 years (my folks/neighbors) they'll follow their schools and won't switch.

Chicago is Illini territory, followed by IU, Michigan, MSU, Wisconsin, heck even Minnesota. DePaul hasn't performed well in years, so maybe the new arena and better performance can change this. When it comes to college athletics, Chicago is definitely B1G turf and not likely to change, even in CBB.

[David HD]

It doesn't matter what they pick. Minny/Nebraska isn't going to push Nova/Gtown off FS1. Fox gets the final say guys, they are the ones who write the checks (if they win the B1G rights).

Really going out on a limb there.....comparing two of the lower Big Ten brand names to the top two Big East Brands. Let's hope Villanova and Georgetown can hold the viewers over a Nebraska/ Minnesota game. But try Wisconsin / Indiana up against a Butler / Marquette game. You know what happens there.

We both agree. Fox writes the checks and Fox will put the product on the main channel in the good time slots that will bring them to most revenue. IU of 10X bigger than Butler, they have 10X the alumni, they have 10X the viewers. What do you think Fox will do? Will they pick my Bulldogs over the Hoosiers simply because, well simply because they are in the Big East.

Fox would be out of their minds crazy to put Butler v Marquette up against Indiana v Wisky. Basically, they'd be forcing the viewers to choose between one or the other when in reality a lot of people in both markets would be interested in both games, and would probably watch both games. That's the perfect double header opportunity. Get both markets to watch two games instead of half of the markets watching one game.

Then again, that is the kind of thing Fox would probably. The Big East is the #2 conference overall in the RPI. They’ve had seven different teams ranked in the top 25 at some point in the year. The teams are in big city markets. Yet, the ratings are pitiful. They don’t use the flagship Fox network like they should. When there is a game on the flagship Fox network, it is rarely a showcase game. As far as I can tell, they don’t use the local Fox affiliates in the Big East cities to market FS1. You didn’t see much mention of it during the NFL season.

I realize FS1 is a new network, but Fox is not a new company. When ESPN has launched networks, they didn’t exactly take several years to take off. Fox has ranked college basketball teams in big cities, yet the ratings are pitiful. There are a lot of things they should be doing that they’re not doing to sell the product.

Just my opinion.