Fox Sports 1 Update

[NovaBall]

And now that ESPN has peaked, it's time to grow with FOX.

ESPN wasn't bad for us. It was actually great for us for many years. But moving forward it is tough to argue that FOX isn't doing so much more than what we eveR received from ESPN.

[stever20]

And now that ESPN has peaked, it's time to grow with FOX.

ESPN wasn't bad for us. It was actually great for us for many years. But moving forward it is tough to argue that FOX isn't doing so much more than what we eveR received from ESPN.

But what is Fox really doing for us that is so much more than what ESPN did? If you say the network games- when Big East was with ESPN, they had a LOT more CBS games. Sorry but CBS games are far better than Fox games.

If you say NFL games advertising- ESPN has Monday Night Football. But also, ESPN has other college basketball that they advertise on. Fox on the other hand has UFC, which has little/no crossover to college basketball.

Also I wouldn't say that ESPN has peaked. They just posted RECORD revenues and profit. They have the College Football playoff- which had the 2 top rated events on TV outside the NFL this year, and then 3rd one which was #4(behind the NCAA championship basketball final with Duke/Wisconsin). The other NY day bowl game in the top 50.

[DudeAnon]

And now that ESPN has peaked, it's time to grow with FOX.

ESPN wasn't bad for us. It was actually great for us for many years. But moving forward it is tough to argue that FOX isn't doing so much more than what we eveR received from ESPN.

But what is Fox really doing for us that is so much more than what ESPN did? If you say the network games- when Big East was with ESPN, they had a LOT more CBS games. Sorry but CBS games are far better than Fox games.

If you say NFL games advertising- ESPN has Monday Night Football. But also, ESPN has other college basketball that they advertise on. Fox on the other hand has UFC, which has little/no crossover to college basketball.

Also I wouldn't say that ESPN has peaked. They just posted RECORD revenues and profit. They have the College Football playoff- which had the 2 top rated events on TV outside the NFL this year, and then 3rd one which was #4(behind the NCAA championship basketball final with Duke/Wisconsin). The other NY day bowl game in the top 50.

There was no perfect scenario man.

Likely offers the Big East had:
1) ESPN
- Little money
- Better exposure for top-tier programs (GTown, Nova, Marquette)
- Worse exposure for other 7 (ESPNNews, ESPN3)
2) Fox
- More money
- Less exposure for top-tier programs
- Better exposure for other 7

I know you are a GTown fan so it hurts that your program takes a hit in exposure, but the decision to go with Fox was made for the conference not GTown.

[stever20]

And now that ESPN has peaked, it's time to grow with FOX.

ESPN wasn't bad for us. It was actually great for us for many years. But moving forward it is tough to argue that FOX isn't doing so much more than what we eveR received from ESPN.

But what is Fox really doing for us that is so much more than what ESPN did? If you say the network games- when Big East was with ESPN, they had a LOT more CBS games. Sorry but CBS games are far better than Fox games.

If you say NFL games advertising- ESPN has Monday Night Football. But also, ESPN has other college basketball that they advertise on. Fox on the other hand has UFC, which has little/no crossover to college basketball.

Also I wouldn't say that ESPN has peaked. They just posted RECORD revenues and profit. They have the College Football playoff- which had the 2 top rated events on TV outside the NFL this year, and then 3rd one which was #4(behind the NCAA championship basketball final with Duke/Wisconsin). The other NY day bowl game in the top 50.

There was no perfect scenario man.

Likely offers the Big East had:
1) ESPN
- Little money
- Better exposure for top-tier programs (GTown, Nova, Marquette)
- Worse exposure for other 7 (ESPNNews, ESPN3)
2) Fox
- More money
- Less exposure for top-tier programs
- Better exposure for other 7

I know you are a GTown fan so it hurts that your program takes a hit in exposure, but the decision to go with Fox was made for the conference not GTown.

The thing is, I don't think you can say for sure the other programs wouldn't have gotten good exposure. ESPN ALWAYS loved Butler. Xavier as well. And you don't think Creighton would have gotten love with McDermott? Come on now. And St John's. Plus, and it's the white elephant in the room, maybe if we stick with ESPN, the ACC doesn't move in on Saturday Night.

I don't think the mistake was necessarily going to Fox, but rather going all in with Fox. If we had done a deal similar to the Pac 12- yeah maybe a bit less money, but with frankly better exposure.

[NovaBall]

If we stuck with ESPN:

No Money
Would be treated like second class citizens by our media partner
Tons of ESPNU and ESPN News and internet streams
No branding and marketing for the growth of the new conference

Instead we went with FOX and got

A truckload of money
A commitment from our media partner to treat us as first class citizens
Ten big FOX games and the prime attraction on Fox's new sports station, which will keep growing
Amazing branding and effort into the growth of the conference (I was just at a car dealership in a rural town on an island in the pacific ocean waiting for a battery change and happened to see the tv show a promo for Nebraska v. #11 Villanova. That type of marketing never happened for us on ESPN)


Stever like the type of guy who strives to be the janitor at Coca Cola because it is the top soft drink brand, and he's upset that our conference made the correct choice to be the CEO of Pepsi instead.

[billyjack]

The Big East could've approached any small cable station and the BE would've still been a success. By chance they happened upon that small trailer in Bristol CT, and ESPN was a great partner, but if not ESPN, it could have been any of a number of small stations. It wasn't like the Big East was sitting paralyzed in fear, not knowing what to do, and the ESPN White Knight knocked on their door to save them. If not for the Big East, ESPN would be televising the Highland Games near Windham CT. Or they'd be as well known now as "Sportschannel" (anyone here who's under the age of 40 ever heard of them?), which is now out of business, the old tv home of the Hartford Whalers.

As far as the format of the league, the telecasts, the scheduling, the framework of the entire thing... Gavitt designed the entire thing, from the Monday night games, to having each school near a major airport, the BE Tourneys, etc... everything. Gavitt himself used to do play-by-play and/or color work on these early ESPN games. He actually announced the "Manley is Officially Closed" game behind the mike. ESPN just followed his advice.

Gavitt had one of the most proactive, brilliant minds. Any time some jackass tried to roadblock him, he'd figure out a way around it. I'm positive that he would love the way the Big East broke away in 2012 to chart their own course with confidence and intelligence. He never, ever had a defeatist attitude like some people wish we would have. Tranghese, his former right hand man, certainly likes the deal. That's all you need to know. The "defeatist attitude people" were not around from 1979 thru 1984, so they have no idea what we did to build the Big East.

I try to hold my tongue but sometimes this psy-ops campaign "just makes me go beserk".

P.S. i now expect to read some rants on the csnbbs big east site saying what a bully i am.

I mean, saying we should've stayed with ESPN is like a guy in 1812 saying we should've stayed with England.

[MUPanther]

The AAC got 2 million per school, who have football. The Atlantic 10 with ESPN, NBCSN and CBSSN got around $240k per school.

[NovaBall]

Brilliant post, billyjack.

[mel ott]

Brilliant post, billyjack.

+1

[stever20]

sorry, but to act like that ESPN had nothing to do with the Big East's accent is pure revisionist history. ESPN, with something no doubt to do with the Big East, became THE sports channel. and a LOT of that early on was college sports. If ESPN didn't build up the Big East, they would have built some other conference up. Also, ESPN wasn't just all Big East. They were other conferences as well. Big Ten always had a big presence. ACC same thing. So to act like if ESPN didn't get the Big East back then they would be like Sportschannel is frankly ignorant. And to act like the Big East would have grown as fast w/o ESPN is also ignorant. They were in a lot of ways together.