ESPN pays $2.25 Billion for SEC rights

This is about ESPN saving its virtual monopoly on college football. ESPN is reponsible for something like $15 on your cable bill a month with their outrageous fees. Besides college sports really what do they have? 1 NFL game a week, some Nascar races, some baseball, some NBA. Without college sports ESPN suddenly has the clout of TNT, and your cable bill goes down $10/month.
So they are cementing their monopoly longterm with the handshake of 'amateur' football.

If you get cable w/ESPN you are basically paying the SEC $20/yr for them propping up an overcharging monopoly.
 
Shark: From what I understand of the deatl, Time-Warner will put the Big 10 Network on expanded basic cable to start -- in the 8 states with Big 10 schools.

I doubt they will be so kind to the other states where if they offer it they will indeed put it on the premium tier.

That is the longer battle still to be fought. The Big 10 of course wanted to take care of its own, but this is really about getting a footprint across the nation.
 
All the whiners & complainers on this site amaze me. "Go Independent!" "Join the SEC!"
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Does anyone around here even bother to look at the actual numbers UT athletics generates. We have consistently been in the top 5 for gross revenues, and are one of maybe nine or 10 schools in the nation whose athletic department realizes a profit.

Clearly somebody must be doing something right in Belmont. We have an excellent TV package, and I'm sure when it's up for renewal, the Big 12 will negotiate a deal similar to the SEC's.

With TV markets like Houston, DFW, KC, Denver, St. Louis & OK. City, along with the national following that UT, OU & NU have, the Big 12 is one of the top three conferences in the nation among TV viewers.
 
Horn89, YOU may have never said that conference doesn't matter.

You may never have scratched your head when SEC teams and/or fans chant "SEC, SEC, SEC".

But rest assured, it has been stated on this board, hundreds of times, that "We Texas fans only give a schit about Texas. We don't care about Iowa St., OSU, or Nebraska"....... This line of thinking has been prominent in countless threads pertaining to the SEC. I specifically remember being told in a particular thread titled something along the lines of "SEC,SEC, SEC" when LSU won the NC, that it was the dumbest thing ever uttered and Texas fans don't care about the Big12.

Maybe it wasn't you. Maybe it is not your line of thinking. But 1)I never said it pertained to you but 2) it has been the clear general consensus of this board that pimping ones conference is ridiculous.

It doesn't seem too silly now though..........
 
I'd say this is Dodds biggest failure since coming here.

The problem in general is that Texas has made millions with things as they are, and so there was no driving force to do anything else. Our coffer is stuffed here in Austin, so what the hell difference does it make to the AD office how the whole conference does. We're rolling in it just the same.
 
Ramathorn I could root for Austin Community College and it wouldn't change a thing.

But to answer you question, I am an Arkansas alum living in Austin...by choice. My wife and I fell in love with Austin during my Army years at Ft. Hood.

With that said, the Arkansas football program hasn't been truly significant since the 1980's. Maybe that will change under Petrino? Maybe it wont.

I have no problem recognizing where "my team" stands in the big picture. I enjoy this board and I enjoy some of the posters. But there seems to be an arrogance of accomplishment that I do not believe is warranted. Yes, Texas won a NC and Conference title in 2005. No one can deny that Texas was hands down the best team in the nation. But it had been 10 years since the previous conference title and 35 since the last NC. Since 2005, Texas has rotated in and out of two ho-hum Bowls.

Texas is a great program but, IMHO, not even the best team within their own divison.

My whole point being, for months I have read how the SEC was silly when it would promote it's fellow teams and conference. Now, it seems those same people are talking about going Independent or joining the SEC.
 
Wow 4 pages into the thread and someone finally points out the other big markets in the Big 12.

I did a quick breakdown by adding up the populations of states by which major conference (Big12, SEC, Big10, PAC10, Big East) they would likely fall into. States like Iowa and Florida were split down the middle since they had major schools in both conferences. States without a major school were listed as NA with New York being the biggest that does not appear to have a school in a major football conference (did I miss someone obvious?).
Conf Population # States
ACC____37,598,000_____5
BIG10___65,376,000_____8
BIG12___43,706,000_____7
BIGEAST 16,151,000_____4
NA_____38,370,000____17
PAC10__52,721,000_____4
SEC____45,481,000_____9

# States adds up to 54 because the census breakdown includes DC, and Iowa, Kentucky, and Florida are split between different conferences.

Again, this breakdown includes the whole state population and does not include college football tv viewership which is really the way to look at this. Of course, you have to somehow normalize for games that are nationally televised versus regionally televised.

BTW, I had no idea that 3.6M people lived in Oklahoma, at least as of July 2006.
 
Whocares brings up an interesting phenomena that is particularly well-represented among the SEC fanbase. Lots of T-shirt fans who's state pride is wrapped up in the love of their 'state' team.

Perhaps the Big 12 could do more to develop the T-shirt fan market in Big 12 territory?
 
Here's a more complete comparison of the TV deals that includes Notre Dame, Big East and the CBS basketball contract with the Big Ten:

SEC:
15 year $825 million with CBS or $55 million per year
15 year $2.25 billion with ESPN or $150 million per year
Total: $205 million per year or $17 million per school

Big Ten
10 year $1 billion with ABC/ESPN or $100 million per year
25 year $2.8 billion with Big Ten Network or $112 million per year
10 year $20 million with CBS or $2 million per year**
Total:$224 million per year or $20.4 million per school

Big East
6 year $200 million with ESPN/ABC
Total: $33.3 Million per year or $3 million per football playing school.

Notre Dame
5 year $45 million with NBC (football home games only)
Total: $9 million per year (estimated)

** Basketball contract
 
Wow, $20 million for the Big Ten schools. It's quite clear to me that the Big 12 needs to create their own TV Network. While they probably wouldn't garner as much as the Big Ten, it would at least be up there with the SEC payout - with more upside than if we tied ourselves to Fox/ESPN/etc. I've heard they're exploring sharing resources with the Pac 10 (who also wants a TV network).

There are a HELL OF A LOT of Fortune 500 corporations with HQ's in Big 12 country with which to secure sponsors.
 
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