The “deal” is an outrage! The payout is $1.3B/year. The B1G and SEC get 29% EACH, or $$377M per conference. The 28 schools will receive $27M each. The ACC receives 17% and Big 12 will receive 14.7%. ND gets 1%, or $13M, even is they lose every game. The 64 teams in the Group of 5 will receive 9%, or about $1.8M/school.
How, and why, the conferences agreed to this, excluding the POWER 2, is not too hard to figure out. What is the alternative? How much power do they have?
Essentially, 28 schools now rule college football (if they didn’t already). Greed runs rampant. “Amateur” sports at the college level no longer exists (actually, it hasn’t for a long time).
The $2M/yr high school QB is reality. The $15M/yr head coach will soon follow. Those of us who helped build college football into what it has become are no longer valued members of the club. They literally shit on us and what can we do? Not a damn thing, short of every conference not in the 58% bracket refusing to play by their rules. Considering the total impact of these conferences, we should band together and find a new outlet and make our own rules and televise our games/playoffs. Lots of eyes in all of those programs. I, for one, will NEVER watch a CFP game involving the B1G and SEC.
Maybe some really rich boosters, who support the unwanted, would be interested in establishing a new network for all the rest of us kicked to the side of the road. Yea, that’s likely to happen. If my math is off, it’s b/c, in part, I am really pissed as I wrote this.
The G5 actually have a ton of power here. Band together, tell ESPN & Fox Sports to F.R.O. until they get a better deal, even a $10M per school is a rounding error.
What is ESPN & Fox going to show? Stock car racing? PBA? PBR (beer and or bull riding)? Bags? Good luck commanding a nice advertising price off that sh*t.
G5 has the content that draws viewers. SEC, ACC and b1G have their own networks. Without the G5, there’s not much to show.
Any anti-trust or monopolistic practices claims here?
In a word, NO. ESPN made an offer based on what value it thought the MAC brought to the table, and the MAC accepted it.
They, and the other G5’s, had the right to turn it down, walk away and start their own playoff and see what that brought them. Now, had they tried that and the B1G/SEC used their market power and position to block media and venue deals, there would be anti-trust and collusion considerations at play. Simply having a product that isn’t as valued as your competitor, however, is not an anti-trust violation.
Thanks. I didn’t think so, but I’m not qualified to answer my own question.
I wonder if anyone gave that a thought or just said “we’re SOL”?
I’m guessing that the minute the G5 teams try to strike out on their own is the time the cartel stops playing big money buy games with G5 teams.
While I don’t disagree with your comment, the P5 guys need games to play–and win–to get to the magic 6 wins for bowl eligibility. If they have to play other P5 teams OOC, it will cause problems for the second level teams in those conferences to get to the magic number. They need bowls for money and to keep fans interested and attending regular season and bowl games. Recruits want to know they are likely to go to a bowl.
10M per school is not a rounding error. It is slightly above what the per school payout would be if everyone received the same amount (1.3B per year/134 schools). Taking the Miami glasses off for a moment, do you really believe that the MAC schools deserve the same payout as the B1G/SEC schools? If so, on what basis because it sure as shit ain’t how many television sets we turn on.
Fuck the NCAA. What is the drawback for Miami to gov to the NAIA?
No, I don’t. And spare me the drama. The Big 12 and ACC must not be thrilled they get a smaller piece. But same argument. If one accepts that argument. I am confident that fans of Boise State and residents of Idaho aren’t watching Alabama if that game conflicts with theirs. Nor will dozens of other programs, cities and states, who watch their favorite team. Will they watch OSU if it does not conflict with their teams broadcast? Sure, if they like cfb enough and are able to watch multiple games on a Saturday. Do you think ESPN created ESPN2, ESPNU, and ESPN+ because people want to watch those schools exclusively?
For a few years, I thought the NCAA encouraged mutual respect and a degree of balance between programs, such as limiting the number of scholarships in football regardless of ranking of their football team or the money they made. No longer. Currently, see NIL.
And it is not just the MAC. It is all G5 schools. There are millions of students at these schools. And alums. And local fans. The B1G and SEC power play smacks of greed, as posted, and of taking actions that will perpetuate the impact these few schools will always be allowed to maintain. Actually, it’s not all that new. It’s just on steroids now.
How can Duke, UNC, Miami and Fla State be happy? They draw better in hoops than the Big and SEC. Shit, NC State is better than most of the teams in those two conferences in hoops this year. I guess football must really rule the roost.
Better yet, let’s just make sure we are the G5 representative in the CFP. I think we have a realistic chance this year.
The original post is specifically referencing the college football playoff payout. Basketball literally has nothing to do with the numbers we’re talking about. Additionally, the playoff has nothing to do with the NCAA. It’s exclusively a matter between ESPN and the conferences.
This seems to be getting confused with the media deals, which BTW have nothing to do with the NCAA and are solely a matter to be negotiated between the networks and the conferences. And yes, football is overwhelmingly the driver there.
If Arkansas is playing University of Kentucky, probably gonna not watch that. South Carolina vs. Miss St… don’t care. Mizzou vs Ole Miss. Meh.
Basically, most of the SEC has games IDGAF about.
Same thing with the B1G: Iowa vs Indiana, Minnesota vs Michigan State, Purdue vs Northwestern, Maryland or Rutgers vs ANYBODY.
But these guys get the same dough as Ohio State, Alabama, Michigan, Georgia, etc., which goes to show that the CONTENT of CFB is valuable, and that the MAC, Big 12, American, SBC and MWC could band together and go to YouTube or Apple TV and say “Put us on and you’ll get more viewers than you would for the alternative”, and ESPN/FOX would have to come up with an alternative that would be far less valuable in advertising dollars than a football game.
On Sundays, we get our local team’s game on CBS or FOX, and then another NFL game on CBS -OR- FOX. If CBS doesn’t have the 2nd NFL game (and FOX does), they show something like Bass Fishing or car racing. IDK, bc I don’t watch it and will pay attention to the NFL game on FOX. Football is so much more interesting than the alternative sports during the fall.
Just my $.02
Who cares.
I’m talking about institutional clout. Duke UNC Miami and Flat State have run more successful operations than many of these supposed blue bloods have. For years. And now they sit at the kids table. I get the post was about football. I can read. It seems to me that it has a strange ripple effect beyond football.
I think you’re drastically overestimating how many people would watch their local G5 team over Bama or whatever.
It would seem as though, the G5 is being overpaid while the SEC/B1G are being slightly underpaid. I’d like to see this guy do the same thing but using overall viewership numbers instead of CFP-NY6-BCS appearances.
I’ll say it again, the G5 schools are run by intelligent and experienced Presidents and AD’s along with whatever outside financial consultants that they bring in. If we were worth more money, we wouldn’t have taken what was offered.
How many threads have there been here bemoaning the students watching OSU games in Uptown bars instead of attending the Miami game? What’s the differential in the Toledo market between viewership for the UT/BGSU games and the UM/OSU games?
The only regions that are different are the Northeast (completely focused on pro sports and doesn’t give a damn about college football in general) and the high plains and some intermountain west states where the G5 schools are the flagships. Problem is…nobody lives there.
Wait wait wait…….will the MAC still get the pride the privilege nay the pleasure of playing their November football games on Tuesday and Wednesday nights? Oh pleeeeeeeaaaasseeee says it’s true. What say you Lilly Von Schtupp……
