B1G looks to be going with FOX, CBS and NBC for new deal
- Thread starter Duke Humphrey
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They bowed out of SEC’s top game at $300m, per Talty. Guest they realized they had to pay up to stay in the game
It’s not the biggest product in the current set of deals….B1G is bigger. But a lot of that is population based. The whole network wars is overplayed, anyway. It’s not going to affect the on-field product of the SEC at all to be 5% higher or 5% lower than the B1G total payout. It’s still going to be by far and away the best football teams with no close 2nd place.
Unless college football has the major collapse that many here predict within the next 10 years, all of the current players, plus Apple & Amazon & whoever else is new, will be back at the table when the current SEC rights are up.
Just because they’re all out now, doesn’t mean there’s a lifetime ban.
Settle down Rob, there’s always a chance ABC hires him for their 2:30 SEC game.
I’d imagine that the SEC and ESPN and maybe another network are already pretty close to a deal, and this one was simply announced first. And it’s not going to be as lucrative as the B1G deal, but will still be a nice package. The additions of the CA schools nuked any chance the SEC had of getting a comparable payday as long as both stay at just 16 teams. But that won’t really matter all that much in the grand scheme of things.
The current SEC deal is locked in until 2034. Who knows who will be in charge at these places by then? Whatever CBS and NBC and Fox say right now doesn't really matter and frankly, they need to sound 'all in' on their current partners, so I'm not surprised to hear them say they have no interest in pursuing the SEC. Just keep in mind that means "right now".
As far as real estate goes, CBS and NBC both have fledgling streaming platforms and have been streaming live sports on both of them already. There's no reason they can't leverage those platforms to take on more. In fact, Paramount+ specifically could use more sports content.
Fox is a little bit of an odd bird. They sold off their regional coverage to Bally and they haven't come out with a viable direct streaming service (I assume since they sold their entire entertainment catalog to Disney and still have some sort of distribution deal with Hulu for their live shows), so they pretty much only have their local stations and FS1. I'm not sure how much they can squeeze into those two. Maybe some of their OTA alt channels? I'm not sure how much of those are nationally owned vs locally owned though.
That’s not really accurate. Conference expansion and/or major scheduling reform (or both) will auto-trigger a major renegotiation (or rebid, if new terms can’t be reached) of the current TV deal. The TX and OU additions will force this new deal to take effect absolutely no later than the 2025 college football regular season, but it will likely be more like 2023 (best case) or 2024 (more realistic) for the migration to occur, with a new TV deal getting announced once the Big12 exit date is agreed.
There’s a lot of backroom dealing happening right now between TX/OU, the Big12, the SEC, ESPN / Longhorn Network, and possibly Fox and another network or two. The Big 12 potentially having 14 teams in 2023 is quite the scheduling cluster17 for them, so TX and OU now actually have a little bit of leverage on an exit date to join the SEC by 2023, should they choose to exercise it. Its all a jumbled mess that about two dozen lawyers and twice as many executives / higherups are going to have to sort through.
The current SEC/ESPN deal includes an contract escalation clause for adding new teams. So, the current deal doesn't have to be renegotiated. Of course, there's nothing to stop the SEC and ESPN from renegotiating a new contract at any time.
Having 14 teams is no big deal. The ACC and SEC have been scheduling with 14 teams for years, and you could easily add a 9th game if the Big 12 wants to stay at a 9-game schedule. I'm still expecting TX & OU to join in 2025.
Having 14 teams is no big deal. The ACC and SEC have been scheduling with 14 teams for years, and you could easily add a 9th game if the Big 12 wants to stay at a 9-game schedule. I'm still expecting TX & OU to join in 2025.
Yes but that clause itself does nothing more than give ESPN the right of first refusal. Its hard to imagine said escalation clause being the same for any particular teams added. TX and OU are going to command a much bigger payout increase than if the SEC added Georgia Tech and Louisville, for instance. And the SEC isn’t going to give ESPN all the power in setting those individual terms, so thus there are going to be some form of renegotiations. Then there’s the added variable of the conference schedule decisions that are made (permanent opponents, number of conference games, etc.). All that has to be decided.
Regarding TX and OU coming over, the most likely scenario is 2024. That’s when the math seems to make the most sense for them.
https://www.cbssports.com/college-f...024-as-debut-season-in-league-per-report/amp/
I'd be all about a Fox Saturday Night SEC PrimeTime game with Gus Johnson calling it.
Not saying it will be cheap. Thats just when it seems to make financial sense according to all the insiders at both schools. Only a select few people know what the Big 12 has offered (or not offered) in terms of concessions on the $80 million buyout. Same goes for what additional revenue they will get when they join the SEC, etc.
You also can’t forget that Texas and OU are still voting members of the Big 12, and likely used that to their advantage when the topic of adding the 4 additional members came up. They could have made it much more difficult to add any of them if they both voted “no” for all. Had that been the case, the remaining 8 schools would have had to 100% approve all additions, with any of them having the full autonomy to veto any specific potential member. They likely negotiated some favor in terms of their media rights buyouts in exchange for playing nice.
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I think Fox’s show being OTA & freely available is an advantage for them.
ETA: College Gameday has been held on plenty of campuses where the game is going to be played on another network (like Army-Navy every year), but to my knowledge, Fox's show has never taken place at an SEC location... which... why would they?
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2024 wouldn't surprise me. The grant of rights is a huge issue (I think the number is $80M each or $160M total). But by 2024 it could be manageable, especially given the increased revenues from the SEC. You're right that very few people really know what's going on. And the ones who do aren't talking to the reporters and media people.
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