The B12 was a long shot all along and if the numbers being sayed are true, I cant say that it is an absolute no go. $48 million and $90 million a year gives the B12 $138 Million to be divided 10 ways... With the top 2 and AtM gettin $20 million, it leaves a the other 7 a little over $11 million a year. Kinda sucks that some of those teams...like Missou are getting less then the ACC teams. Id watch Missou over Wake Forest anyday!
As far as the BE, I think this is a good sign. Fox now has the B12 and CUSA. ESPN has the SEC, ACC and some of the B10. There are two major conferences left in the next couple years... the Pac12 and the BE. The Pac12 is in the exclusive negotiating period with Fox...BUT notice that Fox has been spending their time locking up the B12. geographically, the Pac12 fits nicely with what Fox has but it also could round out ESPN who has a lacking presenc in the west.
What I am waiting on is the BIG question "What will NBC Comcast do?" These two are the first two contracts that have become available to bid on since their merger. There is a ton of specualtion that a combination of the Pac 12 and the BE would be a perfect for them. If they were to bid and get both conferences, it would give them a solid presence in over 60% of all tv markets and along with Notre Dame would be a very formable beginning for their sports branding.
Now why I say it is a good thing... If you look at the tv contracts they have been going up and up, not only in dollar amounts but percentage of increase. Ive seen numbers all over the place for what the BE makes in income but I know that my beloved USF made about $3 million last year from the TV contract. At a 350% increase, similar to what the B12 got, it means we will be around $10 - $11 million. Not amazing money, but much more respectable. It would put the BE roughly in the same range as the ACC, B12 (bottom teams) and make a HUGE leap from CUSA and the MWC.
Some will say that we wont get a similar percentage but I would argue we will. Remember that our last TV contract was signed just after we lost Miami, Vtech and BC. We got Bent over on that contract and many have said that we have drastically underpaid, so it would be expected that when you include that adjustment along with the new market rate, I can definitely see the BE getting at least that much....let alone that we added a solid team within the Texas market.
