BCPanther wrote:TheAsianSensation wrote:Television exposure is an interesting topic. I'm not sure of the exact details of our ESPN contract, but I know with other leagues (the AAC, I believe), ESPN threw in some renegotiation clauses that allow them to revisit things if membership changes.
It's impossible to know what the details are of our deal. I imagine all the ESPN3 stuff is safe and will remain as is though. The scary thing is if ESPN is allowed to go back into the deal and tear things up. ESPN just laid off so many people and is reducing budget by any means necessary.....obviously they can't just cancel media deals mid-deal. So the leagues/conferences in the most trouble right now are the first ones that have to go to ESPN to sign their next deal. If Wichita leaving triggered a clause that allows ESPN to force us back to the table, right when money is the tightest it'll ever be, we'll be at a significant disadvantage to every other conference in the entire country. All because Wichita left at the exact time ESPN shut off the water spout of money.
But again, it all depends on the details in the contract Elgin negotiated. Details we don't know.
The one thing I'm pessimistic of is our CBS title game. CBS has no other real stake in our conference, and already sandwiches us in between power conference games. CBS could pretty easily eject. We could easily return to ESPN though and our previously traditional Monday night title game, going Friday-Monday again. We're still good enough to get that spot back.
CBS is contracted to carry our title game until 2020 at this point. We'll have been on CBS for 15 years at that point. I don't see any danger if losing that slot. It's not like Wichita appeared in that game very often...
The last part is true. But I do think it could be in danger. It's not like the game was being played for a 13 seed very often either.
Media contracts are going to be so interesting to watch for all levels of sports and all levels of D1 basketball over the next 5-10 years.