The recent trend of sports leagues starting their own television channels nationally has spread to the college ranks as the
Big Ten, in conjunction with Fox, is starting the Big Ten Channel in the summer of 2007. The conference also extended their long term deals with ABC for football, CBS for basketball, and ESPN for both and women's hoops and volleyball.
While not having a football championship game to draw extra revenue, due to there being only 11 teams in the conference, the Big Ten has potentially found a way to create a windfall of revenue through advertising and monthly cable fees. They are hoping to be on basic cable packages around the country and will be on DirectTv's Total Choice pack.
In effect, every Big Ten football game will reach a national audience, they hope of free-spending alumni, completely changing the way college football has been covered. One of the aspects of the new ABC/ESPN deal is that one of the ESPN channels will televise regional ABC games in markets the game is not being carried over the air. No more pay-per-view to see Wisconsin and Iowa when Miami hosts Virginia Tech here on the east coast. How this affects other games on ESPN in that window is uncertain.
Under the deal with Fox, the conference will be the majority owner, while Fox Cable will own a chunk of it and produce programs from Chicago. For the record, there will be a part of the day in which there will be no sports programming on. It will promote the schools themselves.
Winners and Losers
Notre Dame-
LOSER The decision to remain independent and reject one of the many overtures to join the Big Ten comes home to roost here. They will always get high ratings for games, but Purdue and Indiana get a full time platform to promote themselves, while Notre Dame falls back in line. They now need the Big East more than ever.
Fans-
WINNERS Making the conference available on a basic level ensures that fans can see what they want, wherever they live. If you live in Fairbanks, but live and die on Indiana-Northwestern football, well now you can see it. These schools are big and have big alumni, serving them is smart.
NCAA-
LOSER The arcane practice of limiting how many games could be televised a week, that was thrown out over twenty years ago, comes home to roost again. The conferences rebelled and, for football, have become a bigger name than the NCAA them self. How does the NCAA compensate he other big conferences as the Big Ten schools share the windfall from this network. You know it will not lose money. Football is the gravy train, and the NCAA is losing the handle more and more everyday.
SEC, BIG 12, ACC-
WINNERS If this flops, they lose nothing. If this works, you know that partners at ESPN and CSTV are waiting to take the call from these conference presidents to start their own channels and tap into the national base of alumni, without sticking their necks out to try first. Bet the farm that one, if not two of these big conferences, have a national channel by 2010.
PAC 10, BIG EAST-
LOSERS? They need this to fail. They are strong entities on their own coasts, but are, in football anyway, the two weakest big conferences. You know as well as I do that the Big Ten will turn this into a huge recruiting platform. While the Pac-10 would get stung, the Big East would drown on a national level. They need the exposure of good quality football to recruit. Who would you rather play for, Pitt or Penn State? Thought so.
