(10-13-2019 02:35 PM)Attackcoog Wrote:  

(10-12-2019 08:47 PM)UConnHusky Wrote:  

(10-11-2019 03:35 PM)Native Georgian Wrote:  Getting a little extra % of the CFP split will be nice. Hardly a windfall, but a nice little extra present under the tree. Exactly zero reason to believe that AAC’s deal with ESPN will be affected on a per-member basis.

Disagree. There is a reason that ESPN claimed the future rights to all UConn games and wouldn’t allow UConn to air certain WBB/MBB/football games on SNY any longer. They were hoping to lure all UConn fans (and certainly national WBB fans) over as ESPN+ subscribers. Connecticut is a fairly large fan base that ESPN will feel the loss of on the upcoming contract with those lost ESPN+ subscriptions. Too bad ESPN and Aresco couldn’t accommodate our very specific (yet reasonable) needs. That is why we left. Being streaming clickbait for the conference is nice and all, but it wouldn’t have worked for us. Why should UConn fans pay to have our basketball content buried on ESPN+ streaming just to subsidize the linear airing of the AAC football schools (where we never would have been featured as we are horrible in that sport).

I hope that the AAC contract stays the same for our soon to be former conference mates (after all, it isn’t coming out of our pockets, so if ESPN wants to still pay full value, more power to them). That said, if I were a company about to lose a few million dollars on subscribers, I would find a way to recoup it.

Actually--thats not true. I would agree, it was certainly a possiblity---but ESPN had already expressed a willingness to discuss letting SNY broadcast games. I would also add that UConn has zero ability to sell those games to SNY under the Big East deal they signed, so---given they immediately signed their third tier rights away a second time (to the Big East this time) leads me to believe SNY was more of an excuse rather than the real reason behind the UConn move.

Disagree. UConn likely worked some kind of deal with FS1 to incorporate SNY (unless FS1 agreed to air all UConn games). The more limited television exposure with the ESPN+ deal was our breaking point.