Based upon the supposed Bleacher Report deal, it appears that Turner Broadcasting is wanting to become a player in sports broadcasting. My questions is, wouldn't the SBC be better served by working to negotiate a sale of its broadcasting rights from ESPN to Turner and then negotiating a new deal with Turner? We would be the main collegiate conference within its portfolio. Would this be possible? I believe we would be able to fetch some good coin under such a deal.

Heck yeah. I want us to get away from ESPN, a company that is already oversaturated with content and screws us over all the time. Lets work out deals with NBC Sports, CBSsports, Turner, anyone but ESPN.

I'd like to get away from ESPN as well. Tuesday night games are HORRIBLE for attendance.

Looking forward to Tuesday night games in the Dome...not

The only thing I like about Tuesday night games is the exposure. You know for a fact that every home, sports bar, and pub across the country will be watching your game, it's the only game on.

I can see that being a nightmare here in Atlanta. The Braves dont even draw well early in the week.

I'm a fan of having one non-Saturday home game a season, obviously Thursdays would be preferred, but I don't get upset about playing on a Tuesday or Wednesday. Occasionally if we have to have to have two non-Saturday home games, I don't mind so much, but only if we have six home games, which we had each of the last three seasons, but unfortunately do not this season.

Ive always said with ASU that I have no problem with midweek games, as long as they are road games. We've got 3 non Saturday games this year, and only one of those is at home, and thats a Thursday night, which ist as big of a deal.

Tuesday games are awful, it kills tailgating, and limits your crowds because no one can travel because of work the next day. At least with Thursday games fans can justify taking a Friday off work...

ESPN gets ratings. Why not sell our secondary rights to Turner? Its not like ESPN puts that many games on tv anyway. ESPN gets the first four or five games it chooses (not necessarily the best ones) and there's lots for TBS to choose from. On Saturday. Including upgraded non conference home games.

We get so little exposure from ESPN why cut them out? They can pay us for their little, tinniancy, piddling, package, and sell the games not picked up by ESPN to Turner. 11am on Saturday as a lead-in for another (more prestigious conference), 6pm, or 8pm slots work too.

Regarding ESPN, can USA force NC State or Miss State to move a game to Tuesday for tv? My sense is that answer is for practical purposes, if not in actuality, no. ESPN, by sticking us on Tuesday or Wednesday, is limited to televising conference games.

Here in Boca we're trying out a couple weekday home games at the new on campus stadium. Granted they're only Fridays, and the biggest home games of the year (season opener & first and most likely last REAL home rivalry football game vs FIU on ESPNU). Does the work/school day really kill the mood that much?

But yeah, switch out of ESPN! Hell Fox Sports could even work! NBC Sports Network is doing a solid job going at ESPN for just having rebranded a couple months ago. Great NHL, MLS, and US Soccer coverage so far. The Olympics will really help NBCSN splash on to the scene.

(07-12-2012 12:35 AM)FAUAEPi Wrote:  Here in Boca we're trying out a couple weekday home games at the new on campus stadium. Granted they're only Fridays, and the biggest home games of the year (season opener & first and most likely last REAL home rivalry football game vs FIU on ESPNU). Does the work/school day really kill the mood that much?

Personally as a both a student and now the past two seasons as a young alumni, I love the atmosphere on campus during weekday games. Getting up and tailgating around 10am and all the students being out and about campus, coming over to join the tailgate in between classes and as their classes end. That was what I loved as a student, going to my morning class, going to have a few beers and a couple of brats for lunch and then going to one more class and then heading back to tailgate until the game starts. Granted, after the first fall that we had Thursday games, every subsequent fall semester I scheduled only MWF classes, so I could just spend the entire day tailgating while I watched all the suckers have to come and go throughout the day cursing their professors' attendance policies.

(07-12-2012 12:35 AM)FAUAEPi Wrote:  Here in Boca we're trying out a couple weekday home games at the new on campus stadium. Granted they're only Fridays, and the biggest home games of the year (season opener & first and most likely last REAL home rivalry football game vs FIU on ESPNU). Does the work/school day really kill the mood that much?

Its not that it kills the mood, but we have a lot of fans who travel from out of town for games. Its hard for these fans to travel 2 or 3 hours for a game on a week night because they may not get home till 1 or 2 oclock in the morning, and have to try and work the next day.

Friday's would never work for many SBC teams in states where High School Football is a big deal.

Hell TBS pimped the Braves in the my household for years. I don't see why they couldn't use that platform to show some football. Every Cable provider already has it, and SBC football is better than Everyone Loves Raymond reruns

Being that I work for Turner Broadcasting, I will ask around and see what I can find out.

(07-12-2012 01:01 AM)chiefsfan Wrote:  

(07-12-2012 12:35 AM)FAUAEPi Wrote:  Here in Boca we're trying out a couple weekday home games at the new on campus stadium. Granted they're only Fridays, and the biggest home games of the year (season opener & first and most likely last REAL home rivalry football game vs FIU on ESPNU). Does the work/school day really kill the mood that much?

Its not that it kills the mood, but we have a lot of fans who travel from out of town for games. Its hard for these fans to travel 2 or 3 hours for a game on a week night because they may not get home till 1 or 2 oclock in the morning, and have to try and work the next day.

Friday's would never work for many SBC teams in states where High School Football is a big deal.

Friday works in limited doses. We did a Friday opener last year and drew 27k. But you do not want more than one of those on your schedule.

(07-11-2012 04:54 PM)bluephi1914 Wrote:  Based upon the supposed Bleacher Report deal, it appears that Turner Broadcasting is wanting to become a player in sports broadcasting. My questions is, wouldn't the SBC be better served by working to negotiate a sale of its broadcasting rights from ESPN to Turner and then negotiating a new deal with Turner? We would be the main collegiate conference within its portfolio. Would this be possible? I believe we would be able to fetch some good coin under such a deal.

I think they're already a player in sports broadcasting with their NBA coverage on TNT & NBA-TV. They also have half of the NCAA Tourney. Then there is their MLB coverage.

They have already tested the college football waters when they did their weekly game on TBS with B12 & P10 teams from 2002-2006, but decided to pull out with a year left on their contract. If they were looking to get back into college football, then I highly doubt they'd do it with a lower tier conference as there would be no national interest.

The impact of weeknight games varies by school. If you are drawing most of your crowd from students and people who live 30-45 minutes from the stadium, the impact isn't bad. If you have a lot of people driving an hour or more you are going to get hit hard in attendance.

ESPN isn't the only game in town. And its not like ESPN pushes a lot of SBC football either. Or pays us much for it. So it would make sense to reach out to any producer to see if we can get either more exposure, better payouts, or both.

Quite frankly, I'd like to see the SBC send out an RFP (Request for proposal) based upon the following critieria.

1) Number of games televised on Saturday
2) Total payout
3) Number of games televised on Friday
4) Number of games televised at other times.

Reach out to NBC, TNT, CBS, the regional Foxes, etc. And to ESPN. But I'd refuse to allow our product on the Longhorn Network (no one can see it, and I don't want to pay extra for it). And ESPN 360 doesn't count as televised. I can set up a webcam at a stadium and stream the footage too.

(07-12-2012 04:45 PM)Tom in Lazybrook Wrote:  ESPN isn't the only game in town. And its not like ESPN pushes a lot of SBC football either. Or pays us much for it. So it would make sense to reach out to any producer to see if we can get either more exposure, better payouts, or both.

Quite frankly, I'd like to see the SBC send out an RFP (Request for proposal) based upon the following critieria.

1) Number of games televised on Saturday
2) Total payout
3) Number of games televised on Friday
4) Number of games televised at other times.

Reach out to NBC, TNT, CBS, the regional Foxes, etc. And to ESPN. But I'd refuse to allow our product on the Longhorn Network (no one can see it, and I don't want to pay extra for it). And ESPN 360 doesn't count as televised. I can set up a webcam at a stadium and stream the footage too.

ESPN 360? You mean ESPN3? Sometimes the ESPN3 feed seems is a bit lacking, but ESPN3 has television quality broadcasts as well, it often picks up regional networks, like any time a Sun Belt game is on CSS, it's usually on ESPN3 as well, though that doesn't do you any good if you're in a part of the country where you could have CSS as the ESPN3 feed will be blacked out.