(06-23-2019 10:13 PM)Steve1981 Wrote: BruceMcF you make sense but money will be a rub. Know some complained when it was costing each institution 80k to add us. Now the figure is almost three time 80k or 240k. (119k is the difference of 10m by 12 or 14 for both TV and 1M per university up to 10m in CFP revenue.) Perhaps ESPN gives a little more and we agree to take a little less.
Not talking about adding UMass all-sports ... UMass already turned that down ... talking about a FB-affiliate deal only alongside UConn, on similar sporting terms as before ... four OOC BBall games each, 2H/2A.
Eat what you kill: if ESPN tops up the contract to include the affiliates in it, the affiliates get the top up. The CFP money goes to the full members, full stop.
If UMass/UConn come in as affiliates, it's for things like the bowl access, including chase for the Access Bowl if you win the championship.
Quote: Perhaps focusing too much on the dollars for the MAC. Both UConn and UMass would fit in nicely and very good academics that the presidents like. Plus the east coast exposure is good for the MAC, without seriously impacting the travel budgets as just a few sports and with divisions is a good offset.
The money is what would tilt the "meh, whatever" to "no" and the "mildly in favor" to "undecided". Could flip MiamiU, EMU, Ball State to No's, might nudge NIU, WMU, CMU from "Mild yes" to "undecided".
Quote: Heck, why not demand 6 bb games each so every team gets one of us every year.
Because that
would require a much more generous revenue share, which could easily kill the deal.
All that said, if UConn offered to host an annual early season exhibition against previous season Mac Champion and Regular Season winner against UConn and an invitee, in exchange for the MAC agreeing to a scheduling agreement for UConn OOC games against MAC schools in the second half of October, that would be something, and it wouldn't risk a continuation of a series of FB-only affiliate deals with short tenures and overall disappointing results.