Nov. 6, 2011
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By Marc Daniels
UCFAthletics.com
ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFAthletics.com) - Understanding the ever-changing dynamics of conference realignment can be quite confusing. So to simplify the process we shall talk pizza for a moment. Everyone loves pizza. It's tasty, fresh, hot and sometimes has delicious toppings on it and it can even be delivered right to your door before a big game.
Some pizzerias slice their pies different than others. For example, in New York you are likely to order a pizza and find the kind gentleman behind the counter use his rolling slicer to divide the pizza into six evenly cut slices. If you are really hungry, this can be a terrific option. It provides a lot of pizza per slice. Some places cut their pizza into eight slices. It's certainly acceptable and can still satisfy a craving appetite. Any pizza cut into ten or 12 slices is now called an appetizer, it's no longer a meal. Still with me?
The question in conference realignment is how big is your slice of the pie? How much television money is your slice worth? And whether you agree or disagree if the system is fair, it's the reality of college athletics.
Conference USA has been a great league for UCF. It has provided the Knights a home for all their athletic teams and has allowed them to compete at a high level for championships at both a conference and national level. It has brought exposure to UCF teams and has helped expand the brand of the university.
In the landscape of television contracts, Conference USA has partnerships with FOX and CBS. The recent media rights package brought the annual television revenue for the conference to about $14 million per year. It is a significant increase over the previous agreement. With 12 teams sharing revenue equally, the payout per school is just over $1 million.
Last year when the Pac 12 announced its new television contract it introduced its partners. Those partners include ESPN, ABC and FOX. In addition, the league announced the formation of their own digital network to provide programming for all its sports on a variety of platforms. It is estimated that each member of the Pac 12 will receive between $25-30 million per year beginning in 2012. In case you missed that, the number is $25-30 million per year.
Let's break for some math for a moment. Over the course of a five year period a member of the Pac 12 stands to receive between $125-150 million in television revenue while members of Conference USA stand to get just over $5 million during that same time frame. To further compare, Pac 12 member Washington State University is located in Pullman, Wash. According to the 2010 census, the population of Pullman is 29,799. The Orlando metro area is called home by over 2 million people. And while not everyone in the central Florida region is a UCF fan, you can still see how UCF enrollment, at almost 60,000, is double the population of the city of Pullman.
There is no knock on Washington State here. It's a fine school with a long and deep history. The point is Washington State was founded in 1890. It happened to be around when the original planners of the league invited the Cougars to join in their second year. That second year was 1917. UCF was founded 47 years later in 1963.While teams from Washington State have had success on the playing field, their path to the colossal payday of today can be traced to their existence date. The city of Pullman is likely to not see a 1000 percent increase in population any time soon. In the meantime, Orlando is an international city with a population base that has it among the top 20 markets in the country.
Enough about Washington State, let's talk about...Boise State. While many national college sports scribes have had a good laugh at the notion of Boise State joining a conference called the Big East and playing in the west division, most of those media types don't want to present facts because would get in the way of their comedy routine.
Why are we talking about Boise State? Good question. But they have some of the same financial needs like UCF when it comes to television revenue. As a member of the Mountain West, and that long history totals one year, Boise State receives about $1.4 million per year in television revenue. Over the last decade Boise State has established itself as a top program in college football. It has not only played, but won BCS games and has multiple undefeated seasons. But Boise State is located in Idaho, a long way from the lights of Broadway and other eastern cities where Big East teams call home.
So why is Boise State open to the idea of joining the Big East, even if it's for football only? The same reason UCF may be open to joining a new league. Money. No one is knocking Conference USA or the Mountain West. They are great leagues for all of their members. But the Pac 12 example listed above is one of five examples of television packages where the numbers cannot be overlooked.
Do you know what all those television dollars can do for schools? It pays to cover cost of non-revenue sports. It pays to build new facilities. It pays to cover athletics expenses that currently stretch your biggest donors during economically challenging times. It pays to keep coaches that might no longer think about leaving because there is a higher paying job somewhere else. It puts you on television in markets that had paid no attention to you before. It provides you a better chance to compete on a national scale. And to cut to the bottom line, it allows you to compete on a more level playing field financially.
Vanderbilt, one of the great academic institutions in the country, has been playing football since 1890. It has been a member of the SEC since 1934. Over the last 50 seasons, Vanderbilt has three winning seasons. Yet, because of its membership in the SEC it will receive the same amount of television revenue as Alabama, LSU, Florida, Auburn and the rest of the league members. That amount totals just over $17 million and will likely increase as the SEC plans to re-open its television contract with its partners with the new additions to the league. The point? It's not just about wins and losses, but it's about who you are partners with.
As the Big East moves toward defining its membership, some of those same media critics question the value of a new television contract. It is a valid question. But the current Big East television contract pays all sports members over $3 million and non-football schools make $1.56 million a year. So Seton Hall, a non-football playing member of the Big East makes more in television revenue that Boise State does as a top five football program over the last three years. See the picture a little better know?
The Big East will sit down with potential television partners and discuss interest and dollars in a new television deal. Will the league land a Pac 12 type agreement? Likely not. But skeptics who mock the Big East and what they may get in television revenue are purposely not looking at how television networks operate. Sports are vehicles for networks to promote prime time programming. They are avenues for large sponsors to reach a desired demographic made up of loyal and passionate consumers. Oh, and there's this other nugget television networks like. That would be large populated markets. In all due respect to Pullman, Wash., the Pac 12 media deal is more about Los Angeles, San Francisco, Phoenix, Denver and Seattle.
In addition, there are more suitors today than a year ago in regards to conference television rights. NBC/Comcast, FOX and CBS are all major players these days with new sports network divisions and all are looking for programming and programming that delivers large television markets and popular college brands. Some television analysts believe a new Big East media package could be worth as much as $10-$15 million per school for all-sports members and about $5-$7 million for non-football members. While it may not be equal to deals of the Pac 12, Big 10 or SEC, it is significantly larger than the existing agreement. Can you imagine what UCF could do with an extra $60 million over a five year period?
One last point those critics also bring up. Many wonder about the makeup of the Bowl Championship Series for the future after the current agreement expires in two years. BCS Executive Director Bill Hancock said recently on my radio show that no one knows what the new deal will be. He expects the BCS to continue because there is no desire by the powers who run college football, that would be university presidents, for a playoff. As for who gets automatic bids for BCS games? That is a vote by conferences. Each conference gets one vote. By the way, do know the rule that the BCS has to take an automatic BCS slot away? You don't. There is no such rule.
No one can predict the future. But times are changing in college athletics. Money has and always will be a factor. He who has it cannot guarantee success, but it allows you a greater margin for error in trying to achieve success. Just because a school existed a century before UCF does not mean it deserves to always make more in athletic television revenue. As one of the nation's largest universities, UCF has put itself in position to get a bigger slice of the pie, no matter how it's sliced.
Knights notes and more: Basketball season begins this week. Had a chance to catch up with former UCF all-American Jermaine Taylor at halftime of the exhibition game on Saturday. Taylor is waiting for the NBA lockout to end and said there are many as 16 teams that contacted him before the lockout. He expects to land on a roster once the games begin...Kevin Smith got an invite to work out for the Lions again last week. Smith is hoping for another shot somewhere now that he says he is 100 percent....A wonderful night at the UCF Athletics Hall of Fame Dinner this past Friday. The class of inductees touched a number of sports and contributors to the athletic program. Those contributors included Art Zeleznik and Manny Messeguer. I remember Art showing renderings of an on-campus stadium years before Bright House Networks Stadium existed. Messeguer delivered an emotional speech in which Manny said how much the university has done for him on a night he was being honored for everything he has done for the university. The event's theme highlighted how special the UCF family is...Final thought: After a meeting in downtown Orlando last Friday, I walked back to my car parked on the street of a busy intersection. I pressed the button on my key to unlock my car door. But the lights on the car, which normally blink when the doors are unlocked, did not blink. I pressed the key button a few times. Nothing. So I manually unlocked the door and my security alarm went off. And it blasted downtown Orlando. I have no idea how to turn the alarm off and find myself doing what most men in situations like that do. After first giving thought to pulling the battery wire out, I called my wife. I have no idea what she would have been able to do, but it seemed like a good idea. As the alarm is blasting people are walking by and several said to me to press the red emergency button on the key. Did they mean the button I had been pressing for the last five minutes? Along came a parking meter attendant and I am thinking is it possible to get a ticket for an expired meter while my car alarm is going off? Instead he suggested I try and turn the car on to stop the alarm. Which worked. I would have eventually gotten around to that idea....by Sunday.
Marc Daniels' From the Press Box runs several times per month on UCFAthletics.com. Listen to Marc during UCF football, men's basketball and baseball radio broadcasts on the UCF Sports Network. Each weekday, Marc hosts The Beat of Sports on ESPN Radio 1080 in Orlando.