Jon Joseph    No. 1 Share Posted February 18, 2022 Jim Delaney was the man who came up with the idea for a network dedicated to single conference's athletics. The B1G Network has been a home run for the conference.  Delaney also was prescient enough to take less media money a few years back so the B1G would be the first at the table to renegotiate media rights in 2023, before the Pac-12 deal ends in 2024 and the B12 deal ends in 2025. ESPN and the SEC have already altered their media rights deal that will increase when TX/OK join the SEC. The ACC, unless Notre Dame joins as a full time football member, is stuck with a deal with ESPN through 2036 that pays each ACC team $17M a year plus a payout from the ESPN owned ACC Network.  The B1G is now being paid $440M per annum for its tier 1 media rights. The Athletic's Andy Staples, after discussion with Delaney who is now a CFB consultant, and various media rights experts, expects that beginning in July of 2023, the new B1G media deal will bring in $1B per annum. In addition, add the B1G Network revenue and payouts from the CBB tourney and the expected expanded CFB playoff field and every B1G school will be bringing in approximately $100M a year. The only conference that will be able to come close to this kind of revenue is the SEC.  The writing has been on the wall for quite some time. The B1G and the SEC will have far more money and power than will the ACC, B12 and the Pac-12.  The Pac-12's media deal(s) will increase come 2024, but will come nowhere nowhere close to the B1G/SEC deals. Expect the same crummy kickoff times, The same lousy Pac-12 Network coverage; or, and more likely, the financially insolvent network going bankrupt. Also, expect the best coaches and players in every sport to be targeted by SEC teams in particular, and also by the B1G.  Under the above described financial circumstances will the Pac-12 conference hold together? Will USC be content with a lesser media deal that it has to split equally with Washington State? If they are not doing so now, sub rosa, shouldn't UW, Oregon and USC, to name 3 financially viable conference members, be reaching out to the B1G to expand west?  Also, run any likely projection of a 12 team playoff field and season after season both the B1G and the SEC will likely put at least 3 teams each in the field while the Pac-12 struggles to get 2 in the field.  CFB is Big Business. Stand still in big business and you most definitely fall behind.   Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quackerbacker    No. 2 Share Posted February 18, 2022 Hey we are the conference of Olympic champions!! And we have our academic standards to uphold! It's not always about money!  Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Joseph   Author  No. 3 Share Posted February 18, 2022 On 2/18/2022 at 12:50 PM, Quackerbacker said: Hey we are the conference of Olympic champions!! And we have our academic standards to uphold! It's not always about money!  Correct, when it comes to Oly sports its not always about money. But when it comes to CBB and CFB, it most certainly is about the $. $ that pays for the Oly sports.  Academics? 13 of the 14 B1G member schools are AAU member universities. Nebraska is the outlier, but Nebraska was an AAU member when it joined the conference. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
