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From ESPN:

Networks will air football, hoops and more

Associated Press
BRISTOL, Conn. -- Conference USA announced a six-year deal with ESPN on Tuesday to have the league's football and men's and women's basketball games broadcast by the network.

The deal begins with the 2005-06 season and runs through 2010-11. It replaces the existing eight-year agreement that began in 2001-02.

ESPN will carry the C-USA football title game that begins next year and will have first pick of 10 regular-season games a season to televise on ESPN or ESPN2. It will have first selection of six men's basketball and three women's basketball games each season to show on ESPN and ESPN2, plus the conference championships.

The league also announced a deal with College Sports Television to have more than 50 football games a season televised by the network. CSTV also will show more than 100 men's basketball games and 10-15 women's games a season, along with early-round coverage of the conference tournaments.

The network also will provide coverage of other C-USA sports -- such as volleyball, baseball, softball and men's and women's soccer.

CSTV has the rights to produce the conference's official Web site.

The C-USA members are: Army, Charlotte, Cincinnati, DePaul, East Carolina, Houston, Louisville, Marquette, Memphis, Saint Louis, South Florida, Southern Miss, TCU, Tulane and UAB


Now why cant the MAC ink a deal with ESPN. The MAC is much better than C-USA in football!

bgsufan1972 wrote:Now why cant the MAC ink a deal with ESPN. The MAC is much better than C-USA in football!

We have.

Conference USA will get a couple more football games on each season than we do (and six basketball games).

That's almost equal in football... but a lot more money from ESPN.

The real question for me is when the MAC will improve its second tier contract.

I don't think we make a red cent from Fox Sports. The Mountain West and Conference USA are getting millions from this CSTV outfit, and ESPN is about to launch its own college sports network.

It seems to me a bidding war has emerged for college sports. Hopefully, we stand to benefit.

The C-USA members are: Army, Charlotte, Cincinnati, DePaul, East Carolina, Houston, Louisville, Marquette, Memphis, Saint Louis, South Florida, Southern Miss, TCU, Tulane and UAB

I wonder why they didn't list the new C-USA alignment.

I agree. I don't think there is a problem here at this point. Give a few more days for the details and super fine print to emerge, and I'm sure there are some holes in the deal.

The MACs deal is worth more now than it was when the league signed it. So I don't know how motivated ESPN would be to change the deal. However they need contenct, and the MAC is hotter than CUSA right now as it has been for several years. I suspect the CUSA deal has a clause allowing it to be reworked if the league tanks, breaks apart, or otherwise dies on the field.

With the CUSA deal being announced first, I would think we hear of a revised deal for the MAC either this or next year.

NWLB wrote:With the CUSA deal being announced first, I would think we hear of a revised deal for the MAC either this or next year.

I have my doubts about that. Our ESPN deal is fairly long term -- through 08-09, I think.

My thought is that we might be able to play ESPNU, CSTV and Fox Sports off each other a bit for secondary rights.

CSTV is dropping some real coin right now. They paid the Mountain West something like $11 million per year for exclusive rights and they will be paying Conference USA something like $6 million or $8 million for secondary rights.

Either CSTV is vastly overpaying right now -- or ESPN was underpaying because of its dominant market position.