MAC & ESPN agree to new 13-year deal

[BGSU33]

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story ... ights-deal" target="_blank

[San Diego Falcon]

The MAC just loves them empty stadiums on Tuesdays and Wednesdays in November.

[jpfalcon09]

ESPN needs inventory and things to grow ESPN3 with. I wouldn't be shocked if ESPN3 ends up being a cable and satellite channel in the near future with these contracts. They now have the MAC and AAC signed long-term. If anything this might be the saving grace for FBS football since ESPN needs the G5 around to fill mid-week content. I would say if anything this deal gives the MAC some much needed stability.

[BGSU33]

Saw a tweet that said the new deal is worth over $100M over 13 years and that each MAC school goes from getting $90K per year in the old deal to $650K in the new one!!! Great news!

[thewebboy]

Saw a tweet that said the new deal is worth over $100M over 13 years and that each MAC school goes from getting $90K per year in the old deal to $650K in the new one!!! Great news!

That may soften the blow to our athletic budget if the P5 stop scheduling MAC schools.

[Schadenfreude]

Saw a tweet that said the new deal is worth over $100M over 13 years and that each MAC school goes from getting $90K per year in the old deal to $650K in the new one!!! Great news!

Per year? If true: Wow!

[thewebboy]

I don't mind the weeknight games, but I think it should be limited to 2 per team (1 home, 1 away)

Also, every team should play on the same day (Fri or Sat) the last game of the season. This way everyone would have equal prep time for the championship game.

Even though we took care of NIU last year, I remember thinking it wasn't right they had 3 extra days to prep and get healthy.

[Falcon Fanatic]

http://www.hustlebelt.com/mac-football/ ... -questions" target="_blank

[mscarn]

http://www.hustlebelt.com/mac-football/ ... -questions

Fantastic article.

The mid-week games ruin home attendance and the confinement of the rest (aka 80% of the season) to obscure internet feeds instead of other cable channels limits the number of people that can see the games on TV. Lose/Lose for 650K a year.

[Beaker]

Jiminez makes a lot of good points in this article. When you look at little deeper, past the initial figures, this deal has some troubling aspects to it.

Being someone that lives 3 hours away from BG, I hate the midweek games because it keeps me from attending games that I would be there for if they were played on Saturdays. I understand the flip side arguments about the tv exposure it gets us and I know you can never please everyone, but putting all of our eggs in the ESPN basket at the expense of cutting off other opportunites makes me uneasy. I've never been a fan of putting too much power in the hands of one entity, whether it be football, political power or anything else.

[hammb]

So let me get this straight. We continue to make peanuts from ESPN on the new deal. We continue to schedule and play games on weekdays, alienating the fanbase that wants to attend them, so that they can put the games on television (and by that I mean 90% of the games end up on ESPN3).

In doing so we also gave up ALL TV rights to basketball and several olympic sports? Meaning that local & Fox Sports broadcasted hoops games are a thing of the past? Meaning that the games will only hit an internet stream if it is ESPN3...no more free streams on bgsufalcons.com?

WOw...this deal really blows if that's all the case. I'm sure that ESPN is mandated by the terms of the deal to air a certain number of hoops games, but I bet very few of those will hit actual TV channels rather than ESPN3. If that's the case we actually LOST exposure on this deal. The MAC TV basketball games and the internet streams were things I watched all the time to catch road games...now I'll have no access to any of it because I'm one of the millions and millions of Americans who DO NOT have access to ESPN3. Like it or not people in charge, that is NOT a real TV station...it's a tightly controlled largely inaccessible internet stream. Taking the games there doesn't increase exposure it decreases it drastically.

The people who were willing to log into an internet stream and watch a hoops game were already able to do that...now a large number of them (myself included) will not be able to.

Thanks MAC...enjoy your pennies on the dollar while you continue to rape your fanbase...my god I hate this conference sometimes...

[gmartin]

Directv should try and work out a deal to add all ESPN3 broadcasts somehow. As a Directv customer it sucks I can't access ESPN3. I buy the extra football and basketball packages but there are still hundreds of games I can't access.

[Schadenfreude]

This is a good deal. It keeps #MACtion on ESPN in November. It almost quintuples TV revenue. I remember when the only MAC football game we could get on national television was the California Bowl. If we want to maintain our exposure, we need to play some games on cold November Tuesday and Wednesday nights. I don't love those games, either, but that's the reality. I think the conference did well here.

[kdog27]

This is a good deal. It keeps #MACtion on ESPN in November. It almost quintuples TV revenue. I remember when the only MAC football game we could get on national television was the California Bowl. If we want to maintain our exposure, we need to play some games on cold November Tuesday and Wednesday nights. I don't love those games, either, but that's the reality. I think the conference did well here.

+1

[AyZiggy97]

The number of people on this board who decry streaming in favor of traditional television is amazing. I've thought I was in prehistoric times by the number of people who have dropped their form of cable altogether. ESPN3 and streaming is where the growth is, not traditional teevee.

All things being equal, I'd rather be with ESPN. It's a love-hate relationship, but people look at you differently if you're not with them. The Big East has every men's basketball home game on Fox Sports 1 and a lot of people last year viewed them as some kind of mid major. It was being compared to the A10. Yes the football teams left, but of equal consideration was bolting ESPN for more money with FS1.