We've talked this to death and it isn't gonna change...but..

[Flipper]

It's a PERFECT Saturday for football...WTF are we doing playing on Halloween night?

[FalconTurf]

Avoiding sights, sounds and traditions of college football in the mid-west.

[BGSU33]

I actually love that we didn’t play today. It kept my Saturday from being ruined yet again. It’s only the second Saturday in the past two months I’ve been able to say that.

[bowlgreen]

Need to google ESPN contracts....in general, MAC schools went from 150k a game to around 650k a game under new contract as ESPN wishes to move football to the open 2 nights of the week.

[Dayons_Den]

Recruiting.

Both of student-athletes and non-student athletes.

The MACtion games are by far the best bang for the buck marketing the university spends to reach those outside of the natural "State of Bowling Green" to use a Clawson-ism.

[Schadenfreude]

As long as we are getting many of our games on ESPNU or better, I support weeknight #MACtion.

[bowlgreen]

500,000 more per game x 7 year deal....$3.5M more for BG per game

Moreover, the original thursday night airings of MAC schools a decade ago is what moved the MAC from the 11th best conference up to the 8th best in college football.

If MAC said NOT to Tue/Wed as Northern Illinois wanted us too (11 AD's voted yes, Northern IL voted no), the Sun Belt or Conf USA would have said yes and we would have gone backwards both in recruiting and in money.

This was a no brainer.

[Flipper]

Actually..it's far from a "no brainer". It's only a no brainer if you think being number 8 instead of number 11 is worth alienating your students, alums and local population. For the privilege of being streamed on a website while we play in front of...maybe dozens of people..we get a few hundred thou.

But then...I think ridding ourselves of this ridiculous obsession with being called a D1 school is a "no brainer"

[hammb]

Actually..it's far from a "no brainer". It's only a no brainer if you think being number 8 instead of number 11 is worth alienating your students, alums and local population. For the privilege of being streamed on a website while we play in front of...maybe dozens of people..we get a few hundred thou.

But then...I think ridding ourselves of this ridiculous obsession with being called a D1 school is a "no brainer"

The numbers this "no brainer" are built upon are total bullshit as well.

For one it includes Hoops as well. Does hoops generate much, if any, of that revenue? Probably not, but it is still included.

It is also included that the universities put forth their own productions. That means buying and maintaining equipment capable of producing and uploading these broadcasts to ESPN3. It also means being responsible for staffing whatever it takes to put these productions together; and the fact that it includes hoops as well as football entails a much LARGER cost/burden to maintain these productions than would be the case for football only.

Now don't get me wrong, I love that I can catch every road basketball game on ESPN3. I also love that it is a great opportunity to students to cut their teeth in broadcasting/production. For that reason I do agree there is value in taking on the production burden. But if we're going to call it a "no brainer" for $500k a year, let's at least get the math right. It's not like we're putting all that revenue in as straight profit. And if the MAC ever were to become a legit good hoops conference again, we wouldn't make any single extra cent off that because we sold our hoops soul along with screwing over our football fans.

[FalconTurf]

We've got this great contract for football but last Thursday (Oct 26) the USA Today published the average pay for each conferences pay:
SEC $4.2 mill
B10 $3.8 mill
PAC12 $3.6 mill
B12 $3.4 mill
ACC $3.4 mill
American $1.6 mill
Mountain W $980,000
Conf USA $770,000
Sun Belt $610,000
MAC $520,000
Something is wrong with this picture if we are so well compensated and are clearly 10th (AKA LAST) on this list
http://sports.usatoday.com/ncaa/salaries/
- unfortunately does not show conference breakdown above as shown in paper copy

[Class of 61]

The link you referred to, shows COACHES salaries, FOOTBALL only ( head coaches). I know a couple of sun belt schools jumped their HC $$ quite a bit.
And I'm pretty sure the $650k mentioned is NOT a PER GAME deal. Had someone from ADept explain that ALL ESPN $, BOWL$ etc is put into a pool, shared among conf., less extra shares for bowl teams etc.

[FalconTurf]

Exactly, this isn't what we make but what we pay our coaches. It's seems to me if we have all this great income from this great deal to play weeknight games we would be able to pay our coaches enough to be above #10 in average salaries for head coaches. I see the exposure aspect IF kids are home watching college football on Tuesday and not participating in a winter sport or going to other high school events or studying or working or sleeping. I just don't see the income or exposure paying off in expanding the fan base or allowing the programs to spend like those of other conferences.

[bowlgreen]

https://www.hustlebelt.com/2014/8/19/60 ... pn-tv-deal" target="_blank

[bowlgreen]

Each MAC school will gain about $850,000 a year from ESPN. Previously it was $120,000. But as most of the ADs who were interviewed stated...it was for the exposure.

Yes guys, this is about money. And yes, I agree it ruins the SAT experience in November. But unfortunately, when someone waves an 800 percent profit increase at you, there is reason for the 11 to 1 vote.

[Clubber]

You can argue the recruiting and marketing angle, but it's just as Hammb explained, there are a ton of hidden costs included in this deal. Maybe you wouldn't draw fans on Saturdays in November anyway, but Tuesday and Wednesday night games are for gamblers. The exposure we get is all BS inflated numbers that ADs and the MAC throw out. If it was such a "no brainer" deal, the MAC would be much more transparent on the details of the deal.