Issue Date: 3/12/07
Area channel not satisfied after first season
By Emily Badger
- Page 1 of 1
The Mountain West Conference had been playing football games on Friday nights, a controversial move that brought criticism from local high schools, college fans and proponents of tradition, all for the sake of a coveted slice of national TV exposure.
Then, in negotiations with ESPN for a new contract two years ago, the network requested a few Tuesday and Wednesday night games, along with 10 p.m. local basketball tipoffs.
"And that's when our board said, 'We will not,'" MWC Commissioner Craig Thompson said. "We will create a new model, do something different, create our own network."
The experiment, in its first full academic year right now, is the first significant attempt of any conference to go at it alone without ESPN - and there were plenty of naysayers saying it wouldn't work.
The MWC paired with start-up CSTV, owned by CBS, and had 48 football games broadcast last fall on either CSTV, Versus (formerly the Outdoor Life Network) or the conference's new 24-hour channel, The Mtn. Fewer homes were reached, but more games were broadcasted # 17 nationally, compared with eight in past years on ESPN or ESPN2. Every school received exposure.
The 10-year, $120 million deal with CSTV and Comcast was worth considerably more than the proposed ESPN package. And, more importantly, 49 of 56 games controlled by the conference were played on Saturdays.
The flip side: There is a lack of exposure. The league needs to convince more cable and satellite providers to pick up the new channels, which aren't available in several MWC markets.
"It has not been without difficulty or disappointment," BYU President Cecil O. Samuelson wrote in an e-mail. "While many more of our games have been broadcast and additional fine MWC coverage has been aired as well, we still do not have the coverage that we hoped for and felt was promised."
He's confident that will change in time.
"When it does, it will clearly show to everyone that the MWC made the right decision," Samuelson wrote. "While our action was a leap of faith, we were and are sustained, because we felt then and feel now that the ESPN arrangement was no longer tolerable."
Friday night games elsewhere - and games on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday - haven't decreased as a result. Grant Teaff, the executive director of the American Football Coaches Association, lobbied ESPN to curtail the trend, but he knew there was no turning back.
"I understand marketplace values; I understand what drives everything," he said. "But you also have to remember it takes two to tango . . . Institutions and conferences want that national coverage and are just about willing to do anything. So you can't lay all of this at the feet of ESPN."
Then, in negotiations with ESPN for a new contract two years ago, the network requested a few Tuesday and Wednesday night games, along with 10 p.m. local basketball tipoffs.
"And that's when our board said, 'We will not,'" MWC Commissioner Craig Thompson said. "We will create a new model, do something different, create our own network."
The experiment, in its first full academic year right now, is the first significant attempt of any conference to go at it alone without ESPN - and there were plenty of naysayers saying it wouldn't work.
The MWC paired with start-up CSTV, owned by CBS, and had 48 football games broadcast last fall on either CSTV, Versus (formerly the Outdoor Life Network) or the conference's new 24-hour channel, The Mtn. Fewer homes were reached, but more games were broadcasted # 17 nationally, compared with eight in past years on ESPN or ESPN2. Every school received exposure.
The 10-year, $120 million deal with CSTV and Comcast was worth considerably more than the proposed ESPN package. And, more importantly, 49 of 56 games controlled by the conference were played on Saturdays.
The flip side: There is a lack of exposure. The league needs to convince more cable and satellite providers to pick up the new channels, which aren't available in several MWC markets.
"It has not been without difficulty or disappointment," BYU President Cecil O. Samuelson wrote in an e-mail. "While many more of our games have been broadcast and additional fine MWC coverage has been aired as well, we still do not have the coverage that we hoped for and felt was promised."
He's confident that will change in time.
"When it does, it will clearly show to everyone that the MWC made the right decision," Samuelson wrote. "While our action was a leap of faith, we were and are sustained, because we felt then and feel now that the ESPN arrangement was no longer tolerable."
Friday night games elsewhere - and games on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday - haven't decreased as a result. Grant Teaff, the executive director of the American Football Coaches Association, lobbied ESPN to curtail the trend, but he knew there was no turning back.
"I understand marketplace values; I understand what drives everything," he said. "But you also have to remember it takes two to tango . . . Institutions and conferences want that national coverage and are just about willing to do anything. So you can't lay all of this at the feet of ESPN."
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