Jump to content

gangrene

Members
  • Posts

    3,137
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    4
  • Points

    1,765 [ Donate ]

Everything posted by gangrene

  1. Personally, I agree with that philosophy and I think Texas and OU will regret the decision to stay in the Big 12 lite in the not too distant future. How many times have you heard the media criticize the Big 10 and Pac 10 for playing weaker schedules and NOT having a conference championship game? Now, both the Big 10 and Pac 10 have 12 teams and will likely have conference championship games, along with the SEC. Meanwhile, the Big 12(-2) is going in the opposite direction. Who's right and who's wrong?
  2. Correct, they don't want a championship game because they fear an extra loss could keep them from a BCS game and money. But, they are truly naive if they think a Big XII and/or Longhorn TV network is going to make them as much money as they've been told. Once they find out the numbers won't hold up over time, the conference realignment mess will start up again. Anybody can throw some meaningless figures down on a piece of paper and make promises they can't keep. http://www.youtube.c...h?v=VRrMu7B1L2I
  3. The adage "keep your friends close and your enemies closer" might be appropriate for UTSA and Texas State right now. It remains to be seen if they are friends or enemies, but it sure would be hard to accept if either of those schools went to the WAC and turned that into a CUSA or MWC bid, while we sit and twiddle our thumbs in the SBC. Surprisingly, those two schools have been mentioned as possibilities for both the WAC and CUSA, and not just by random internet posters. UTSA already has future games scheduled and contracted with Arizona, Arizona State, Kansas State, Houston and Baylor. You know, that's not a bad idea. The WAC is losing a bowl with Boise State and we just happen to be opening up a new stadium that same year. Coincidence? I happen to think our new stadium will be much better than the blue turf in Idaho.
  4. I'm even coming around to the idea of adding Texas State and UTSA to the WAC if we decided to move. Like it or not, those two schools seem to be getting quite a bit of national attention, if not credibility, lately. For us, that could mean reduced travel costs and, hopefully, two teams that we should dominate for a few years. That would be two wins over FBS schools, which has been our season average over the last several years. All the recruiting benefits of playing in San Antonio that is supposedly getting schools like Arizona, Arizona State, K-State, Baylor and Houston to schedule UTSA would also exist for North Texas. At the very least, I think we should seriously consider putting them on a future schedule.
  5. I'm afraid I have to agree with KRAM on this one. I just don't know what good it would do to publicly announce our intentions to join another conference. East Carolina's AD publicly announced their desire to move to the Big East and CUSA's desire to "absorb" the Big XII leftovers. He was premature in his announcement and actually looks quite silly now. The schools you mentioned, TCU and Houston, have had significantly more football success recently than North Texas has. Unfortunately, for that reason, we'd be publicly ridiculed if our AD announced we were actively pursuing an invite to the MWC or Big XII. Even if we were able to get into a different conference, you can be assured there would be many who'd question our worthiness because our recent football record has been less than stellar. Sure, we know we have improved the overall program by leaps and bounds but that doesn't translate to support by the general public or the media. Any conference president willing to invite UNT to join their conference would, no doubt, have to defend that decision to members and fans of that conference.
  6. I have to ask, what is your medium of choice for this "media attention" you seek? Local TV news? Local newspaper? How about the internet? Or ESPN News? I understand these were very valid concerns several years ago but I can't agree with the lack of media coverage argument for playing in the Pacific time zone any longer. Now, that being said, I'm neither for or against joining the WAC. However, I think we need to seriously consider any and all options at this point. Boise State was able to achieve a tremendous amount of success in the WAC. Perhaps we could achieve the same? Regardless, I don't think it's the conference that's the problem. If we were to amass a 12-0 record while playing in the SBC, I have no doubt we'd be a top 25 team. Do that two or three years in a row and we'd be right where Boise State and TCU are now. Of course we'd have to sprinkle in a few quality OOC victories in those undefeated seasons.
  7. I don't want to elaborate too much, but FSN works on something closely resembling the good ole boys network. DeLoss Dodds strikes me as someone that fluently speaks the good ole boys language. FSN has 24 different regional sports networks (14 FSN-branded affiliates) and, for the most part, they all operate independently. They always want special consideration when discussing ratings. Instead of negotiating on a true Nielsen Designated Marketing Area (DMA) basis, they always try to get buyers to exclude non-cable/satellite TV households so they can artificially inflate their ratings. This tactic is not unique to FSN but it is certainly not an industry standard practice, nor is generally accepted. In addition, they tend to whore out their sports broadcasts with as many in-game sponsorships as they can. Watch a Texas Rangers game and you'll see the Sonic grand slam inning, the Gatorade replay, about four automotive manufacturer sponsorships i.e. "drive of the game" "keys to the game" etc. etc. and several others. There is no limit to the number of sponsorships they'll allow within a given sports property and there's no limit to the number of things they'll slap a corporate logo on. They're probably even out trying to get Barbasol to sponsor the "pie in the face" post-game interview. The true value of these sponsorships tends to be difficult to ascertain and they just throw out random costs without substantiating them. Then, they seal the deal by offering countless tickets. All of it is very much in the "good ole boy" style. Quite frankly, I'm amazed, if not impressed, that they are able to convince so many companies to buy these sponsorships in today's economic environment. However, as a viewer, I'm a bit dismayed by the sponsorship overkill and I think it severely cheapens the viewing experience. I have no doubt they'll try to cram as many of these sponsorships into Big 12(-2) football broadcasts as they possibly can and that's where they think the majority of the TV money promised to the Big 12(-2) schools can be made. Aside from the advertising perspective, I find Fox Sports broadcasts to be lacking in the quality department. I don't tend to notice sports broadcasters unless they are really bad. And some of the announcers on their football games are absolutely horrible. I mean ESPN+ bad. And I can recall numerous occasions on which a home run, touchdown or other key play was not shown live because someone at FSN was sleeping when the play occurred. However, I'd much prefer a crappy announcer and poor quality broadcast over only having the option of listening to a game on the radio (sorry Dunham). Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with FSN, ESPN or any other sports network nor am I a disgruntled FSN employee. These comments are solely based on my observations/experiences with FSN.
  8. ESPN, Microsoft to Deliver ESPN3 Via Xbox Live This should be exciting and welcome news for North Texas fans since we have several games per year broadcast on the former ESPN 360. Those with an Xbox 360 and Xbox Live will be able to view the streamed video games over their big screen TV. As a PS3 owner, I'm a bit envious. (It's reportedly an exclusive, multi-year deal with Microsoft/Xbox, so don't get your hopes up that they'll add PS3 in the near future.) However, I'd actually consider purchasing an Xbox 360 for this feature alone. I've connected my laptop to the TV for ESPN 360 games in the past, but the Xbox option sounds a bit more practical and frees up my laptop to do other things while still watching the game. It also wouldn't be a bad idea for Wright Waters to start thinking about negotiating a contract with ESPN to show all non-televised SBC games on ESPN 3. (Full article posted because it's from a trade magazine and will require a password to view the archive tomorrow.) ESPN, Microsoft to Deliver ESPN3 Via Xbox Live June 14, 2010 -By Mike Shields Microsoft's Xbox is a hugely popular platform for sports games. Starting this November, the gaming console will become home to thousands of real-life sporting events. ESPN has inked an exclusive, multi-year deal with Microsoft to deliver ESPN3 (formerly ESPN360) via Xbox Live, the Web-based entertainment platform which reaches over 20 million gamers worldwide. That means Xbox Live subscribers will be able to stream over 3,500 live events, ranging from college bowl games to Grand Slam tennis tournaments--as well as on demand video clips and highlights. The deal marks the first time the ESPN3 will be available to a significant number of viewers on TV. Excluding the small number of Americans who currently connect their TVs to the Internet in some fashion to their computers, ESPN3 is primarily available online only to subscribers of select Internet service providers which are ESPN affiliates, including Comcast, AT&T, Verizon and Cox—representing 50 million households overall. The pact also presents one of the first opportunities for Xbox to offer its subscribers live content. While the fast growing Xbox Live service has become a central entertainment hub for many users, it's content is composed mostly of movies and TV shows, rather than live television. Xbox users who want to watch live games via Xbox Live must receive their Internet service from those same ESPN affiliates and must also be Xbox Live Gold members. As part of the new integration, besides live video, Xbox members will be able to see what other Xbox gamers are viewing in real time, and interact with other fans via trivia contests, polls, and prediction questions. For ESPN, the partnership provides access to a hard to reach demographic (male skewing, entertainment junkie gamers), while helping market the still under-the-radar ESPN3. But according to John Kosner, ESPN's svp and gm of digital media, getting ESPN3 on TV was not the primarily motivator. "No, it's not about getting TV," he said. "The idea of having a live sporting experience and sharing it friends, that was a novel, interesting new experience [with this deal]. People watch sports on TV all day long. But you have to drop off Xbox if you watch the World cup on TV. This way we get to really embed the live experience in Xbox, and it gives us a chance to be relevant and interesting to a new audience."
  9. Well, the wing/tail/whatever you want to call it definitely distinguishes the stadium. However, that's the first thing every person I've shown the stadium drawings has commented on, and the comments have never been flattering. I just hope it looks better in person than it does in the drawings.
  10. I don't think there is any doubt that the Big 12 - 2 and without a championship game is a much weaker conference. It may not be clear to the Texas administration now but it's certainly clear to the UT alumni and fans, and it will be clear in the polls and the BCS computers as well. To Texas' credit, they have scheduled some tougher OOC games in Ohio State, TCU, Arkansas (not what they used to be) in the recent past and have BYU and UCLA already on future schedules. Still, they will definitely need to keep the OOC schedule filled with winning programs and hope they don't catch those programs on down years when they play them. One tough OOC game per year may not be enough to keep them in contention for a national title. But I really think this hurts a school like Texas Tech more than any other. Tech's OOC schedule is always a true cake walk and, up until now, they've been relying solely on the quality of the Big XII teams to keep themselves relevant in the Top 25. The last time Tech played a decent OOC team was in 2006 and they lost to TCU 12-3. Since then, they've stuck to scheduling OOC games against teams like Northwestern State, Eastern Washington, Massachusetts and North Dakota. They open this year against SMU but I bet they wouldn't have scheduled them if they knew they'd be coming off of bowl win.
  11. That sounds great. Where can we buy these building programs and how much do they cost? Can this be done within NCAA rules and regulations? Wait...out preform?? Does that mean we're all going to scrap our current programs and start from scratch? I really like our chances in that scenario but thoses other schools might not agree. Sorry...just couldn't resist.
  12. Rather that sit pat, wipe the sweat from their brows in relief, I think the smaller conferences, WAC, CUSA and SBC should seize the opportunity to make some major waves of their own. The Big XII is doing away with their conference championship game because the revenue doesn't outweigh the risk of losing a shot at a national championship game. The smaller conferences won't generate that same level of revenue but they also don't face the same risk of losing a conference championship game. I think one or two of these conferences should merge to make the 16 team super conferences all the experts were predicting. The absence of the Big XII championship creates an opportunity for them to showcase their conferences' best teams on a weekend that has very little competition for college football viewers.
  13. You're right, I guess I wrote Missouri off last week. So, add Missouri back in the Big 12 mix and it actually helps out, but still not enough to compete with the total households of the Big 10 footprint. For Missouri, you can add in #21 St. Louis and #32 Kansas City as markets of relevance. Iowa State brings very little to the table in terms of TV households as the Des Moines-Ames DMA ranks #72 and is divided with the University of Iowa.
  14. This is a bit exaggerated, but think of your future advertising experience like this, without the retina scans and, hopefully, limited to a more personal/less public media consumption environment. It's a win/win because you, as a consumer, won't be bombarded by a lot of crap that doesn't interest you and advertisers won't be wasting their time and money on people who will never buy their product. When watching a live event, such as a football game, 100 different people watching the same game, could be served 100 different advertisements, customized to each person's interests. http://www.youtube.c...h?v=nQbVD5hlddk
  15. After doing a little research I learned that Fox Sports is actually involved in the Big 10 network as well. Fox Sports owns 49% of the network. So, I will say that FSN does have that little bit of history and experience to drawn upon. However, the Big 10 has several more large DMAs within their "footprint" than does the Big 12-2. The Big 10 has relevance in #3 Chicago, #4 Philadelphia, #11 Detroit, #15 Minneapolis-St. Paul, #17 Cleveland-Akron, #23 Pittsburgh (shared with Pitt), #25 Indianapolis, #33 Cincinnati, #34 Columbus and #35 Milwaukee whereas the Big 12 (without Nebraska and Missouri) only has relevance in #5 Dallas-Ft. Worth, #10 Houston and #37 San Antonio. Oklahoma City #45 and Austin #48 are, arguably the only other top 50 markets that have a significant Big 12 following. Tulsa is #61, Harlingen is #87 and Waco-Temple-Bryan is #89 and that's it for the top 100 DMAs. The blossoming DMA of Lubbock (or so Red Raiders would have you think) ranks in at #143 out 210 total DMAs. Needless to say, the Big 10 covers quite a few more TV households than the Big 12 (probably with just their top 3 DMAs). Regardless, as I've mentioned before, the days of the current TV ratings model, which is based on Nielsen ratings, are numbered. As advertising effectiveness becomes more accurately measured and more accountable, advertisers will realize it doesn't take 25 exposures to the same AT&T commercial during March Madness to make an impact. In fact, it's just the opposite, too much frequency results in consumer wear-out and causes people who were otherwise impartial to suddenly be turned off by that advertiser. Furthermore, as technology - particularly in the streaming video platform, evolves, advertisers will be able to more accurately target only those consumers who are in the market for their product. They'll also be able to instantly track performance metrics and limit the numbers of ad exposures to individual consumers, cutting out the shotgun/blanket approach and eliminating wasted spending and....the days of mass reach will be over. When that happens, the niche cable networks will have to adjust their business models to compensate for lost advertising revenue. This will ultimately force TV networks and viewers to an on demand/streaming video consumption model. In the not too distant future, you can expect the majority of your "TV" consumption to be of the on demand/streaming video variety. You can already see that TVs are becoming more and more connected to the internet. There are still many intangibles that could help save TV/Cable networks and their providers (DirecTV, Comcast, etc) but their overall profits are destined to be greatly reduced because advertisers will only pay for those consumers who actually interact with their message. That means if you're a 25 year-old man, you'll no longer have to sit through those Boniva osteoporosis commercials. I hope I didn't lose too many people on that. The long and short of it is Fox Sports has reportedly promised the 10 Big 12 schools $17 million per year for 18 years. That totals over $3 billion but the greater issue is that the TV landscape is going to be so drastically different in 18 years that it will be impossible to fulfill that agreement.
  16. Now, the source that broke the story (104.9) is essentially saying that their twitter account was hacked: http://twitter.com/1049TheHorn We apologize, but it seems like someone had access to the account that shouldn't have. 104.9 The Horn DID NOT report that Air Force and BYU would be two new Big12 teams.
  17. The latest news is that the Big XII is ready to add BYU and Air Force. Doesn't sound too impressive for the Big XII but, at least, it lines up a few more dominoes that UNT can, hopefully, benefit from in the end. Maybe a couple of CUSA schools can join the MWC and we'd get a CUSA spot?
  18. OSU regents call Wednesday meeting on conference realignment Beebe's plan, helped along with Fox Sports television, promises future payouts of perhaps $17 million per year for Big 12 schools, which would more than double the current TV income for many of the Big 12 members. The setup also would allow individual schools to establish their own networks, which is very appealing to Texas and Oklahoma. Now that I know that Fox Sports is involved, I predict complete and utter failure for the Big XII network, the Longhorn network, the Sooner network and any other deal that involves the former Home Sports Network. Nothing against Fox Sports, but I've worked with them enough to know that they are one of the most disorganized entities in television today. The Big XII, Texas and OU better get that $17 million guaranteed, with no out clauses and a contract signed in blood if they hope to collect in full. This sounds like the XFL on NBC all over again.
  19. I'm afraid this is bad news for North Texas' hopes of moving into a better conference. If the Big XII survives as ten members and the Pac-10 only adds Utah, the MWC may or may not add another school to their conference. Likewise, the WAC may be content to only replace BSU with one school, possibly Montana. That would leave North Texas' status in the SBC unchanged. I don't see the MWC adding any CUSA schools at this point because I don't see any that significantly increase the strength of the MWC and their #1 goal is to gain AQ status.
  20. Conference realignment to get political in Texas this week Branch said the chief executives of Texas (Bill Powers), Texas A&M (R. Bowen Loftin) and Texas Tech (Guy Bailey) already have accepted their invitations to testify before the committee. Branch also hopes to have representatives from Baylor, Rice, Southern Methodist, TCU, Houston, North Texas and UTEP. Branch also has invited several economists as well as the commissioners of the Pac-10, SEC, Big 12, Mountain West and Conference USA.
  21. UNT football is a local and regional TV ratings winner??? Forget it...he's rolling... http://www.youtube.c...feature=related
  22. I dont' think they were bluffing. It's no secret that Texas has the largest fan base in the Big XII and maybe the country. I think these comments from that article are the key factors in Texas reconsidering a stay in the Big T(welv)en: --Individal institutions would be allowed to pursue their own networks, which has been a goal of Texas. If the Longhorns went to the Pac-10, they would have to forgo their own distribution platforms, including a network, because the Pac-16 would seek to have a conference network in which all inventory is shared. (Consultants have put Texas' ability to generate revenue from its own network at between $3 million and $5 million after a start-up window of about three years.) Get ready for the Longhorn TV network.
  23. It looks like turnabout is fair play for TCU. What a greedy, dysfunctional family college football is. Sources say TCU doesn't want Baylor in Mountain West
  24. Bwahahhaa...SMU's media market? What's that, Highland Park and University Park? No one in the DFW DMA gives a rat's a** about SMU. I think SMU posters complain about their lack of coverage in the DMN more than we do. I always have to laugh when I hear the notion that SMU "covers the Dallas media market."
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. Please review our full Privacy Policy before using our site.