Bargain-basement Big East: Navy’s future home

[Harry]

The Big East, which will be the home of the Mids come 2015, reportedly has been offered a deal by the NBC Sports Network that would be worth between $20 and $23 million a season. That works out to less than $2 million per school, and likely would be even less for the football-only Naval Academy.

But it will be much, much less than previous estimates. In December, before seven of the leagues nonfootball members took their legacy basketball programs and bolted, the leagues estimated TV value reportedly was between $60 million and $80 million. And that figure is below the $100 million estimate that the league reportedly used as a starting point for TV negotiations.

The low-end estimate of $20 million is less than what every Pac-12 school averages every year under the $3 billion megadeal that league signed with Fox and ESPN in 2011. Its not much more than the new Mountain West Conference deal, which guarantees each MWC team about $1 million annually from CBS and allows the league to re-sell its secondary games and could still be renegotiated now that Boise State is back in the fold.

It gets worse. ESPN reports conference presidents turned down a deal in 2011 that wouldve given every full member nearly $14 million a year.

Read more: http://militarytimes.com/blogs/afteraction/2013/02/11/bargain-basement-big-east-navys-future-home-could-have-tv-deal-as-low-as-20-million/

[Harry]

I'm beginning to wonder if that league isn't cursed...

"Just two years ago, the Big East turned down a nine-year deal from ESPN worth $1.17 billion, an average of $130 million annually. Since then the bottom has fallen out for the league, which has had 16 schools announce they were leaving during that time."

Pass on $130 mill for 20? YIKES!

[oldguystudent]

I am experiencing some serious Schadenfreude right now.

[LakeTravis]

No way Tulsa goes now.

I even see Tulane trying to reverse course.

This is what happens when schools chase the $$$ and forget about a map.

The money isn't there and you leave the kids flying across the country every week and lose money on all the travel costs.

Add to the fact you lost any chance of visiting teams actually visiting your city.

All the schools in the BE finally realized the ship they just boarded is the Titanic.

The only thing to watch now is who jumps ship first.

[Mean Green 93-98]

No way Tulsa goes now.

I even see Tulane trying to reverse course.

This is what happens when schools chase the $$$ and forget about a map.

The money isn't there and you leave the kids flying across the country every week and lose money on all the travel costs.

Add to the fact you lost any chance of visiting teams actually visiting your city.

All the schools in the BE finally realized the ship they just boarded is the Titanic.

The only thing to watch now is who jumps ship first.

If that conference offered us an invite, I'd be very upset if we didn't take it. Do you think the alumni and other fans of these schools will take kindly to them running away from a conference with UConn, Cincy, and Houston to be in a conference with UTSA and FIU?

[LakeTravis]

If that conference offered us an invite, I'd be very upset if we didn't take it. Do you think the alumni and other fans of these schools will take kindly to them running away from a conference with UConn, Cincy, and Houston to be in a conference with UTSA and FIU?

Uconn and Cincy are like the "mista mista" lady from Happy Gilmore.

They want to get out of the BE ASAP.

Houston and SMU have dug their own grave and could be going to Moutain West.

We could end up in a Sun Belt Big East where we are left on an island again with no Texas ties.

I would treat a Big East invite like a pedophile clown and run away screaming like Thad from the show Blue mountain state

Edited February 12, 2013 by LakeTravis

[ScottC]

As apposed to the highly attractive new C-USA.....you people live in a dream world

[UNTLifer]

Dream world, or just being realistic. It would be disasterous financially to join the Big East considering the travel costs alone. Some of you lose sight of that fact just because you could be in a confernce with UConn and Cincy, who have been marginally successful in football and are looking to move to the ACC at first choice. That same conference they are running away from that includes UConn (marginal football/see what happens to BBall with Calhoun's retirement), Cincy (trainwreck of Turbeville as HC in FB, and so-so BBall after Huggins left) and Houston (good football/basketball-who knows) also includes the likes of Temple and Tulane that have zero appeal. Well, Tulane has New Orleans.

The Big East is slowly withering away. Being in a conference with regional teams is the most financially responsible thing we can do at this time.

[Eagle1855]

Dream world, or just being realistic. It would be disasterous financially to join the Big East considering the travel costs alone.

We'd join it yesterday, if invited.

[SCREAMING EAGLE-66]

I think some here would take a free ticket to the sinking Titanic... after all it was the elite ship of the time. [ BE too unstable ]

[NorthTexan95]

I can't see teams leaving the Big East to come to CUSA. Every team that CUSA adds only splits the pot a little more giving each team less. It seems that there's room for both the CUSA and Big East. When the CUSA tv contract comes up for bidding in a couple of years then maybe we would see some movement ... but I wouldn't bet on it.

[Arkstfan]

Tulsa would accept. They get to stick with SMU and Tulane and make marginally more money. If you can play regional teams that your fans care about, who cares if the league is what it used to be or will produce buckets more money.

[akriesman]

Tulsa would accept. They get to stick with SMU and Tulane and make marginally more money. If you can play regional teams that your fans care about, who cares if the league is what it used to be or will produce buckets more money.

I agree and can't blame Tulsa, if that is what they want. We here at NT have been complaining for years that we want a more regional conference, with rivals the fans care about. I am sure the same is true for other schools.

The problem for us is that the schools that we want to play with are constantly taking their toys and going elsewhere. These rival schools have a good reason to keep us in a class below them. We are a top-30 school nationally when it comes to enrollment size. But, our athletic programs still can't seem to break the top-100 despite all the upgrades. North Texas has long been regarded as a sleeping giant. Well, the sleeping giant still sleeps and our rivals are not going to do anything to help change that. We are going to have to help ourselves.

Edited February 12, 2013 by akriesman

[NM Green]

Exactly! North Texas is North Texas and we are in the process of carving out our identity in the landscape. I know we all would have loved the meteoriic rise like UTSA, but I have watched this program go from Southland to Big West to Sun Belt to Bowl Games to CUSA. This has been a 25 year evolution and this has been without having monster strings of success.or help from the likes of other Texas schools.

We have paid Idaho nicely to come be our punching bag in a few short months. This puts the press on US to fill that stadium (Us = AD and fans). Mac has his role and the team has a great opportunity they must be prepared to seize. We all play a part and collectively we will all be responsible for carving out the new Mean Green identity.

Forgive the pom poms but a good night of rest, fresh cup of joe and incredible schedule equals Rah!

Now lets get to work.

GMG

[PlummMeanGreen]

I agree and can't blame Tulsa, if that is what they want. We here at NT have been complaining for years that we want a more regional conference, with rivals the fans care about. I am sure the same is true for other schools.

The problem for us is that the schools that we want to play with are constantly taking their toys and going elsewhere. These rival schools have a good reason to keep us in a class below them. We are a top-30 school nationally when it comes to enrollment size. But, our athletic programs still can't seem to break the top-100 despite all the upgrades. North Texas has long been regarded as a sleeping giant. Well, the sleeping giant still sleeps and our rivals are not going to do anything to help change that. We are going to have to help ourselves.

And we help ourselves with the people we hire and I'll say it one more time.........North Texas leaders and hiring aurthorities most my lifetime just do not do college athletics well at all. The W/L records of the last 30 years more than proves it. Just having a few bright spots along the way and in those past 30 years in today's NCAA is just not going to cut the mustard. We seem to have fewer and fewer reasons than any school at the NCAA FBS level to high 5 each over about as the years pile on.

Probably not the best example here, but did La Tech turn their program around because they have a campus nestled nicely in the middle of a pretty pine trees forest in northeast Louisiana along with their nice Tier'ed ranking school? No, they turned it around with the people they hired through the years.

How did UL-Monroe actually get to a point where they could beat a #8 ranked Arkansas Razorback football team last Fall (then almost beat the Auburn Tigers the next week); that is, such feats as those we can only see happening in Denton some time way out there in the sweet by and by. Still we have some resolve out of all this by our doing all this annual football recruiting some out there call the so-called....right way? God help us if we start doing it the wrong way. ULM (amazingly) faried quite well with the people they hired since it sure wasn't the monies of their bottom of the barrel athletic budget. The ULM assistant coaches who put together some pretty good and talented recruiting classes must have been working on food stamps as their salaries.

Sadly, some of you are putting all your eggs in one basket with some presently employed at North Texas who won't give you the time of day the first 5 minutes they are off the UNT payroll. Why would they with the records their leadership has produced over a (more than generous) span of years? Casepoint: Last few decades, how many former UNT athletic employees have you ever seen come back to our campus with palm branches laid in their pathway by an admiring alumnus fan base because of the jobs they did while employed at North Texas? Accomplished BS'ers who can easily put em' over on college athletic novices usually only do one great thing with consistency and that is to............ bull shit even more and at North Texas to a much larger (sometimes even admiring) audience than it should be.

Unless North Texas gets hiring authorities in the Hurley Admin. Bldg who will use the expertise of those that know what the hell they are doing we may find ourselves caught in another 30-40 years of walking in the NCAA wilderness.

I do think Coach McCarney will have a good enough season next Fall to keep his job, but for the life of me, I am having deep problems with our school getting "Rivals 3 Star'd" into potentially future (or down the road) losing seasons and that by schools that should not be doing that to us; but namely one in San Marcos, Texas, whose HFC last I counted has been turned down twice by U of North Texas hiring authorities as far as him getting our job. Last count since he's been at TSU-SM, he's had around 16 Rivals 3 star recruits the last 2 recruiting seasons and say what you will by you who try to sugar coat all that we do, but that is going to pay off for Coach Fran pretty damn soon. Do we really want to be on their schedule when those 16 Rivals 3 star recruits of Coach Fran come to fruition? Sorry, but this old time NTSU alum is just not ready to watch another school go "Beep! Beep" past the Mean Green football program I knew as a student.

GMG!

Edited February 12, 2013 by PlummMeanGreen

[Mean Green 93-98]

The Big East of today is the C-USA of a few years ago. That may not be good for the Big East, but still . . . Wouldn't you rather have/be in the C-USA of a few years ago than the C-USA of today?

[Eagle1855]

I think some here would take a free ticket to the sinking Titanic... after all it was the elite ship of the time. [ BE too unstable ]

It may be unstable, but I'd rather figure out where to go next with UH, SMU, Tulane, Tulsa, et al., than MTSU, WKU, and friends.

[untjim1995]

And we help ourselves with the people we hire and I'll say it one more time.........North Texas leaders and hiring aurthorities most my lifetime just do not do college athletics well at all. The W/L records of the last 30 years more than proves it. Just having a few bright spots along the way and in those past 30 years in today's NCAA is just not going to cut the mustard. We seem to have fewer and fewer reasons than any school at the NCAA FBS level to high 5 each over about as the years pile on.

Probably not the best example here, but did La Tech turn their program around because they have a campus nestled nicely in the middle of a pretty pine trees forest in northeast Louisiana along with their nice Tier'ed ranking school? No, they turned it around with the people they hired through the years.

How did UL-Monroe actually get to a point where they could beat a #8 ranked Arkansas Razorback football team last Fall (then almost beat the Auburn Tigers the next week); that is, such feats as those we can only see happening in Denton some time way out there in the sweet by and by. Still we have some resolve out of all this by our doing all this annual football recruiting some out there call the so-called....right way? God help us if we start doing it the wrong way. ULM (amazingly) faried quite well with the people they hired since it sure wasn't the monies of their bottom of the barrel athletic budget. The ULM assistant coaches who put together some pretty good and talented recruiting classes must have been working on food stamps as their salaries.

Sadly, some of you are putting all your eggs in one basket with some presently employed at North Texas who won't give you the time of day the first 5 minutes they are off the UNT payroll. Why would they with the records their leadership has produced over a (more than generous) span of years? Casepoint: Last few decades, how many former UNT athletic employees have you ever seen come back to our campus with palm branches laid in their pathway by an admiring alumnus fan base because of the jobs they did while employed at North Texas? Accomplished BS'ers who can easily put em' over on college athletic novices usually only do one great thing with consistency and that is to............ bull shit even more and at North Texas to a much larger (sometimes even admiring) audience than it should be.

Unless North Texas gets hiring authorities in the Hurley Admin. Bldg who will use the expertise of those that know what the hell they are doing we may find ourselves caught in another 30-40 years of walking in the NCAA wilderness.

I do think Coach McCarney will have a good enough season next Fall to keep his job, but for the life of me, I am having deep problems with our school getting "Rivals 3 Star'd" into potentially future (or down the road) losing seasons and that by schools that should not be doing that to us; but namely one in San Marcos, Texas, whose HFC last I counted has been turned down twice by U of North Texas hiring authorities as far as him getting our job. Last count since he's been at TSU-SM, he's had around 16 Rivals 3 star recruits the last 2 recruiting seasons and say what you will by you who try to sugar coat all that we do, but that is going to pay off for Coach Fran pretty damn soon. Do we really want to be on their schedule when those 16 Rivals 3 star recruits of Coach Fran come to fruition? Sorry, but this old time NTSU alum is just not ready to watch another school go "Beep! Beep" past the Mean Green football program I knew as a student.

GMG!

I go back to this a lot, but I just wonder how much this university really cares about being a winner in athletics. Sure, we have seen them put unprecedented resources toward the football prgorma in the last decade, with the new stadium finally getting built and the increased payroll for our current head coach and staff, but we don't seem to have a huge passion for winning here. The administration and BOR seem like they want to throw a few bones our way just to give lip service to this department, but I still think that athletics isn't even in the top ten of items that they care much about. We seem to be fine with the idea of keeping coaches and ADs on the payroll for as long as they can before the contract has to be eaten or cancelled. At any other FBS school in Texas right now, show me where an AD would keep his job with the on-field performance of the money sports (football, mens and womens hoops) that we have given to our fans. The mens hoops team have been good at some stretches, but even with that, we have two NCAA berths and two first round beatings, as well as the ultimate rarity, a hired-away coach from UNT because of success. The womens team has had one decent season that also got the coach hired at UT, which had more to do with her connections down there, plus her overall success as a coach. But with all of that, it includes three head coaches in football (including the worst ever in school history) that have combined to produce a total record of 22 wins and 73 losses in the one sport that pays the bills. It now includes one of the worst hires (saying something here) in UNT history as the current men's basketball coach, as well as the worst hire in the history of the women's program. Even UTEP wouldn't put up with that kind of ridiculousness in their program, and they are the one non-SWC team that we have shared the state with for many decades. Maybe UTSA and Texas State will be more like us than the others, but I wouldn't bet the farm on that. I'm sure they are more committed to making this work at a high level, at least one higher than we have tried to reach since Fry left here in the late 70s. The recruiting is just a symptom to the bigger illness--the apathy has the program on life support, and it is obviously known by those outside of Denton that we recruit against, as well as to those we are trying to recruit to both play here or to send their kids to play here. We will know soon enough, but it just may be that those 1-aa years are just too much to overcome right now. And there are no other teams to compare us to on this front--that moved down to the lower level for over a decade, then moved back up without having a true plan in place to achieve success. Literally, no one has done this to their fans or community like we did. And what's worse is that so many people in that community, both within the university and within the city, were just fine with having the university's athletic program wallow at that level.

[Harry]

I go back to this a lot, but I just wonder how much this university really cares about being a winner in athletics. Sure, we have seen them put unprecedented resources toward the football prgorma in the last decade, with the new stadium finally getting built and the increased payroll for our current head coach and staff, but we don't seem to have a huge passion for winning here. The administration and BOR seem like they want to throw a few bones our way just to give lip service to this department, but I still think that athletics isn't even in the top ten of items that they care much about. We seem to be fine with the idea of keeping coaches and ADs on the payroll for as long as they can before the contract has to be eaten or cancelled. At any other FBS school in Texas right now, show me where an AD would keep his job with the on-field performance of the money sports (football, mens and womens hoops) that we have given to our fans. The mens hoops team have been good at some stretches, but even with that, we have two NCAA berths and two first round beatings, as well as the ultimate rarity, a hired-away coach from UNT because of success. The womens team has had one decent season that also got the coach hired at UT, which had more to do with her connections down there, plus her overall success as a coach. But with all of that, it includes three head coaches in football (including the worst ever in school history) that have combined to produce a total record of 22 wins and 73 losses in the one sport that pays the bills. It now includes one of the worst hires (saying something here) in UNT history as the current men's basketball coach, as well as the worst hire in the history of the women's program. Even UTEP wouldn't put up with that kind of ridiculousness in their program, and they are the one non-SWC team that we have shared the state with for many decades. Maybe UTSA and Texas State will be more like us than the others, but I wouldn't bet the farm on that. I'm sure they are more committed to making this work at a high level, at least one higher than we have tried to reach since Fry left here in the late 70s. The recruiting is just a symptom to the bigger illness--the apathy has the program on life support, and it is obviously known by those outside of Denton that we recruit against, as well as to those we are trying to recruit to both play here or to send their kids to play here. We will know soon enough, but it just may be that those 1-aa years are just too much to overcome right now. And there are no other teams to compare us to on this front--that moved down to the lower level for over a decade, then moved back up without having a true plan in place to achieve success. Literally, no one has done this to their fans or community like we did. And what's worse is that so many people in that community, both within the university and within the city, were just fine with having the university's athletic program wallow at that level.

The support in the last decade toward athletics in particular athletics facilities is more than what we saw in 90 years prior.

The problem is that even huge improvement ie Apogee, the Athletic Center, Conference changes takes time to matriculate into the masses. Here we are very in tune with everything going on; most others don't even know about Apogee or the fact we joined C-USA or even what C-USA is...they don't know how many new buildings have been built over the past decade...or the new student Union that will be renovated...etc

We want to see immediate results from all of this progress but unfortunately it does not work that way. When we hired Mac, we made a huge step forward in coaching salaries, not just his but the assistants... problem is that it can take years to see that progress start to take effect. Furthermore, much of what has been accomplished is making up for the fact that we allowed things to falter for so long. The perception of not caring, of not compensating, of not building adequate facilities is still there despite the fact we have addressed it in spades. If people have it in their mind that UNT is a suitcase college even though we have absolutely addressed that through building new dorms etc it doesn't mean that their perception will immediately change when the concrete dries...

Here's the good news, with two high school aged kids (soph and freshman) I am able to get a good read on the perception of North Texas from both the kids and their parents... I think that many see it as a viable option here in the metroplex. People want the full college experience and it can be had at UNT for a fraction of the price of places like SMU, TCU etc...

I think the leadership finally gets it. I point to the pedestrian bridge as an example...10 years ago if RV went to the leadership and said "hey we gotta have a safe way to allow for the students to get across to the new stadium or it will hurt the school and we won't benefit from Apogee over time.." the administration at that time would have said, "screw you"! Now they get it -- same thing with the basketball practice facility being done so quickly.

What we desperately need to SPEED up this process is wins. This past basketball season was a bitter pill and football has had 8 losing seasons. Winning makes people stand up and take notice and not just conference wins but non conference wins. I will say this again, this program HAS NEVER HAD A SIGNATURE WIN!!! We need one and I hope that it will happen sooner than later! Just think, had we a win such as ULM who beat Alabama a couple of years ago and Arkansas what that would do for our morale??? I'm talking students and alumni...

I really think we will see some good things this football season and that this injury riddled basketball team will rebound as well. My concern is complacency...it would be very easy to decide that we have done enough and focus on other projects. The reality is we are just getting caught up from a long period of neglect and we will find ourselves in the same damn spot if we get complacent about facilities, coaching hires, salaries etc .

[ragpicker]

I am as upset at our Rivals rating as anyone, but as for as conferences are concerned we have not had in state conference rivals since the early fifties and that has been a huge detriment to this program. We HAVE those rivals now both in state and regional. As Steve Allen put it, "THIS COULD BE THE START OF SOMETHING BIG".

[Harry]

I am as upset at our Rivals rating as anyone, but as for as conferences are concerned we have not had in state conference rivals since the early fifties and that has been a huge detriment to this program. We HAVE those rivals now both in state and regional. As Steve Allen put it, "THIS COULD BE THE START OF SOMETHING BIG".

AMEN!! As I have stated, we haven't had a IA rival since 1979 (West Texas A&M). We now have 3 IA schools in the state of Texas and several others that are close by.

[MCMLXXX]

I am having deep problems with our school getting "Rivals 3 Star'd" into potentially future (or down the road) losing seasons and that by schools that should not be doing that to us; but namely one in San Marcos, Texas, whose HFC last I counted has been turned down twice by U of North Texas hiring authorities as far as him getting our job. Last count since he's been at TSU-SM, he's had around 16 Rivals 3 star recruits the last 2 recruiting seasons and say what you will by you who try to sugar coat all that we do, but that is going to pay off for Coach Fran pretty damn soon. Do we really want to be on their schedule when those 16 Rivals 3 star recruits of Coach Fran come to fruition? Sorry, but this old time NTSU alum is just not ready to watch another school go "Beep! Beep" past the Mean Green football program I knew as a student.

GMG!

I don't understand your infatuation with TSU- San Marcos. I know that our transfers and JC recruits (perhaps with one exception) are currently enrolled and believe that fact will make a huge difference in their ability to contribute immediatly. I reviewed a link to the TSU- San Marcos class and if I remember right many if not most of the 3* recruits were JC transfers. Since you are an expert on their class I was wondering if you could fill us in on how many of their recruits are currently enrolled. I personally am very impressed with our transfers.

[TIgreen01]

I think the reality of the recruiting slump (at least in terms of star ratings for the high school kids) is that it's going to be harder to recruit in this state going forward. Not impossible, but harder. Texas A&M bolting for the SEC created a space in the Big 12 that allowed for one more Texas based team (TCU) to become a "BCS" school again and Texas St. and UTSA are now full fledged D1-A programs.

It doesn't mean that we will never recruit to higher levels than we've seen, but we're now on an even field with 2 more Texas based schools for recruits and TCU being a BCS level school in our backyard certainly doesn't help us occasionally win a recruiting battle against them.

[wardly]

When Dickey was here it seemed our goal was to get "the best of the rest". I don't see that having changed, and until SMU and TCU start losing recruits to us instead of us to them it won't. I am amazed what ULM is able to do so much with so little.