Big 10 Media Deal not done yet?

[mosito]

Fuel for the Kevin Warren Haters...

- Big 10 did not have the Authority to give NBC a Championship Game.

- Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State, don't want to play those late-November night games potentially making the NBC media package less.


How an unfinished TV deal led to an unexpectedly hectic first month for the new Big Ten commissioner website: https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/37693310

 

[Knight Shift]

Fuel for the Kevin Warren Haters...


How an unfinished TV deal led to an unexpectedly hectic first month for the new Big Ten commissioner website: https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/37693310

Why hate? Did you read the article? If the ADs knew Warren was out the door, they should have designated someone to ensure the deals and other details were completed:

"The fault here is with the administrators on campus," said another industry source. "How did the presidents, chancellors and athletic directors not know this? The universities all signed off on the deal."

 

[kupuna133]

Why hate? Did you read the article? If the ADs knew Warren was out the door, they should have designated someone to ensure the deals and other details were completed:

"The fault here is with the administrators on campus," said another industry source. "How did the presidents, chancellors and athletic directors not know this? The universities all signed off on the deal."

Very odd. Early story was Warren was staying on to tie up loose ends with the contract before leaving for the bears front office.

I agree with you once he announced he was leaving, I would have assigned someone else to take this contract home and removed Warren from being point of contact. Warrens best interests were no longer aligned with the best interests of the B1G and their individual members. The blame lies with AD’s and with the remaining big 10 front office.

 

[rutgersguy1]

Ex Fox sports prez.

 

[Knight Shift]

Very odd. Early story was Warren was staying on to tie up loose ends with the contract before leaving for the bears front office.

I agree with you once he announced he was leaving, I would have assigned someone else to take this contract home and removed Warren from being point of contact. The blame lies with AD’s and with the remaining big 10 front office.

People were crapping on Warren from day 1. Was he perfect? Nobody is. Some were touting the ACC commissioner Philips as the second coming who should have got the job. Meanwhile, 8 of his most powerful conference members staged a mutiny. Great job, Jimmy boy.

It's not an easy job.

Organizations ALWAYS have to keep an eye on an employee/executive on the way out the door. It's human nature for the person leaving to focus on setting up the next job. I don't know what kind of management/board structure the Big Ten has, and I understand that Commissioner serves at the pleasure of the University Presidents (and the ADs too, but not directly). The Presidents should have put someone in place to oversee the transition and ensure things were getting done.

EDIT- Izzo has some legitimate beefs with the way Warren handled the media deal. There are always beefs.

So all of this complaining, and the B1G has hired Korn Ferry to determine if he should get a bonus? The answer should be clear. His contract did not call for one- why would they give him a gift if they are so upset with his work?

"And it leaves the league facing a decision on a potential bonus for Warren, who didn't have a bonus clause tied to a television deal in his contract. Warren's predecessor, Jim Delany, got a bonus of more than $20 million that was announced in 2017, and he's still getting paid for it because he led the negotiation that sold all of the rights through this decade. (The bonus had been in Delany's contract prior to the deal.)"

 

[rutgersguy1]

I’m surprised at how the league can be caught off guard by having to play late games in November. NBC’s deal is to have the prime time window so how could you not have to play late games in November.

Adding more west coast teams like Oregon Washington can help with that…wink wink. Then PSU, OSU, Michigan might not have to fill that window as much, if at all.

I don’t expect there to be many issues that can’t be resolved. The networks have their programming set and it’s likely a matter some give and take and trying to maintain the dollars as much as possible.

I knew Fox had the lower tier rights to the B10 through BTN and they were in the room when other networks made their pitches but didn’t think they controlled the first tier rights as well. I wonder how long that control through the BTN lasts. That was something set up by Delany IIRC.

 

[50 yd line RR]

Why are a

People were crapping on Warren from day 1. Was he perfect? Nobody is. Some were touting the ACC commissioner Philips as the second coming who should have got the job. Meanwhile, 8 of his most powerful conference members staged a mutiny. Great job, Jimmy boy.

It's not an easy job.

Organizations ALWAYS have to keep an eye on an employee/executive on the way out the door. It's human nature for the person leaving to focus on setting up the next job. I don't know what kind of management/board structure the Big Ten has, and I understand that Commissioner serves at the pleasure of the University Presidents (and the ADs too, but not directly). The Presidents should have put someone in place to oversee the transition and ensure things were getting done.

EDIT- Izzo has some legitimate beefs with the way Warren handled the media deal. There are always beefs.

So all of this complaining, and the B1G has hired Korn Ferry to determine if he should get a bonus? The answer should be clear. His contract did not call for one- why would they give him a gift if they are so upset with his work?

"And it leaves the league facing a decision on a potential bonus for Warren, who didn't have a bonus clause tied to a television deal in his contract. Warren's predecessor, Jim Delany, got a bonus of more than $20 million that was announced in 2017, and he's still getting paid for it because he led the negotiation that sold all of the rights through this decade. (The bonus had been in Delany's contract prior to the deal.)"

what were Izzo’s beefs?

 

[mosito]

From the ESPN article,


Izzo added that he has "concerns" on the amount of games available only on streaming and said that would be among his first questions to Petitti, as "it was not discussed with us [coaches] at all."


..........

Ohio State football coach Ryan Day echoed Izzo's sentiment about communication and transparency.

"There was a collective disappointment among coaches on how the night game issue was handled," Day said. "We were surprised when it emerged, and there was no consultation on the change with coaches as a group prior to the television contract being announced."

 

[Roy_Faulker]

This - my concern all along was we will he relegated to the new iteration of Espn3 as Paramount and Peacock need live programming.

The saving grace would be if these companies carry the nonrevenue sports, the same way ESPN does and invest to improve production value over BTN+.

 

[kupuna133]

BTN and BTN+ do such a poor job with everything but Saturday football programming. There are so many opportunities to broadcast Olympic sports either real time or taped. But yet we are inundated with Ohio State and Michigan reruns of the 80’s orange bowl and 1995 spring games.

 

[Roy_Faulker]

Agree - the best is when the 1990 Rose Bowl is on tv and they scroll scores from live events in conference.

 

[bigmatt718]

BTN and BTN+ do such a poor job with everything but Saturday football programming. There are so many opportunities to broadcast Olympic sports either real time or taped. But yet we are inundated with Ohio State and Michigan reruns of the 80’s orange bowl and 1995 spring games.

They truly quarter ass things so hardcore with the Olympic sports when they could easily put them in as filler spots during the week or on Sunday afternoons instead of playing Michigan Rose Bowls from the 1980s.

 

[rutgersguy1]

 

[Knight Shift]

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Is that math correct? $10M/year is a lot of money.
And in Thamel's ESPN story, B1G is still considering paying Warren a bonus? That is bonkers. Maybe they should wait to see what the final deal details are and assess if Warren did indeed not attend to important details on his way out the door. If the story is correct, the B1G was contractually obligated to pay Delany a bonus, but they are not obligated to pay Warren a bonus. Why volunteer to pay a bonus when not obligated to do so?

 

[rutgersguy1]

Is that math correct? $10M/year is a lot of money.
And in Thamel's ESPN story, B1G is still considering paying Warren a bonus? That is bonkers. Maybe they should wait to see what the final deal details are and assess if Warren did indeed not attend to important details on his way out the door. If the story is correct, the B1G was contractually obligated to pay Delany a bonus, but they are not obligated to pay Warren a bonus. Why volunteer to pay a bonus when not obligated to do so?

The ESPN story said 5M/yr so we'll see. I posted in the other thread that the B10 distributed 58.8M per school with RU/Maryland receiving slightly less. Would it just bump to 65M with a new tv deal and some extra CFP money in the next couple years? We'll see.

Also still don't get how giving a champ game to NBC gets by Fox when they are the ones heavily in control of negotiations through the BTN. That's as inexplicable to me as the presidents not realizing they would have to play night games in November when NBC has an exclusive prime time window throughout the season.

 

[Knight Shift]

The ESPN story said 5M/yr so we'll see. I posted in the other thread that the B10 distributed 58.8M per school with RU/Maryland receiving slightly less. Would it just bump to 65M with a new tv deal and some extra CFP money in the next couple years? We'll see.

Also still don't get how giving a champ game to NBC gets by Fox when they are the ones heavily in control of negotiations through the BTN. That's as inexplicable to me as the presidents not realizing they would have to play night games in November when NBC has an exclusive prime time window throughout the season.

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Two things- first, Fox and the BTN Presidents/ADs- it's called blame-shifting. I agree with you that Fox should have been persistent about what was going on, and the same goes for the member schools of the B1G, especially knowing Warren was on his way out the door. But Warren shares some blame for not finishing his duties, especially something so important to his job. Typical corporate malfeasance and nonfeasance. He will get a big bonus, in typical corporate fashion.

Second, many here on this board were thinking we might be in the $80-100 million/school range, and that is not reasonable. The B1G bested the mighty SEC by nearly $9 Billion/year per team in the last deal. We'll see where the new one shakes out.

Here's a link to the USA Today story:

ACC Payout: "$37.9 million to $41.3 million" per school.
Big 12 Payout: "$42 million to $44.9 million" per school.

Pac12- "$37 million" Per school--and yikes: "the Pac-12 Conference reported on its new filing that it “anticipates” filing an amended return for 2022 because of “a possible restatement” of its audited financial statements. This is connected to overpayments totaling more than $50 million that Comcast made over a period of at least five years to the conference-owned Pac-12 Networks, according to a conference spokesman."

NCAA's Power Five conferences are cash cows. Here's how much schools made in fiscal 2022.

The five biggest conferences in college athletics reported a combined $3.3 billion in revenue for the 2022 fiscal year, the highest total ever.

www.usatoday.com

 

[kupuna133]

The ESPN story said 5M/yr so we'll see. I posted in the other thread that the B10 distributed 58.8M per school with RU/Maryland receiving slightly less. Would it just bump to 65M with a new tv deal and some extra CFP money in the next couple years? We'll see.

Also still don't get how giving a champ game to NBC gets by Fox when they are the ones heavily in control of negotiations through the BTN. That's as inexplicable to me as the presidents not realizing they would have to play night games in November when NBC has an exclusive prime time window throughout the season.

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There is no way to explain how the championship game and November TV schedule could have been granted without knowledge of Fox and the chancellors/Ad’s knowing. As I said in an earlier post. The fault lies with the AD’s and the powers that be within B1G home offices. Once Warren disclosed he was leaving, he should have been removed from any negotiations and stripped of his signatory authority. Unless of course there were multiple parallel contracts that Warren did not disclose. In that case Warren has some explaining to do.

 

[DJ Spanky]

And it leaves the league facing a decision on a potential bonus for Warren, who didn't have a bonus clause tied to a television deal in his contract. Warren's predecessor, Jim Delany, got a bonus of more than $20 million that was announced in 2017, and he's still getting paid for it because he led the negotiation that sold all of the rights through this decade. (The bonus had been in Delany's contract prior to the deal.)

How is there any decision? They are not contractually bound, he fled for greener pastures, and it sounds like he left things undone.

 

[rutgersguy1]

Even if Warren was freelancing ,as soon as the news came out, you'd think someone at Fox for the champ game and the B10 presidents for the November games would've said "hold your horses deals not done and details aren't ironed out this is premature."

 

[rutgersguy1]

Sounds like one of those November night game "sacrifices" mentioned. Two Black Friday games in the B10.

 

[Knight Shift]

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Even if Warren was freelancing ,as soon as the news came out, you'd think someone at Fox for the champ game and the B10 presidents for the November games would've said "hold your horses deals not done and details aren't ironed out this is premature."

It deserves pointing out that Bob Thompson isn't any Tom, Dick or Harry or ordinary Joe:

"Retired President of Fox Sports Networks and BTN Co-founder. Principal, Thompson Sports Group LLC. Watching sports on TV as a kid turned into a job as an adult."

That said, don't know long he's been out of the Big Ten, and he seems to be just throwing darts at this point, but that tweet above that says "Show More" reads (plauisible, but unproven speculation):

"Gotta run but first, a theory based on info out there...Deal was originally Fox/CBS/Amazon. Warren got pushback on Amazon Sat night 7:30pm ET game. He went to NBC, got them to step up but had to promise a champ game and prime games in Nov, Peacock, etc. Didn't necessarily consult with Fox. Amazon out NBC in. Figured details would be worked out. "

 

[rutgersguy1]

It deserves pointing out that Bob Thompson isn't any Tom, Dick or Harry or ordinary Joe:

"Retired President of Fox Sports Networks and BTN Co-founder. Principal, Thompson Sports Group LLC. Watching sports on TV as a kid turned into a job as an adult."

That said, don't know long he's been out of the Big Ten, and he seems to be just throwing darts at this point, but that tweet above that says "Show More" reads (plauisible, but unproven speculation):

"Gotta run but first, a theory based on info out there...Deal was originally Fox/CBS/Amazon. Warren got pushback on Amazon Sat night 7:30pm ET game. He went to NBC, got them to step up but had to promise a champ game and prime games in Nov, Peacock, etc. Didn't necessarily consult with Fox. Amazon out NBC in. Figured details would be worked out. "

I'm aware of that and I've mentioned it above and other times here. I wouldn't be posting tweets from some nobody lol.

He's been out for some time at Fox IIRC. Nonetheless, he's still a former head of Fox sports and has insight from being a one time insider about how things are done etc... Plus he's likely still got connections here and there and might hear rumors and rumblings in the industry about what's happening.

edit: He is speculating but his speculation carries more weight IMO than just some nobody or any media reporter. He's been in the industry at the highest levels. He also speculated that Texas/OU would get out early from their GOR even when it was reported that it wasn't looking good for them to get out early.

 

[rutgersguy1]

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Reading more about this, I think I misunderstood, and maybe other did too, but this is 70M over the life of the 7yr 7 billion dollar deal. It doesn't sound like 70M/yr but 70M total amortized over 7 years.

25M of that is a refund for lost covid inventory so that's not something that can be "fixed" or was a mistake and 40M is for giving the 2026 B10 champ game to NBC.

So it's 5M per school but over 7 years. So that's about 700K loss for each school annually for the 7 years of the contract. I'm sure the commish will try to recover as much of that back as he can with possible accommodations but it doesn't seem like that big a deal. This sounds more like rich people problems than an actual big problem. Not sure how Wilner can equate this to a 10M/yr loss per team.

Conspiracy theorist in me also takes into account this is coming from ESPN so maybe trying to make it seem a bigger problem than it actually is. It shouldn't have happened and there seems to be a gross lack of oversight but it seems manageable and not all the consequential.

 

[Virginiarufan]

A lot of this reads like ESPN propaganda. They seem to be embellishing and relishing in what are small technicalities that will be resolved.

 

[Knight Shift]

A lot of this reads like ESPN propaganda. They seem to be embellishing and relishing in what are small technicalities that will be resolved.

That's why some call them ESPiN.
They took a beating last night on Twitter during the Mets v. Guardians broadcast, which was just a terrible broadcast in every possible way. The announcers had no knowledge of the Mets' performance over the past week, they misstated facts around rookie catcher Alvarez, and their fact bat hitting the ball sound was happening after the ball was hit. Worse than a high school sports broadcast.

 

[Knight Shift]

Reading more about this, I think I misunderstood, and maybe other did too, but this is 70M over the life of the 7yr 7 billion dollar deal. It doesn't sound like 70M/yr but 70M total amortized over 7 years.

25M of that is a refund for lost covid inventory so that's not something that can be "fixed" or was a mistake and 40M is for giving the 2026 B10 champ game to NBC.

So it's 5M per school but over 7 years. So that's about 700K loss for each school annually for the 7 years of the contract. I'm sure the commish will try to recover as much of that back as he can with possible accommodations but it doesn't seem like that big a deal. This sounds more like rich people problems than an actual big problem. Not sure how Wilner can equate this to a 10M/yr loss per team.

Conspiracy theorist in me also takes into account this is coming from ESPN so maybe trying to make it seem a bigger problem than it actually is. It shouldn't have happened and there seems to be a gross lack of oversight but it seems manageable and not all the consequential.

That's in line with Bob Thompson's tweet, where he deemed it "a whopping 1% of the total deal." Reposted below for posterity-BTW, I figured you knew who he was, but I posted that for the benefit of the non co-ADs on this board, who are not in the know. But even I had to look it up!

 

[mosito]

From the same eSpin article

""contract that was announced back in August as being worth an average of nearly $1 billion per year through the 2029 football season. More than $70 million in total is suddenly in flux -- nearly $5 million per school""

It says $70 million in TOTAL..... its what, a 6/7 year contract... so 10 million out of 1 billion every year?

 

[rutgersguy1]

Reading more about this, I think I misunderstood, and maybe other did too, but this is 70M over the life of the 7yr 7 billion dollar deal. It doesn't sound like 70M/yr but 70M total amortized over 7 years.

25M of that is a refund for lost covid inventory so that's not something that can be "fixed" or was a mistake and 40M is for giving the 2026 B10 champ game to NBC.

So it's 5M per school but over 7 years. So that's about 700K loss for each school annually for the 7 years of the contract. I'm sure the commish will try to recover as much of that back as he can with possible accommodations but it doesn't seem like that big a deal. This sounds more like rich people problems than an actual big problem. Not sure how Wilner can equate this to a 10M/yr loss per team.

Conspiracy theorist in me also takes into account this is coming from ESPN so maybe trying to make it seem a bigger problem than it actually is. It shouldn't have happened and there seems to be a gross lack of oversight but it seems manageable and not all the consequential.

 

[rutgersguy1]

Here's another "conspiracy theory," maybe Warren gave the champ game away knowing he couldn't in order to get NBC on the hook and to pay a premium price. Without the champ game and some primetime November games as well, maybe NBC isn't interested at all or doesn't pay as much as the reported 300-350M/yr for the B10 package.

Here's some rudimentary cost benefit analysis. If NBC's annual bid was upped anything beyond 40M then it was worth it to do it. Say NBC ended up paying 50-100M more per year than they would have without those sweeteners. Well that's 350-700M more in money vs the 40M one time penalty paid to Fox. It's a no brainer.

Whether it was purposeful or inadvertent, who knows but in the end despite any of the ESPN hoopla, it's reasonable to think it was beneficial for things to turn out the way they did.

 

[rutgersguy1]

 

[rutgersguy1]

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YouTube interview of former Fox Sports prez about the B10 unfinished deals among other things. Mentioned the possibility of creating dome games and now we have the Ford Field announcement a couple days later. He's from the industry so he has an idea of how things might play out.




Also a tweet from 6 months ago when reporters were saying Texas/OU leaving early wasn't looking good, but he still thought an agreement would be reached. He's a good source for insight on media news.