AAC, ESPN Agree To 12-Year Media-Rights Deal Worth $1B

https://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Daily/Closing-Bell/2019/03/19/AAC.aspx



The American Athletic Conference will get $1B for its media rights from ESPN over 12 years, according to sources. The average of $83.3M per year is about four times what the AAC was making in its previous rights agreement with the net, which paid the league just over $20M annually. The new agreement begins in '20-21 and runs through the '31-32 academic year.



The annual per-school average of $6.94M provides each AAC school with nearly $5M more in annual revenue. They did not sign a grant of rights, which would have restricted them from jumping to a conference in the Power Five.

...

The comprehensive deal provides ESPN with rights to all of the AAC’s live programming, except for a small package of basketball games on CBS and some Navy football games on CBS Sports Network. The new contract also calls for some Saturday football games to be broadcast on ABC. Football, along with men's and women's basketball, will remain on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU, but the majority of basketball games and a significant number of the football games will go to ESPN+. Other live sports including baseball, softball and soccer also will air on ESPN+...

ESPN+? ugh.



a la carte television streaming is going to suck.

that's a lot of money.

That's a pretty good deal for them. It is football and basketball. It does not get to our level for football and basketball (not sure what we get on basketball) but it is close to our current level.



I wonder what our new contract will be like in football. Will it be a 400% increase?

I was hoping BYU would join the AAC. Ain't gonna happen now.

Well that contract makes more financial sense to join their conference. I think our new deal will exceed their deal.

I wouldn't mind BYU to the AAC.

BYU joing the AAC is interesting idea. I look at that list of schools and there are lots of really fun matchups. Made me think these thinks:



Taysom's marquee passing game against Houston.

Tulsa's offensive shootout back in the Hall/Collie era.

UCF going undefeated.

Giving beatdowns to UConn, on the regular.

The ugly Memphis brawl.

Having program history with SMU.

Strong competition with Cincinatti.

And my beloved, adorable, and always celebrated Tulane University. Go Green Wave, go olive and blue. Bruff Commons crawfish etoufee anyone? They served it in the student cafeteria on the regular in 2003. Wouldn't mind having an excuse to visit NOLA. Nope, wouldn't mind that one bit.



I like independence and am happy with the exposure and matchups in the schedule. I also like the idea of BYU in the AAC. I am happy either way. It's a list of teams that beats the P5 on the regular, which BYU does also.

Geography is a huge drawback, though. The closest school is Wichita State, and they're literally a thousand miles away from Provo.

CrimsonCoug wrote:

Geography is a huge drawback, though. The closest school is Wichita State, and they're literally a thousand miles away from Provo.

It would only make sense as part of a bigger western expansion. But, I'm not sure that makes sense for the AAC.



It would be nice to take our teams to our national fanbase at venues across the nation, but still have the majority of the schedule out West (half the games in Provo and half of the road games in the West).



I would love it if the AAC added Boise, SDSU, and Air Force for all sports and Army for football only; plus BYU, Gonzaga, and one other western school for Olympic sports.



BYU football gets a quasi-scheduling agreement for 4-5 late-season games each year and affiliation with the expanded AAC bowl lineup. My pick would be Boise St. every year, one (and only one) of the military academies each year, and then 3 games among the other 12 teams in the conference - perhaps favoring SDSU, Houston, and SMU more often than the rest.



BYU basketball and other Olympic sports could play annual home-away series with Gonzaga, SDSU, Boise, Air Force, and the new western member. BYU basketball could then rotate 8-10 games among the other legacy AAC schools. Only 4-5 of those games would be on the road outside of our region, and schedules could be aligned such that no one in the West plays more than a single 2-game road trip to the Eastern timezone each year (and vice-versa). So, we play Wichita, Tulsa, SMU, and Houston, more often than the Eastern time-zone schools.



The other new western Olympic sports member might be St. Mary's. But, my dark horse pick is GCU...mainly because we have a good fan and alumni base in Arizona and GCU seems to be developing decent fan support (7K per game) along with its decent basketball program (#96 in NET rankings this year).

Like you said, I'm not sure that makes sense for the AAC.

Several months ago I wrote that BYU should join the AAC if the AAC would accept us. I no longer think they would accept us, but I'll paste my previous reasons below:





1. I've been a proponent of independence because of the ESPN contract, the perceived "better than G5" status, better exposure, and BYUTV, but



2. the benefits of independence are lost when BYU loses not one or two games a season but three or more, which is what BYU has done every year since becoming independent.



3. Another factor is that we are a religious-centered institution with standards, both academic and moral, that will not appeal to the vast majority of athletes needed to win at the highest level. Since we are not winning at the highest level, more and more athletes willing to live those standards are going to schools who don't require those standards, whether academic or moral or both.



4. Are we better than many P5 schools? Sure, but so are many G5 schools. Life isn't fair.



5. Can we win the occassional game against P5 schools? Wisconsin gives the obvious answer. But lose the past two games as BYU has and the season has ended for many fans.



6. It doesn't matter whether the coach has been Bronco or Kalani, the losses have come and the emotional investment has ended well before the season has ended.



7. The AAC has a decent ESPN contract with a championship worth playing for even after losses. In addition, the AAC has a better chance than the MWC of becoming a power conference.



8. In my opinion, if the AAC would accept us and if BYUTV could still broadcast or rebroadcast games as it presently does, then the AAC is the best option for BYU football. Not only that but AAC basketball is a lot better than WCC basketball.



To summarize, the present situation quickly creates apathy among fans, the exposure argument is lost, the Church is not willing to spend the money to have BYU become a P5-like team, and basketball is a whole lot better in the AAC.