NBC offers Big East only 23 million per year

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DrBox
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No one (or very few) ever said it was a utopia or some game changing leap. Yes, we're with the same schools we were with for the most part. The alternative? Being with the sunbelt schools, which would suffocate us.
It's a good move even if it pays LESS.

Even Cowen and Dickson didn't make this move as some sort of lifesaver. They weren't even looking to move to the BE (because it is structurally a lateral move) UNTIL C-USA foolishly added 6 teams to replace 4 (UCF, Memphis, Houston, SMU). Then Cowen got on the phone.
Yes, it appears its treading water, which sure beats drowning.


Fred Dowler
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DrBox wrote:No one (or very few) ever said it was a utopia or some game changing leap. Yes, we're with the same schools we were with for the most part. The alternative? Being with the sunbelt schools, which would suffocate us.
It's a good move even if it pays LESS.

Even Cowen and Dickson didn't make this move as some sort of lifesaver. They weren't even looking to move to the BE (because it is structurally a lateral move) UNTIL C-USA foolishly added 6 teams to replace 4 (UCF, Memphis, Houston, SMU). Then Cowen got on the phone.
Yes, it appears its treading water, which sure beats drowning.
Sure, given the opportunity to join the Big East, there was little choice but to accept it.

But...was the invitation to join the Big East more a matter of the ruling regime successfully selling Tulane and winning the Big East over or more a matter of the Big East needing to fill yet another hole in their thinning ranks and turning to Tulane as one of the few remaining C-USA programs that they hadn't already invited and one located in a larger and more attractive market than Tulsa Univ. is?

Okay, maybe an exaggeration that some were calling the Big East some kind of utopia after they issued the invitation to Tulane to join up...but were there not at least some people out there looking to spin the story into "hey look, the world now recognizes that Tulane led by that very capable duo of Scott Cowen and Rick Dickson is on the right track and the new stadium project and the basketball gym renovation are just impressing the heck out of people...and this invitation is proof...?" I could be wrong but I believe that there were.
Tulane sports: small football stadium, very small basketball arena, w̶i̶n̶n̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶p̶r̶o̶g̶r̶a̶m̶s̶, h̶o̶n̶e̶s̶t̶y̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶a̶c̶c̶o̶u̶n̶t̶a̶b̶i̶l̶i̶t̶y̶ , but, hey, now there's tailgating.
TXWave88
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I believe that Tulane already tried to sell itself to the Big East when they accepted UH, SMU, etc. Maybe the BE liked Tulane, but did not think it was the best fit compared to SMU or UH or whoever else at that time. Tulane may have been the best left out, but I do not know that. I think this may explain why people were against going to the BE since we got passed over. So when the spot opened up, it may have been an easy pick since they already knew what we had to offer. So to your point, in my opinion, Tulane probably attempted to sell itself to the BE at one point and BE did not offer either due to not wanting us then or not having another spot. Another spot opened up and they were quick to pick us up. I think that means Tulane did sell itself decently. I cannot imagine that if we never contacted the BE or had discussions with the BE previously, that the BE would have offered and we accepted that fast.

Now if we could identify who the competition was to get that extra spot, then maybe we could determine if it was an easy pick for the BE because of the obvious. I do not have such information but we can assume it was the rest of CUSA. It would be interesting to know how many MWC schools were in the mix though.
DrBox
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Fred Dowler wrote:
Okay, maybe an exaggeration that some were calling the Big East some kind of utopia after they issued the invitation to Tulane to join up...but were there not at least some people out there looking to spin the story into "hey look, the world now recognizes that Tulane led by that very capable duo of Scott Cowen and Rick Dickson is on the right track and the new stadium project and the basketball gym renovation are just impressing the heck out of people...and this invitation is proof...?" I could be wrong but I believe that there were.
ON the other hand, if these 2 are intentionally driving us to obscurity, there would have been no better way than to stay in C-USA and champion for a regional league.
Personally, I think Cowen saw the light about 2 years ago and realizes it's imperative for us to get into an AQ league. Whether he's executing properly is debatable. The problem, I think, is that he's got someone driving the train who lacks the day to day operational skills to get us there. Dickson must get a number 2 in command to run the athletic department and get these teams winning and get people interested in us again. That plus AAU = AQ League.
Fred Dowler
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DrBox wrote:
Fred Dowler wrote:
Okay, maybe an exaggeration that some were calling the Big East some kind of utopia after they issued the invitation to Tulane to join up...but were there not at least some people out there looking to spin the story into "hey look, the world now recognizes that Tulane led by that very capable duo of Scott Cowen and Rick Dickson is on the right track and the new stadium project and the basketball gym renovation are just impressing the heck out of people...and this invitation is proof...?" I could be wrong but I believe that there were.
ON the other hand, if these 2 are intentionally driving us to obscurity, there would have been no better way than to stay in C-USA and champion for a regional league.
Personally, I think Cowen saw the light about 2 years ago and realizes it's imperative for us to get into an AQ league. Whether he's executing properly is debatable. The problem, I think, is that he's got someone driving the train who lacks the day to day operational skills to get us there. Dickson must get a number 2 in command to run the athletic department and get these teams winning and get people interested in us again. That plus AAU = AQ League.
Why not keep TU in a low-cost regional league?

I still suspect that, more than anything, that the story was that this invitation fell into Cowen's lap with the Big East losing member program after member program and looking at C-USA as a place where to recruit replacements.

Having said that, I don't doubt at all that the "east" part of Big East appeals a lot to Cowen, given the connection to alumni in that part of the world that he and others in the regime could make use of and the importance of fundraising in his eyes as part of his original twin mandate/mission to step up fundraising and to slash costs.

Whether there will end up being all that much of a genuine "east" component to the membership of this league or even in the name itself remains to be seen, though.

Personally I don't believe that Cowen has ever seen any light at all to make him into a solid believer in TU making a full-force effort to have a consistent-winner going-places football program (or such a program in bball, either) as much as he's all about gimmicks to help fundraising and the financial bottom line and minimize the burden that the football program is on the university books.

I also suspect that he'll be retiring in 3-4 years, at the most, and this is another monument to his king-size ego.

TU is still light years away from being part of the mix of what will probably eventually be 4 top-tier super leagues. Does Cowen really have faith that TU can and will win a lot of games, post winning seasons and build up a following and move up and "join the club?" Given what changes that TU has and has not made in its philosophy of operating the major-revenue programs I see very little evidence of that.
Tulane sports: small football stadium, very small basketball arena, w̶i̶n̶n̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶p̶r̶o̶g̶r̶a̶m̶s̶, h̶o̶n̶e̶s̶t̶y̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶a̶c̶c̶o̶u̶n̶t̶a̶b̶i̶l̶i̶t̶y̶ , but, hey, now there's tailgating.
Ray
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I don't put much stock in Cowen either. I think this conference we are joining is still going to be much better than the one we are leaving. How well we do is the biggest question.
DrBox
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Fred Dowler wrote:
Why not keep TU in a low-cost regional league?

I still suspect that, more than anything, that the story was that this invitation fell into Cowen's lap with the Big East losing member program after member program and looking at C-USA as a place where to recruit replacements.
Why? Because it will result in even a lower revenue league. We'll never have a chance to get fans back playing sunbelt competition, no matter how many games we win, short of Boise level for 8 years.
Nah, he and Dickson weren't happy with C-USA's expansion, especially at the same time he was sticking his neck out there negotiating with the MWC. They clowned around for years here, but at least they have the right long term objective now, although whether they can achieve it is questionable.
Fred Dowler
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DrBox wrote:
Fred Dowler wrote:
Why not keep TU in a low-cost regional league?

I still suspect that, more than anything, that the story was that this invitation fell into Cowen's lap with the Big East losing member program after member program and looking at C-USA as a place where to recruit replacements.
Why? Because it will result in even a lower revenue league. We'll never have a chance to get fans back playing sunbelt competition, no matter how many games we win, short of Boise level for 8 years.
Nah, he and Dickson weren't happy with C-USA's expansion, especially at the same time he was sticking his neck out there negotiating with the MWC. They clowned around for years here, but at least they have the right long term objective now, although whether they can achieve it is questionable.
I was not meaning at all to suggest that staying in the newest version of C-USA, given some alternative, is what TU should be doing.

I am only, to the contrary, looking to speculate on what the TU leadership could have been thinking and how they were viewing things, though I still suspect that the basic story was that the invitation to join the Big East fell into their laps more than it was that they went out and made a pitch to the Big East on TU now being on the right track and so on and won them over.
Tulane sports: small football stadium, very small basketball arena, w̶i̶n̶n̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶p̶r̶o̶g̶r̶a̶m̶s̶, h̶o̶n̶e̶s̶t̶y̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶a̶c̶c̶o̶u̶n̶t̶a̶b̶i̶l̶i̶t̶y̶ , but, hey, now there's tailgating.
jonathanjoseph
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DrBox wrote:
Fred Dowler wrote:
Okay, maybe an exaggeration that some were calling the Big East some kind of utopia after they issued the invitation to Tulane to join up...but were there not at least some people out there looking to spin the story into "hey look, the world now recognizes that Tulane led by that very capable duo of Scott Cowen and Rick Dickson is on the right track and the new stadium project and the basketball gym renovation are just impressing the heck out of people...and this invitation is proof...?" I could be wrong but I believe that there were.
ON the other hand, if these 2 are intentionally driving us to obscurity, there would have been no better way than to stay in C-USA and champion for a regional league.
Personally, I think Cowen saw the light about 2 years ago and realizes it's imperative for us to get into an AQ league. Whether he's executing properly is debatable. The problem, I think, is that he's got someone driving the train who lacks the day to day operational skills to get us there. Dickson must get a number 2 in command to run the athletic department and get these teams winning and get people interested in us again. That plus AAU = AQ League.
If you think Cowen "saw the light 2 years ago", that's suggesting a stunning degree of incompetence. All of his peers figured it out 10-15 years ago and yes that is a fireable offense and the athletic dpeartment may not survive this incompetence. The same thing is happening with the education bubble. It's easy to see Cowen missing the boat on that as well except in that case it will be the university itself that may not survive.
DfromCT
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wavedat wrote:
We are better off but it's not better competition. We are right back in cusa. This one year anomaly doesn't change the bar. We are right back where we were. End of story.No more national recognition than now. We want that we have to earn it by being a BCS/playoff buster.
The part of the equation missing is that the existing CUSA is nowhere near what it was when we helped start the conference. So we're "right back in CUSA" but the old CUSA. Today's CUSA is much more of a backwater conference than today's BE, even after the defections occur.
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tpstulane
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Comcast Cable just announced a complete buyout (the remaining 49% they didn't own) for $16.7 billion of NBC from GE. The CEO on CNBC said he's looking forward to generating revenue from sports programming once again.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/comcast-b ... 25z;_ylv=3
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tpstulane
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NBC stumbles badly in deep midwinter freeze, 'Smash' plays to its smallest audience ever

:lol: :lol: :lol:
http://news.yahoo.com/nbc-stumbles-deep ... 54102.html
NBC, after being heartened by some long-sought success this past fall, has fallen into a deep midwinter freeze.

The network has badly stumbled recently, hitting its three lowest viewership levels for a traditional television season in the past four weeks, the Nielsen ratings company said. The only exception came the week NBC televised the Pro Bowl.
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Tweets from mostly ESPN sources are not enough. I will wait for something from a respectable national outlet.
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tpstulane
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Horrible news............
From the Titanic to the Lusitania
ImageImage
Get ready for mid-week football as ESPN matches the paltry NBC $20 million. At best weekend play on some subchannel that nobody has or cares about........
http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Dail ... -East.aspx
ESPN matched the rights fee but is not likely to put any games on its broadcast channel, ABC. Sources say ESPN is likely to sublicense a significant amount of games to other networks, such as Fox Sports, which is launching Fox Sports 1 this summer.
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HSV
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If true as currently rumored, this is truly frying pan and into the fire type news. When you factor in the exit and entry fees you are left to wonder if TU will even break even financially over the 6year contract. At less than two million per, and relegated to weeknight games, ESPN3, and sub licensed regional networks, the ONLY thing good about leaving CUSA is the marginally better competition.

Once again, if true as currently reported, another in a long history of bad days for TU athletics. No way to spin this otherwise.
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It will be more than 2million a year even if the NBC is only 20 million. Now if its only 20 million tier 1 then we're looking at maybe 2.3 - 2.4 million total. If it is 25 million like I'm hoping then I bet 2-3 tiers are a bit more as well and we're at 3. Girl can dream mirite?
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HSV
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Also, this may be the straw that broke the camels back regarding the nBE's future.

Most have known that UConn and Cincy were trying to leave to go to ACC etc... But now they and Memphis and Temple must seriously consider joining the C7 league for basketball and other sports and MAC etc... For football to make more money and have better basketball competition.

Furthermore, this motivates SMU and Houston (maybe Memphis) to join the MWC for more money, and being with Boise and SDSU.

I would say anything is possible right now. If four to five teams leave the nBE now it may be the end.

ESPN wins. They destroyed the BE... They wanted and got rid of one BCS league. Now they have crushed a challenge from the upstart NBC Sports for a mere $20 million a year (that they will defray partially by sub licensing games to FOX sports) and potentially may never pay a dime if the league implodes as I described above.

Don't mess with ESPN is the moral of the story.
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HSV
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Well there you have it. Millions in exit and entry fees to make $800k or so more a year.

Wow.
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JDTulane wrote:It will be more than 2million a year even if the NBC is only 20 million. Now if its only 20 million tier 1 then we're looking at maybe 2.3 - 2.4 million total. If it is 25 million like I'm hoping then I bet 2-3 tiers are a bit more as well and we're at 3. Girl can dream mirite?
Please stop dreaming and look at take a sober look at the reality of the situation. Tulane athletics cannot afford further dreamers.
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HSV wrote:Well there you have it. Millions in exit and entry fees to make $800k or so more a year.

Wow.
Like clockwork, everything Cowen touches turn to $hit.
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tpstulane
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Sad day for those like myself that had hoped for a financial windfall joining the nBE. With inflation factored in we gain no "real" additional rev's.
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HSV
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Hard to believe that the C7 who don't even play football will make at least twice as much as the nBE.

So now the nBE is below a basketball only. If anyone thinks that there is a future for teams outside of the BCS conferences let that sink in for a moment. Then remind yourself that these schools make between $19 (ACC) and less than $30 million (rumored New Sec deal) per year per team. They make more individually than the entire conference makes in a year

That gap between the haves and have nots is unprecedented. This coupled with most of the BCS conferences expanding to 14 or so teams and increasing their number of conference games (thus limiting the payday games for those not in the BCS) and tying up all the major network tv prime spots (and all the relevant bowls locked up), I don't think the path taken by the TCUs and Utahs etc are even remotely possible any more. I sincerely believe the days of Boise St being relevant are numbered as well.

Money makes the world go round. This simply confirms what Cowen sees as the future for Tulane athletics. Irrelevancy. Schools not in the BCS leagues are defac to FCS (I AA) schools going forward. It will be very rare to see any more teams able to get themselves out of this second tier status now(maybe UCONN, Cincy) The gap is too large in terms of money and there will not be access to show the public your product (when relegated to web broadcasts on ESPN3, and going up against the NFL on Thursday nights). Winning games against other also rans and playing in the Liberty bowl won't do much to move the needle. If you win the nBE championship on ESPN3 will anyone even know?

That's it. No more posting for me tonight. I am obviously very disappointed in the latest turn of events.
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tpstulane
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HSV wrote:Hard to believe that the C7 who don't even play football will make at least twice as much as the nBE.

So now the nBE is below a basketball only. If anyone thinks that there is a future for teams outside of the BCS conferences let that sink in for a moment. Then remind yourself that these schools make between $19 (ACC) and less than $30 million (rumored New Sec deal) per year per team. They make more individually than the entire conference makes in a year

That gap between the haves and have nots is unprecedented. This coupled with most of the BCS conferences expanding to 14 or so teams and increasing their number of conference games (thus limiting the payday games for those not in the BCS) and tying up all the major network tv prime spots (and all the relevant bowls locked up), I don't think the path taken by the TCUs and Utahs etc are even remotely possible any more. I sincerely believe the days of Boise St being relevant are numbered as well.

Money makes the world go round. This simply confirms what Cowen sees as the future for Tulane athletics. Irrelevancy. Schools not in the BCS leagues are defac to FCS (I AA) schools going forward. It will be very rare to see any more teams able to get themselves out of this second tier status now(maybe UCONN, Cincy) The gap is too large in terms of money and there will not be access to show the public your product (when relegated to web broadcasts on ESPN3, and going up against the NFL on Thursday nights). Winning games against other also rans and playing in the Liberty bowl won't do much to move the needle. If you win the nBE championship on ESPN3 will anyone even know?

That's it. No more posting for me tonight. I am obviously very disappointed in the latest turn of events.
+1
I feel the same way HSV. Maybe they knew something building this small stadium.
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HSV
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I think you are right about that as well.

Good news is we can end the debates on this site about how large the OCS is really going to be, parking problems, and how large the OCS can be expanded to, They are all moot points.
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