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I'm slow, but this is starting to make some sense when you say it like that. Same ol' story.
Sorry for the long read, but the following might help clarify the current situation a bit. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!
) that think McLeod had any leverage at all to talk MN and Wis into cutting ties with the Big Ten and staying in the WCHA are completely looney. MN and Wis had no choice but to bow before the cash cow and kiss some Big Ten a**. I think you're absolutely right Sic-a-toka.
In my view, we're currently witnessing an unprecedented paradigm shift in the commercialization and professionalization of college sports in general particularly since the creation of the BTN media model.
For example, BTN profits have increased by nearly $50M/year since it's inception in 2007. Since then the BTN media footprint has grown from 42M subscribers to an estimated 75M viewers covering 35% of the United States and has more than doubled it's initial revenue to $230M. Consequently BTN revenue to member schools has consistently increased. The BTN delivered $8M to Big Ten schools in 2010, an increase of 20% from the previous year.
Revenues for Big Ten schools in the current long term BTN business plan are projected to rise at least 200% over the next several years. BTN CEO Mark Silverman is currently setting in motion plans to recruit 12M new subscribers a year or at least 60 million more subscribers over the next five years.
Notably, the announcement of the BTHC plays a key role in this futuristic financial blueprint. Currently, the BTN yields $.88/household in subscriber fees. If the BTN raises carriage rates by a negligible $.05/household, an additional 60M subscribers in the U.S. and Canada could conservatively generate an additional $55.8M, and that’s not even considering advertising revenue.
Ad revenue could generate as much as $83.7M for a substantive increase in BTN revenue of $139.5M. In addition to current income, the BTN could over the next five years realistically generate substantially more than a quarter of a billion dollars for the Big Ten conference. That would more than double revenue distribution to individual member schools to $16M or more per year. That my friend is a hell of a lot of Benjamins and very welcome news to Big Ten member schools in troubled economic times, and when the arms race of escalating athletic budgets is projected to literally spiral out of control in the next 10 years.
So when the Big Ten came calling to form the BTHC, those individuals (i.e. dggoddard
NOW if the "Super League" (SL) is able to secure a media contract with Versus/Comcast/NBC, it could "potentially" yield substantial media income for the new league. In April this year, it was announced Versus would be changing its name within 90 days to a name including "NBC" to reflect the NBC/Comcast merger.
Without a doubt, SL leaders understand that there's a very interesting and strategic link to Notre Dame in all this. First of all, a specific media deal between Versus/NBC and the new SL to broadcast college hockey content would be unprecedented in college hockey and could potentially lead to big media deals in the future with other college hockey conferences (i.e. HE), thus help expand the fanbase of college hockey like never before.
How critical is the "Super League" and a media link to Notre Dame choosing to join the new conference? Here's my assessment:
College football obviously floats the money boat in college athletics. Let's look at a little history. ND football has a media contract with NBC which began in 1991. The initial contract with NBC was $38 million for 5 years. Since Notre Dame is independent, they split the revenue 50/50 with each opponent. The deal revolutionized college athletics and brought millions into Notre Dame's bank account which they used in part to substantially reinvest in their scholarship programs. At the time it was a huge financial windfall that guaranteed the Fighting Irish would remain independent from other conferences.
In June 2010, NBC signed a contract extension, which covered 2011 to 2015 for a flat fee (not based upon ratings) of more than $9M/year (about $1.6M/football game!!).
However, since ND signed the agreement, television revenue in most conferences (i.e. Big Ten, Pac-12, SEC, ACC) has rapidly accelerated, while Notre Dame's media revenue has remained stable but with little growth potential. For example, the Big Ten Network alone has almost equaled and will eventually supersede the payout for Notre Dame's contract with NBC. ND is obviously looking for more TV revenue to subsidize it's existing media contract with NBC in addition to it's own network revenue projections.
A media deal between the SL and versus/NBC would obviously be a HUGE carrot on a stick for ND and it just might be enough to lure ND away from considering a move to HE and into a move to the SL instead. If ND is going to come into the new SL, this would most likely close the deal for them.
An SL contract with Versus/NBC to broadcast their college hockey content would most certainly provide added value for ND's existing contractual agreement with NBC.
If so, it would pose as no conflict with the launch of the ND Network since a contractual agreement with NBC has already been reached to broadcast content in much the same way as the Texas Longhorn Network leveraged their continued commitment to the Big 12 by securing unprecedented approval from ESPN and the Big 12 (who hold exclusive broadcasting rights with ESPN/ABC and Fox for all members) to broadcast their own network athletic content on ESPN. That was the linchpin that kept Texas in the Big 12 with a cool $15M a season in their pocket, along with Big 12 revenue to boot for a whopping total of 30M+ per year!! Shaaaa.....
As I stated in the other "whiny" thread, the SL really needs a big media deal to jump onto the cash cow media bandwagon in college sports. This is indeed the missing piece of the puzzle for the new SL. Without it, my guess is they will left shuffling regional media cable providers with Fox Sports Network with substantially lower media revenue for the new conference which they perhaps could have hammered out anyway by staying in the WCHA.
However, if the SL does land a Versus/NBC contract, it's doubtful whether NBC will want to plunge headlong into a niche market like college hockey and even come close to equaling BTN's cash dispersion to member schools. They will most likely tread cautiously. But if Notre Dame decides to buy into the new SL because of additional media revenue benefits, that changes things significantly and the financial benefits for the new SL could indeed be more substantial.
Protecting the golden goose?, please... it's just an excuse to do something you have wanted to do for other reasons.