The WAC's TV deal is insignificant, but its better than the $0 deal they had their first year. % wise there is a big difference between the two leagues deal, but in $, $700k a school vs. $100k a school is not that big a deal compared to the school's budgets. $3.5 million as in the ACC vs. 700k is a big deal.

I differ on the profile of the major programs in the MWC in fb. The difference is at the bottom. That is why the MWC is no better off than the WAC as far as the BCS is concerned-its the top that matters. BYU is the highest profile non-BCS program, but I would argue that Fresno, Hawaii and Boise have as high or a higher profile than Air Force, TCU and CSU (and I would place CSU 2nd in the MWC after BYU). The WAC has had higher TV ratings the last couple of years.

I also differ somewhat on bb. Noone in the remaining WAC has been to the championship game and other than NMSU probably not to the final 8. The MWC has better overall fan support. But the WAC has done better in the NCAA in recent years and UNM, UNLV and Utah are not that far ahead of Fresno, Nevada and Utah St. at present. All 3 of the MWC have declined since the MWC was formed. MWC lost their spot on ESPN Monday nights.

IMO, the MWC Presidents and ADs share their fans excessive opinion of their value and they would have been better served by taking the best of the WAC, strengthening their chances of landing a spot in the new BCS deal, improving their TV negotiating position and, if not eliminating the WAC as competition in the west, at least delegating it to a MAC/Sun Belt level. It would also have helped UNLV and SDSU in bringing rivals into the conference.

In the new BCS deal, when CUSA, WAC and MAC schools get the non-BCS slots, the MWC will probably reconsider. And it would be in their interest if there were 9 I-A conferences, not 11. That could happen if they expanded and the new I-A standards were enforced. 9 conferences would allow a play-in among the BE/MWC/CUSA/MAC (presuming those were all survivors) for the 2 guaranteed slots not taken by the Big 5.

BG, thanks for the link to the OPE site. Great info. When I'm truly bored, it would be nice to pull down the revenue and expenses info for all these schools to provide a comprehensive comparison of budgets among different schools and leagues. One quick thing I noticed form looking at some of the MWC, WAC and other non-BCS western schools, the difference among expenses for football were realtively negligible. Which leads to the heart of the debate regarding the two conferences: Would any combination of WAC members added to the MWC be enough to make the MWC expansion worth while? (To be fair, I guess the same could be offered vice versa but this is more likely, no?) Somewhere amidst all these numbers is the answer that we outside the conference calls can understand.

Using the above resources, it appears that any expansion to the MWC would need to bring in $1 mil per year per team to make sense. Slightly less if the conference went to 12 and held a conference championship for an additional $1 mil TV rights. While I think that Disney and Co. would find the larger MWC worth the money, the question is would they have enough air time to show those games; The last article points out the MWC will likely lose some Thursday night slots to the new ACC contract. Thus we're back to the MWC needing to off the WAC in order to find enough money to make expansion worth while, it seems.


Joedadi, the impact of attendance has been discussed heavily on these boards, but in sparse amounts lately. I've posted numerous tables comparing the conferences, most recently highlighting the disparity between the BCS average, the new BE, the MWC and other non-BCS leagues. This becomes a bigger issue when dicsussing the prospect of budgetary standards from the NCAA and a 12th game in the regular season, which for most SEC and Big 10 schools can translate into $3 - $5 million more dollars. In football alone, the SEC as a whole averages about 6k more fans than the Big 10, which averages about 10k more than the BCS avg. This translates into the average SEC team taking in about $1.4 mil per season in gameday revenue than the avg. Big 10 team, or about $3-4 million more per season than the average BCS team! That's more than what the entire WAC fb/bb contract is worth!! :o


Big crowds for all sports can make a huge difference in budgets and the appeal for a program to recruits. The SEC, Big 12 and western teams have huge baseball crowds (comparitively speaking), and while this revenue doesn't mean much to their overall bottom line heaven knows it helps further the distance between the Florida's and the Wyoming's of the world. Same for basketball. Yes, programs like Memphis and New Mexico draw well and use roundball as their money maker, but even weaker programs at larger schools can draw very well, which helps their budgets, which keeps the program going strong, which helps recruiting, etc...

If the MWC conference were to find 3 more programs that were solidly supported through thick or thin, there'd be slightly less pressure on the need for revenue from the TV contracts. If Fresno St. and Hawaii continue to pull in enough fans to help offset budget #'s, their appeal to the MWC will increase tenfold.

Additions lucrative for league
By NEIL AMATO : The Herald-Sun
namato@heraldsun.com
Jun 30, 2004 : 9:31 pm ET
http://www.herald-sun.com/sports/18-496449.html

From the above article:




Uh, wow. Is it me, or are the most amazing things about this note the numbers for the Pac 10 and the Big 12?