National television rights are a driving force in Division I football, and Notre Dame and the Univ. of Texas are two schools pushing the boundary of the business. With its partnership with NBC, Notre Dame enjoys a national footprint across television and web channels for its games. And with its new Longhorn Network, UT is the first school with a 24-hour channel devoted to its sports programs. UT women's AD & Dir of External Affairs Chris Plonsky said the process leading up to the deal with ESPN to create the Longhorn Network was extremely time consuming and difficult. “We had talked with friends at the Big 10 and Fox, and then realignment discussions put a crimp in the process,” Plonsky said. She said she was stunned when the move was met with criticism from other universities. “This has been a painful two years,” Plosnky said. “I hope we see some collegiality in whatever moves are next in college athletics.” Notre Dame AD Jack Swarbrick said the school also faced alignment issues in hockey when the Big 10 swallowed the Central Collegiate Hockey Association. Notre Dame entered the Hockey East conference, which enabled it to keep its games on NBC. Swarbrick said he is a fan of the Longhorn Network, but that Notre Dame is not looking into starting its own network. “Texas has geographic concentration, we don’t have that,” Swarbrick said. “We have interest everywhere, so we need a different approach. Nobody has better distribution power than NBC.”
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Litner said a playoff system would not
create better ratings than BCS |
PLAYOFF RATINGS NOT BETTER THAN BOWLS: Jon Litner, Group President of NBC Sports Group, weighed in on the debate over the BCS model and said he did not believe a playoff format would deliver better ratings than the current bowl system. A former exec at ABC, Litner helped create the BCS and college football’s national championship in the mid '90’s. “Back then presidents didn’t want a true playoff because there would be too many games and it would disrupt exam schedules, and they didn’t want to deprive kids of bowl opportunities,” Litner said. “We said, let’s try to create something that tries to do all of those things.”
Quick Hits:
* Swarbrick, on whether broadcasters affect college football schedules: “You might expect that Notre Dame has a lot of conversations with NBC about the schedule, but we haven’t had one of those in a long time. I tell them what I’m thinking and they recognize that it is our decision.”
* Plonsky, on the carriage problems of the Longhorn Network: “I respect the partner we’re with and I like their track record, so we’re going to be patient and participatory. Time Warner will be key because of the footprint in our state.”
* Bevilacqua Media Company CEO Chris Bevilacqua, on how to negotiate deals with colleges for media rights: "These are higher education corporations that have a very visible athletic front porch. You have to come at it from the perspective of a higher education company. You’re selling education.”
