Michigan State on Thursday formally announced its long-term multimedia rights deal with Fox Sports. MSU had been one of just two schools in the Power Five conferences (Arizona State the other) to manage and sell their rights in-house. The new deal with Fox, which sources pegged at $150M over 15 years, will go into effect for the '16-17 fiscal year. The rights will be managed by Fox Sports College Properties, a division of Fox-owned Home Team Sports, and will include in-venue signage, print, radio, TV programming, corporate hospitality, digital and social media integration, promotional and experiential activities, and intellectual property rights and official designations. MSU AD Mark Hollis said, "Now is the right time and Fox Sports is the right partner for Michigan State. Fox Sports can focus on building the Michigan State brand and leverage synergies with the Fox Sports family of networks, including Fox Sports Detroit and BTN.” Fox Sports College Properties VP/GM Kris Kassel will manage the relationship with MSU. Kassel previously worked in the athletic department at Gonzaga and has sold for the properties at Alabama, Arizona and Memphis while also working in the athletic department at Evansville. The Spartan Sports Network, with offices in East Lansing and a portfolio of 35 affiliate radio stations, will continue to handle production of live radio broadcasts, coaches’ shows and ancillary programming. Fox also has multimedia rights at Auburn, Georgetown, USC, Villanova and the Big East (Michael Smith, Staff Writer).
MORE GREEN FOR THE GREEN AND WHITE: In Michigan, Chris Solari notes the $10M a year "would be an increase" of about $3M a year for MSU, or $45M over the life of the deal. MSU athletics has a $107M budget for '15-16, and Hollis said that the additional revenue "will help the athletic department increase its scholarships, cost-of-attendance payments, academic support, travel budgets, athletic training and medical services." Fox Sports owns and operates BTN, and MSU Exec Associate AD/External Operations Paul Schager said that it "helped MSU make its decision to align its media rights with the company." Schager: "Fox was just something that was a good fit in Mark’s long-term vision with the alliance it could bring to Michigan State. The fact that Fox is not representing hundreds of schools, but this is a real focused effort by them to get into the college space" (LANSING STATE JOURNAL, 4/22).
