UH does not get a full revenue share from the conference because it is a football-only memberGETTY IMAGES
CBS Sports Network picked up the Univ. of Hawaii's final regular-season football game on Nov. 30 against Army and wanted a 7:30pm local time kickoff at Aloha Stadium, but the 90 minutes "later-than-usual start makes for less-than-ideal packaging for UH ticket sales on the traditional senior night," according to Ferd Lewis of the HONOLULU STAR-ADVERTISER. But it was "either that or the possibility of a Thursday or Friday night slot the network could have pushed for." UH is "obligated to accommodate" the Mountain West Conference's "first tier media partners, CBS and ESPN, though it can impact UH at the box office." The school does "not directly share in the conference TV revenues." The MWC's deals are currently worth approximately $14M a year, and the "lion's share," about $2.8M annually, goes to Boise State. The rest comes out to about $1-1.1M for "each of the conference's 10 other full members." UH "isn't one of them" because it is a football-only member. UH "does not share in the overall revenues" unless shares for all members top" at least $2.3M, something that has "yet to happen." But UH is "permitted to keep its revenue from the Spectrum contract." That was listed as $2.49M for the year ending June 30. Ideally, what would be "best for UH is a carve-out arrangement where it would get a percentage of the overall pie since it must live by its constraints while still preserving whatever local rights package it can negotiate" (HONOLULU STAR-ADVERTISER, 6/3).
B1G BOARD: THE ATHLETIC’s Scott Dochterman noted Big Ten Associate Commissioner/Technology Mike McComiskey “handles selections similar to a fantasy football draft” in creating the conference’s college football programming schedule. Fox “owns the first pick and alternates thereafter in some fashion” with ABC/ESPN, usually pick by pick. McComiskey said, “They draft from kind of 1-90 or whatever number of games there are for the season and slot those out through the year so that no one network has all of the No. 1 picks week to week.” He added, “Fox does have the No. 1 overall for the year, which, as you can guess, they generally use for Ohio State-Michigan. But they do not have a weekly No. 1 pick.” Among the Big Ten’s “high-profile games,” the selections “appear balanced” between Fox and ABC/ESPN. Fox chose Ohio State-Michigan and Michigan-Wisconsin, while ABC/ESPN “picked Michigan State-Ohio State and Notre Dame-Michigan” (THEATHLETIC.com, 6/2).
