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  • The MTN a Failure?

    I was reading an article on Si.com about the BYU/FSU game not being seen on DirecTv etc...

    A couple of paragraphs of note:

    The Mountain West spurned ESPN prior to the 2006 season because the four-letter network planned to give away all those prime Thursday-night telecasts to BCS conferences. So instead of playing on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, the Mountain West opted to create its own network in partnership with CSTV, now known as CBS College Sports.

    It was a noble thought, but it has been a spectacular failure. Clearly, ESPN is too powerful a foe to challenge. Imagine the buzz Utah might have had entering bowl season last year had people been able to watch the Utes play on a regular basis. College football fans would have tuned to ESPN in droves to watch Utah, BYU and TCU play on odd nights.

    Mountain West highlights have all but disappeared off of ESPN, with a few notable exceptions such as this year's BYU-Oklahoma game, which was broadcast on ABC because Oklahoma was considered the home team and the Big 12 has a contract with ESPN/ABC. Meanwhile, the Mountain West, which might be better top-to-bottom than the Big East, lags behind the MAC in exposure. Friday, I asked Toledo coach Tim Beckman how his team's nationally televised whipping of Colorado might play with recruits, and his smile reached clear to Columbus.

    The next time the Mountain West makes a television deal, officals should crawl back to ESPN. The current arrangement hurt the Utes last year, and it may wind up hurting the Cougars this year. Because if a team dominates and no one tunes in to see it, did it really dominate at all?


    Agree?
    "They're good. They've always been good" - David Shaw.

    Well, because he thought it was good sport. Because some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.

  • #2
    Originally posted by DrumNFeather View Post
    I was reading an article on Si.com about the BYU/FSU game not being seen on DirecTv etc...

    A couple of paragraphs of note:

    The Mountain West spurned ESPN prior to the 2006 season because the four-letter network planned to give away all those prime Thursday-night telecasts to BCS conferences. So instead of playing on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, the Mountain West opted to create its own network in partnership with CSTV, now known as CBS College Sports.

    It was a noble thought, but it has been a spectacular failure. Clearly, ESPN is too powerful a foe to challenge. Imagine the buzz Utah might have had entering bowl season last year had people been able to watch the Utes play on a regular basis. College football fans would have tuned to ESPN in droves to watch Utah, BYU and TCU play on odd nights.

    Mountain West highlights have all but disappeared off of ESPN, with a few notable exceptions such as this year's BYU-Oklahoma game, which was broadcast on ABC because Oklahoma was considered the home team and the Big 12 has a contract with ESPN/ABC. Meanwhile, the Mountain West, which might be better top-to-bottom than the Big East, lags behind the MAC in exposure. Friday, I asked Toledo coach Tim Beckman how his team's nationally televised whipping of Colorado might play with recruits, and his smile reached clear to Columbus.

    The next time the Mountain West makes a television deal, officals should crawl back to ESPN. The current arrangement hurt the Utes last year, and it may wind up hurting the Cougars this year. Because if a team dominates and no one tunes in to see it, did it really dominate at all?


    Agree?
    Agree and disagree. Tues, Wednesday, and even Thursday games are ridiculous. There is no way I would have been cool with a MWC Wednesday or Tuesday game night. And I certainly don't agree with the author that people would turn out in droves to watch BYU and UNLV or Utah and New Mexico. Do people turn out in droves to watch the sorry ass MAC and C-USA games they have on those nights now? We had the Thursday night feature which I believe hurt us. And they wanted to push us back. I am glad that the conference gave ESPN the finger in that regard.

    If the mountain had better distribution then it wouldn't be a failure. In that regard it has been epic.
    "Nobody listens to Turtle."
    -Turtle
    sigpic

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    • #3
      From top-to-bottom, no, I'd disagree. It's been GREAT for the UNMs and CSUs and Wyomings of the league. But it really damaged BYU and seriously hurt Utah, and TCU hasn't done too well under it either.

      The little guys had little exposure under the ESPN contract, and came away with more under the Mountain. Plus they got a lot more money - at least in the short term.

      But the big guys had their national ditribution cut dramatically. BYU had a notable drop in general donations - worth WAY more than the bump they got in additional TV revenue - directly attributable to the lack of TV exposure and fans/alums inability to watch Cougar games. That problem is 'fixed' now, but now it's not in HD, has crappy production quality, and as evidenced by the fallout between VS and DirectTV, is still a tenuous relationship that could disappear at a moment's notice. Plus, when you look at the advertizing it airs, it's still kind of hard to imagine that they really make much money. A tenuous relationship indeed...

      The Mountain sucketh, always and forever...

      Comment


      • #4
        Highlights of MWC games are not on ESPN because ESPN chooses not to show highlights. The highlights are available from the mtn. if ESPN wanted to show them.

        Like Surfah, I'm glad the conference told ESPN to shove it. Tues. and Wed. games would suck.
        "Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance and the gospel of envy; its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery." - Winston Churchill


        "I only know what I hear on the news." - Dear Leader

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by il Padrino Ute View Post
          Highlights of MWC games are not on ESPN because ESPN chooses not to show highlights. The highlights are available from the mtn. if ESPN wanted to show them.

          Like Surfah, I'm glad the conference told ESPN to shove it. Tues. and Wed. games would suck.
          I'm glad they told them to shove it, too.

          They made the right move. It sucks but not as bad as it would have with ESPN.

          Comment


          • #6
            "Clearly ESPN is too powerful a foe to challenge."

            Thank you, Time Warner owned SI, for sticking up for Disney owned ESPN.

            Big media in the U.S. always stick up for one another against the little guy.
            We all trust our own unorthodoxies.

            Comment


            • #7
              I agree too, I think in the end having the Mtn. will be better. It's definitely a work in progress and HD is desperately needed. I believe that if the Mountain West becomes a BCS conference, distribution of the network will grow significantly. Playing on Tuesday and Wednesday nights lowers the respect of the conference.
              "To the man who only has a hammer, everything he encounters begins to look like a nail."
              —Abraham Maslow

              Comment


              • #8
                And even if we had the ESPN contract our showcase night game on Tuesday or Wednesday would be lost by the time Sunday rolls around with College Gameday Final. Nobody would remember a game 3-4 nights before all of Saturday's kickoffs. Even our Saturday games would be relegated to the ESPN's sister networks that only air regional broadcasts. So I don't buy the argument that we'd have more coverage. The coverage still wouldn't be national except for perhaps big games between TCU, Utah, and BYU. And then we'd still be 3rd or 4th tier to the other BCS games scheduled at the same time.
                "Nobody listens to Turtle."
                -Turtle
                sigpic

                Comment


                • #9
                  The number one school to benefit from the MTN is BSU. This year they will play games on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturdays and ESPN has them on six times. It has really increased their exposure throughout the country.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by statman View Post
                    BYU had a notable drop in general donations - worth WAY more than the bump they got in additional TV revenue - directly attributable to the lack of TV exposure and fans/alums inability to watch Cougar games.
                    I'd like to see a source or link for this. I just havent seen this before. General donations? Or sports donations? Everything else is up: Cougar Club Membership, Season Tix, etc.

                    I think the money from the mtn has produced a sizeable increase in competitive advantage for the top half of the conference. Most notably in coaches' salaries and facilities. Look at the rise of the MWC coincident with the start of the mtn.

                    Yeah, the other conferences will get better deals--the WAC got better broadcast nights, because the MWC left a vacuum that ESPN had to fill with programming. Also, the MWC leaving ESPN and proving it had a viable alternative put more leverage in the hands of the other conferences.

                    But dont kid yourself that the MWC would have had a better deal with ESPN had they stayed. It would have gotten worse and worse, and probably ESPN would have started a new spinoff channel ESPN-MWC which would have paid less, and aired games at 2 am on Tuesdays and Sundays.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by DrumNFeather View Post
                      I was reading an article on Si.com about the BYU/FSU game not being seen on DirecTv etc...

                      A couple of paragraphs of note:

                      The Mountain West spurned ESPN prior to the 2006 season because the four-letter network planned to give away all those prime Thursday-night telecasts to BCS conferences. So instead of playing on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, the Mountain West opted to create its own network in partnership with CSTV, now known as CBS College Sports.

                      It was a noble thought, but it has been a spectacular failure. Clearly, ESPN is too powerful a foe to challenge. Imagine the buzz Utah might have had entering bowl season last year had people been able to watch the Utes play on a regular basis. College football fans would have tuned to ESPN in droves to watch Utah, BYU and TCU play on odd nights.

                      Mountain West highlights have all but disappeared off of ESPN, with a few notable exceptions such as this year's BYU-Oklahoma game, which was broadcast on ABC because Oklahoma was considered the home team and the Big 12 has a contract with ESPN/ABC. Meanwhile, the Mountain West, which might be better top-to-bottom than the Big East, lags behind the MAC in exposure. Friday, I asked Toledo coach Tim Beckman how his team's nationally televised whipping of Colorado might play with recruits, and his smile reached clear to Columbus.

                      The next time the Mountain West makes a television deal, officals should crawl back to ESPN. The current arrangement hurt the Utes last year, and it may wind up hurting the Cougars this year. Because if a team dominates and no one tunes in to see it, did it really dominate at all?


                      Agree?
                      my agreement has been well documented
                      Dyslexics are teople poo...

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by Surfah View Post
                        Agree and disagree. Tues, Wednesday, and even Thursday games are ridiculous. There is no way I would have been cool with a MWC Wednesday or Tuesday game night. And I certainly don't agree with the author that people would turn out in droves to watch BYU and UNLV or Utah and New Mexico. Do people turn out in droves to watch the sorry ass MAC and C-USA games they have on those nights now? We had the Thursday night feature which I believe hurt us. And they wanted to push us back. I am glad that the conference gave ESPN the finger in that regard.

                        If the mountain had better distribution then it wouldn't be a failure. In that regard it has been epic.
                        how did Thursday nights hurt us?
                        Dyslexics are teople poo...

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Originally posted by Flystripper View Post
                          how did Thursday nights hurt us?
                          I think it hurt attendance.

                          I know I'd be less likely to buy season tickets if lots of the games were on weeknights.

                          I probably wouldn't buy as many tickets for my young kids.

                          The late Saturday night games we had the last few years of the ESPN deal weren't as bad but not as good as the afternoon games.
                          Last edited by beefytee; 09-15-2009, 11:12 AM.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Originally posted by beefytee View Post
                            I think it hurt attendance.

                            I know I'd be less likely to buy season tickets if lots of the games were on weeknights.

                            I probably wouldn't buy as many tickets for my kids.
                            I think BYU's suckiness hurt attendance more than Thursday nights. 1 or 2 Tursday night games per season were a good thing but as been said now we were getting moved off of Thursday nights so the point is moot.
                            Dyslexics are teople poo...

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Originally posted by Flystripper View Post
                              I think BYU's suckiness hurt attendance more than Thursday nights. 1 or 2 Tursday night games per season were a good thing but as been said now we were getting moved off of Thursday nights so the point is moot.
                              Even the Saturday game times sucked on ESPN:

                              Look at our 2004 schedule:

                              9:15 PM ET, September 4, 2004
                              10:00 PM ET, September 18, 2004
                              10:00 PM ET, October 8, 2004
                              10:00 PM ET, October 16, 2004
                              3:00 PM ET, November 6, 2004
                              12:00 PM ET, November 13, 2004


                              ONE afternoon game and a friggin 10 AM start to one of them.

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