[Husker] BCS - Am I alone? (fwd)

[Mike Nolan]

> I think the NCAA could - but that would stop the Big 12 or other  
> 'conferences' from doing it too.  The only real difference is that NBC  thought enough 
> people would be interested in seeing just ND.  Not sure  if a nationwide weekly 
> viewer ship of any other team would draw that.  I'm  not sure what the ratings 
> are for Notre Dame either - are they better than other  games for the day? Is 
> NBC making money at this?  Will they renew? 

The history of college football on TV is fascinating.  When I was taking
a marketing course back in the late 1970's, there was a page in the
textbook called "ABC's Man in the Corner", which talked about how ABC
had a man quietly sitting in the corner of the room where bids were
being accepted by the NCAA one day back in the 1950's who at the last 
minute handed in a bid for the rights to college football that drastically 
outbid the other two networks.  That man's name was Roone Arledge.

I'm not a lawyer, but as I recall a number of schools banded together
15-20 years ago (I think it was called the CFA) and sued the NCAA over
the NCAA's TV contract restrictions.  I think the lead school in the case
was either Georgia Tech or Arkansas, someone with Westlaw may be able to 
research that by searching for something like 'Georgia Tech v. NCAA'.

I believe the upshoot of that decision was that the NCAA could no longer
negotiate TV contracts for regular season games for division I.  
(Bowl games already had the freedom to negotiate directly with networks.)

However, the conference agreements can bind the members of the conference 
together for TV rights negotiating.  That proved to be a stumbling block 
when the Big 10 and Notre Dame were considering joining forces a few years 
ago, the conference wanted a share of Notre Dame's NBC contract but Notre 
Dame didn't want to give it up, though they did want their share of the 
Big 10's contract.

Personally, I believe that the Big 10 and the SEC have done the best job
of negotiating TV contracts, the BIg 12's is pitiful by comparison.
However the Big 10 and the SEC also have much higher population bases
(with better demographics) to market to.
--
Mike Nolan