B1G now accepting media rights bids

The Big Ten has tired to keep themselves more diversified rather than jumping almost entirely with ESPN. Honestly I think it is a smart move. The SEC's dependence on ESPN/Disney is a bit of a risk.

I will not watch Fox Sports. I will not watch ESPN unless it is an SEC game with Todd Blackledge and Mike Patrick. I will watch other SEC games with other announcers and my friend the Mute button. What little I have seen on Fox Sports has been pitiful.

Probably not the best time to be soliciting bids for media rights. ESPN, FOX Sports, etc are all facing major issues with declining subscribers. It'll be interesting to see how the numbers stack up compared to the media rights deals of the other major conferences..

CrimsonForce said:

Probably not the best time to be soliciting bids for media rights. ESPN, FOX Sports, etc are all facing major issues with declining subscribers. It'll be interesting to see how the numbers stack up compared to the media rights deals of the other major conferences..

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Yeah. We don't get the Big Ten network, and I rarely watch any football on Fox Sports, so if they go away from ESPN I won't see the Big Ten at all anymore. I'd really miss that.

It will be interesting to see how the bidding process goes. With the recent dips in attendance and play-off viewership, coupled with ESPN losing subscribers and needing to cut costs, there might not be the huge dollars available for the conferences this go around.

If you add in some of the other issues in football today (amateurism, concussions, litigation, etc), it will be interesting to see how these media companies approach the negotiations. I wonder if there will companies will be less willing to enter into deals that can be described as "landmark", similar to the one ESPN signed with the B1G previously.

TideEngineer08 said:

Yeah. We don't get the Big Ten network, and I rarely watch any football on Fox Sports, so if they go away from ESPN I won't see the Big Ten at all anymore. I'd really miss that.

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Yeah, hate to miss that Illinois vs Rutgers matchup. :rolleye2:

This will eventually trickle down to athletic departments and, because salaries will never be lowered, cause a rise in student athletic subsidies.

GrayTide said:

I will not watch Fox Sports. I will not watch ESPN unless it is an SEC game with Todd Blackledge and Mike Patrick. I will watch other SEC games with other announcers and my friend the Mute button. What little I have seen on Fox Sports has been pitiful.

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With FOX paying Nascar a few billion dollars and now Nascar is looking like Pastcar I wonder if FOX is going to really pay big bucks for football. In hindsight look at all the Bowl games that ESPN has created, programming on tv is so bad people prefer to watch Eastern Idaho vs Southern Alaska play in the Bham Bowl instead of Honey Boo Boo or whatever mindless drivel they put on tv these days. I was happy when I could get channel 31 in Huntsville at 11 pm on Saturday nite to see the science fiction movie of the week with Adrienne Barbeau. We only had 4 channels back in the day.

bama2112 said:

With FOX paying Nascar a few billion dollars and now Nascar is looking like Pastcar I wonder if FOX is going to really pay big bucks for football. In hindsight look at all the Bowl games that ESPN has created, programming on tv is so bad people prefer to watch Eastern Idaho vs Southern Alaska play in the Bham Bowl instead of Honey Boo Boo or whatever mindless drivel they put on tv these days. I was happy when I could get channel 31 in Huntsville at 11 pm on Saturday nite to see the science fiction movie of the week with Adrienne Barbeau. We only had 4 channels back in the day.

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You make an extremely good argument, yowsa.

I really hope Fox Sports never have anything to do with the SEC or SECTV. I do not like their on air personalities at all. Brando, Clay Travis, Joel Klatt all are anti Bama and don't try to hide it very good.

Redwood Forrest said:

I imagine if they had an SEC contract they would be told to hide it, or go look for work elsewhere.

One thing I have noticed trolling is that the Big 12 hates Fox. The Pac 12 hates Fox. The SEC hates CBS. Everyone BUT NOTRE DAME hates NBC ...

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FIFY


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Redwood Forrest said:

I guess I am not a College Football Prima Donna. I watch Fox, NBC, ABC, ESPN(s). I don't care who is calling the game. I used to watch the B1G network when I had Direct TV. All TV is good since I am old enough to remember ONE game each Saturday with the occasional double-header. The worst TV football is better than the "game of the week" on radio.

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Yeah, I'm not a tv snob at all, I just don't get the channels. Plus, even if I did I'm going to prefer the SEC games over the rest so I'd still miss most Big Ten games. There's only a few announcers I just flat out hate to listen to. Most of the rest have positives and negatives, and a few are exceptional all the time such as Nessler and Blackledge.

TideEngineer08 said:

Yeah. We don't get the Big Ten network, and I rarely watch any football on Fox Sports, so if they go away from ESPN I won't see the Big Ten at all anymore. I'd really miss that.

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Have to agree. Fox's sport coverage is abysmal. I just hope ESPN get the rights to cover the European Champions League Cup and the UEFA Cup games in the future. Fox announcers are generally ill informed and appear to know little about Association Football aka soccer.