Conference USA's television revenue is set to take a massive hit.
According to an open-records request by the Virginian-Pilot, the conference is anticipating receiving less than $3 million in 2016-17 from its television contracts. C-USA is a 14-team league, so at an approximate $2.8 million, each school is set to get $200,000.
The SEC made nearly $500 million in television revenue in 2014-15. C-USA itself is distributing over $15 million in revenue in 2015-16.
Why is the gap growing between Power Five conferences like the SEC and a non-Power Five conference like Conference USA? Well, C-USA's television contracts were up in June. If you've paid attention to technology news lately, you know that many people, perhaps even yourself, are choosing to go without cable television packages.
When other conferences signed television contracts a few years ago, the trend hadn't accelerated to where it is now. The conference is also facing a drop in revenue because of conference expansion. From the Pilot:
Fox Sports and the CBS Sports Network have been paying C-USA $9,950,000 for TV rights, according to the documents. The conference was supplementing that with $6,150,000 from exit payments made by seven schools, including Memphis and East Carolina, that left the league in recent years.
Expansion has also made the conference less of a television draw. Teams have been plucked from conferences as part of the expansion carousel based off their television markets and national following. Memphis and East Carolina were two of C-USA's most attractive teams from a television standpoint.
If you needed proof of how much C-USA was struggling for television exposure in the future, look no further than the agreement it inked with BeIn Sports. The network, which attracts 10s of thousands of viewers, rather than hundreds of thousands or even millions, is one of four networks slated to televise football games for the conference in 2016.
[Check out Dr. Saturday on Tumblr for entertaining things you won’t see on the blog]
Fox is not one of those four networks. ESPN is, though it's only televising five football games, including the conference title game. The other two networks are the American Sports Network and CBS Sports Network.
The report said Conference USA is now likely fourth among the group of five conferences in terms of television revenue. Only the Sun Belt (at $100,000 per team) is behind Conference USA.
The gap between Power Five conferences and the group of five isn't likely to get better, either. Television contracts aren't going to spike in value anytime soon without drastic changes to the broadcast and distribution model. And without large shares from the College Football Playoff, group of five teams are going to continue to get less money than Power Five teams from it as well.
What's the solution? Well, group of five administrators would certainly like to know. As teams in Conference USA and other leagues scramble for revenue to help cover expenses including cost of attendance scholarships, don't be surprised to see more of them scheduling games against Power Five schools that come with a guaranteed seven-figure check.
[Visit Dr. Saturday on Facebook for stories you might have missed and chat with the writers]
- - - - - - -
Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
