Good News on the WAC TV Negotiations

HA Note: "Conference officials have been in negotiations with ESPN for several months and WAC members held a conference call yesterday apparently to approve a deal in principle. The new agreement, when announced, is expected to run from 5 to 7 years and, on top of a several-fold increase in rights fees, include heavily expanded exposure for conference teams.

The WAC had been receiving $900,000 per year on a six-year deal set to run through the 2009-10 academic year. That figure was down from $1 million after Texas-El Paso and three other schools left for Conference USA in 2005. The new agreement is expected to be worth, on average, approximately $4 million per year to the conference.

The new deal comes after the WAC Board of Directors, composed of members' chief executive officers, turned down ESPN proposals each of the past two summers. Last July the board reportedly turned down a deal that would have been worth $3 million per year."

Asked about the TV negotiations, Karl Benson said that:
"negotiations have been on-going with ESPN." (HA)

HA Note: "The WAC had sought a deal more in line with the six-year, $48 million contract the Mountain West Conference signed with ESPN in 1999."

Ferd wrote in the HA: "

When the WAC Board of Directors two years ago turned down an ESPN extension offer, it bet that what its teams did on the field would back up the contention that its inventory was worth more than the niggling network was offering to commit — both in terms of rights fees and exposure. When the WAC again rejected ESPN's proposal last summer it daringly doubled down on that bet, staring down the 800-pound gorilla of collegiate athletics in the process.

So, Boise State's Cinderella 13-0 season of '06 and the Warriors' own "Believe" Tour of '07, gave the WAC not only its vindication, but plenty to sell.

And, people were buying. The Nov. 2007 showdown for the WAC title with the Broncos drew the largest audience of any ESPN2 game and biggest of 14 Friday night games on the various ESPN properties, 2.65 million households. The Warriors' BCS-clinching game with the Huskies drew 1.96 million households despite an 11:30 p.m. (Eastern) kickoff."