TV deal and Football - ACC / Big East

[Goose85]

I know ESPN loves the ACC because they overpaid for it, and I know this is just one football season, but there is no way the ACC should be in a "Big 5" and the Big East left out. The ACC this season is really Florida State and the others. They have one top team, who because they are in the ACC, could run the table and get to the title game. While the Big East doesn't have that top team, the rest of the league is as good or better than the ACC.

Big East, depending on the polls, has 4 ranked teams - Lousiville, Rutgers, Cincy and future member Boise State ranked.
ACC has 2 ranked teams - Florida State and Clemson.

Big East needs to keep teams ranked while this tv deal is going on because, while it is only one year, it can't hurt and may help solidify some bowl ties.

[TheSultan]

I know ESPN loves the ACC because they overpaid for it, and I know this is just one football season, but there is no way the ACC should be in a "Big 5" and the Big East left out.


Left out of what? The new BCS structure has no automatic qualifications.

[Goose85]

The "Big 5", as they are now known, have most of the solid bowl ties and at this point the tv money as all of the "Big 5" have a guarantee to a big bowl payday game. The Big East, for the purposes of access to the bigger payday bowl game, is grouped with CUSA, Mountain West, Sun Belt and MAC conferences at this point.

[TheSultan]

Bowl payouts are a function of the ratings...not on-field performance. I mean, the Big Ten is pretty bad this year, but they Rose Bowl is going to be one of the top three rated bowl games by the time things are all said and done. Part of the Big East's problems with regards to bowl payouts is that they have no teams that draw any sort of national interest...nor do they have big time alumni bases...

[Goose85]

The ACC has a lock on the Orange Bowl and that payday no matter what, yet the Big East champ has to be rated higher than the champ of the Mountain West, MAC, CUSA, Sun Belt, in order to get that 7th bowl game, no guarantee.

Rose Bowl has been there forever. The game is great for ratings because there is nothing up against it, it has the perfect time slot. In the morning on Jan 1 you have multiple bowl games on, so football fan ratings are split, not to mention West Coast isn't even tuning in. Is there a rule that bowl games can't be scheduled up against the Rose Bowl?

[IWB]

Bowl payouts are a function of ratings? Bowl payouts are all pre-determined. Who plays in them is also pre-determined based on contracts (#3 SEC vs #2 Big 10 etc etc). All of those bowl alignment contracts are being cut with conferences as if the Big East doesn't exist.

[TheSultan]

Yes, they are predetermined. But they are predetermined based on what ratings are expected to be. Not the on field performance. And the reason that the BE is being left out is because they don't bring the eyeballs to the sets that the other conferences do.

[IrwinFletcher]

Did read somewhere last week that the Pac 12 and the Big east were in discussions to either create a bowl game or tie in two teams from the two conferences for an existing bowl game. This should be viewed as a positive if the deal gets done.