Let’s run some numbers.
Big Ten schools make about $22 million annually from TV and bowl revenue. Roughly $9 million comes from ABC/ESPN deals, and $7-$8 million comes from the Big Ten network.
The SEC will get $205 million a year from its new deal with CBS and ESPN, or just over $17 million a school.
The ACC’s new contract will be $155 million a year, or nearly $13 million a school. (You can read the specifics on the conference’s new contract here.)
So if you’re the Big 12 or Pac-10 - both of which will be negotiating new deals when theirs expire in 2012 - what kind of money do you deserve? (Barring any major changes by the Big Ten’s likely expansion.)
If you have Texas football and Kansas basketball, or USC football and UCLA basketball, do those give you bigger bargaining chips than the ACC? Or will the networks point to less desirable TV markets and offer up less, say $10 or $11 million a school?
And if it comes down to spending more on one league than the other, which one wins out? Do you value the West Coast more than a Texas-driven Big 12?
How about an added wrinkle? Say Texas develops its own network specifically for showing Longhorn events. Does that diminish the Big 12’s value?
TV revenue. It’s just funny money. I just want a place I can watch some hoops.
Mike Miller’s also on Twitter, usually talkin’ hoops. Click here for more.