#ChargeOn Today: Big 12 vs. ESPN 👊 — AAC's poach attempt — Malzahn on 'super' future 👍 — Former network president on expansion and UCF
Two days, two Power 5 opponents added to future UCF football schedules 💪🏻.
After announcing the 3-game series with Florida on Tuesday, the Knights officially added a home-and-home series with Maryland, in 2025 and 2028, on Wednesday.
There’s still a lot of work to do, but major props to AD Terry Mohajir, who’s hard at work trying to beef up the schedule with some quality opponents, as difficult as that can be in this changing college football climate.
Today’s read is a bit longer, but informative, at 8.5 minutes ⏲️
Trending in the Kingdom: AAC poaching? Bowlsby blasts ESPN 👊
Bob Bowlsby, the Big 12 commissioner, pointed the finger at ESPN with some shocking accusations (Photo: AP)
If the Big 12 is going down, it’s going to do so swinging. At least its commissioner is throwing bows. This time, it’s at one of their media partners, just a few years after a new rights agreement.
Here’s the scoop: There’s so many layers to unpack here, so let’s just start with what happened. On Monday, Texas and Oklahoma officially announced their intent to leave the Big 12, which we explained in detail in this newsletter.
Come Wednesday, Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby sent a cease-and-desist letter to ESPN, accusing the network of conspiring to hurt the league and push the American Athletic Conference to poach its remaining members.
What he’s saying 🗣️
“It has come to my attention that ESPN, the current business partner of the Big 12 conference, has taken certain actions that are not only intended to harm the Big 12 conference, but to result in financial benefits for ESPN,” Bowlsby writes. “I am aware that ESPN has also been actively involved in discussions with at least one other conference regarding that conference inducing additional Members of the Big 12 conference to leave the Big 12 conference…The Big 12 conference demands that ESPN immediately cease and desist all actions that may harm the Conference and its members.”
Now, Bowlsby didn’t directly name the American Athletic Conference, but The Athletic and CBS Sports both reported that ESPN is persuading the AAC to lure the remaining members to join their conference.
😡 Bowlsby is unloading, and it’s rare a conference commissioner goes on the offensive like this, but after losing Texas and Oklahoma (eventually to the SEC), he’s literally fighting, even legally, to try and save his league.
He’s basically accusing the biggest power broker in the sport - ESPN - of a money grab, and trying to control the chess pieces of realignment.
“It’s not so much about the taking of the members, what it does — and what it’s intended to do — is destabilize the Big 12 so that it implodes,” Bowlsby told the USA Today, “…thus absolving OU and Texas of their grant of rights obligations and their exit fee obligations. If the Big 12 fails to exist as an entity, they can move quicker and they can do so for less money.”
ESPN sent out a very brief statement, claiming the letter has no merit, but Bowlsby told The Athletic the evidenced he’s gathered on collusion is “irrefutable.”
So, what’s this really all about? 📺💰
It would absolutely shock me to see any current Big 12 member voluntarily - without the league imploding - leave for the AAC, a conference that currently pays out pennies ($7 million < $40 million) of a TV fee compared to the Big 12. Yes, the loss of Texas and Oklahoma hurts that value significantly in the future, but it’s still more lucrative in the short term, and can still be down the road if the league expands or merges with the Pac 12, both of which are on the table.
To me, if any of the accusations from Bowlsby are legit, and there’s reason to believe there’s at least some truth to it, this clearly feels like an attempt by ESPN to do two things:
1) Save critical dollars in a ballooning media rights space: If Big 12 falls apart soon, ESPN wouldn’t have to shell out money for the final four years of the $1.06 billion dollar deal, as Stadium’s Brett McMurphy noted, which would help them pocket much-needed funds for when the SEC deal balloons to $300 million per year in 2024-25. ESPN will take over the SEC Game of the Week, which CBS has been paying $55 million a year for currently, for perspective.
As TVRev.com notes, “This, of course, assumes the Big 12 exists by the time we get to 2025 and the next rights negotiation. Because if not, ESPN winds up paying even less overall than it does now for the SEC and Big 12. Those rights would be worth a combined $500 million annually if you combine the SEC’s new deal and the Big 12’s current one, but potentially something in the ballpark of $400-$450 million if it’s just the SEC with the Longhorns and Sooners.”
2) Weaken their competitors (Fox, mainly) in future negotiations: ESPN already basically has a growing monopoly on the sport and they’re not loosening that grip any time soon, especially in the streaming age.
More from TVRev.com: “As the exclusive home of two of the country’s top three conferences, plus the AAC and a partial home for the Big Ten and Pac-12, ESPN goes back to the dynamic that was the case just a few years ago. It owns nearly all of the premium inventory around college football. And if you want to watch college football during a given fall weekend, you’re likely tuning into an ESPN-affiliated network to do so.”
🌎 You see, it’s ESPN’s world, and we’re all living in it. Oh, and lest I forget, the worldwide leader also owns the exclusive rights to air American Athletic Conference games through 2032 and for the Mid-American Conference through 2026, too. Oh, and of course, the College Football Playoff through 2026, which will certainly cost a boatload to keep with the proposed expansion to 12 teams.
One final note ✏️: Bowlsby seems to be picking a fight with the biggest player in the game. Maybe it’s a facade, to appear strong to the remaining eight conference members as the walls cave in, but is it really smart? As you can tell, ESPN calls the shots and gets the eyeballs, and these media rights wars aren’t slowing down, especially with live sports as the biggest draw.
Lastly, what in the world is going on with Bowlsby’s signature? Seriously, what the hell that? 😂
Can we talk about Bob Bowlsby’s signature? https://t.co/aF3yN608jK
Deeper Dive 🤿:
How will conference realignment change the Group of 5? The road ahead and trickle-down for each league (The Athletic)
If the depleted Big 12 comes calling, should UCF listen? It’s complicated (Saturday Down South)
Malzahn is "super" optimistic 😊
(Photo: USA Today)
We’ll see where things shake out for UCF in terms of expansion, but either way, head coach Gus Malzahn thinks we’re sitting pretty.
Fill me in: The Knights head coach appeared on Open Mike, on 96.9 The Game, with Mike Bianchi on Wednesday and couldn’t stop raving about the position his current program is in.
“I think you can see the landscape of college football changing, it seems like almost on a daily basis. I think it’s great for us,” Malzahn said. “You look at the 12-team playoff that came about a month ago, and I think that’ll be finalized in the near future and I think that’s super for us. We’ll have a real chance every year. You look at the NIL that started July 1, I think that’s super for us, too. We’re a school that’s actually embracing it…and then of course conference realignment. I think we’re in a great spot as far as that goes, whatever that means, and who knows what that means. Our school is in a great spot with our fanbase, our AD and everything that goes with that.”
“The future is going to be different. The way we see traditional college football, it’s going to be different. I think if we could fast forward a year, it will be a lot different. It’s exciting times and our program is set up super for all of those changes.”
Malzahn’s use of the word “super” is sensational, by the way.
Here’s the other significant sound bites during his visit with Bianchi.
On UF series: “Just trying to elevate our program and get it where we need to get, to be in that championship conversation. Just felt real strong that we needed to try to get top opponents and our athletic director, Terry Mohajir, has done super job. That has been extremely challenging to fill in our schedule. We appreciate Dan and Florida helping make this thing happen. I think it’s going to be great for the state and obviously great for our program.”
The challenge of scheduling: “It’s definitely been a challenge. A lot these things are predetermined years ahead, as far as scheduling, but we’re a program on the rise and I think everybody knows that in college football. The better you are, the harder for you it is to schedule.”
On how in-state games help recruiting: “For a long time in this state, even being from on the outside, the state’s been wanting to match up like this. I think it’s good for everything and obviously it’s good for recruiting.”
On his team’s chances to make a 12-team playoff: “I think we’re in a super spot. Somebody told me the other day that if they would have had the same 12-team playoff, two of the last four years, we’d have been in it. I really believe the way that we’re about to recruit and everything that goes with it, we think we’ll have an excellent chance to be a part of that every year…traditionally this has been a program that would get in, so it’s going to be a lot of fun and we’re real excited about that change.”
On Orlando and the city being a perfect spot for the new NIL era: “I think we’re probably in the best spot of any team in the country: the 2 million+ people that live in Orlando, some of the best brands in the world are here, we’ve got 72,000 students and 320,000+ living alumni with the average age being 36 and they’re all on social media. This will be a lot of social media driven, as far as NIL. We’re in the 17th-ranked TV market in the country, without a NFL team like you said. You combine all of those things and it’s a really good time to be at UCF.”
UCF Head Coach Gus Malzahn joins us on Open Mike this morning to discuss the future of UCF football, NIL, the UF / UCF upcoming games, and much more! He even drops a hint that these UF games may not be the only Power 5 games on the horizon for UCF.
John Skipper on expansion, TV dollars 💰 and UCF 📈
John Skipper On What Texas and Oklahoma Joining The SEC Means For The Business Of College Football
I get the show. Those that know me well understand my love affair with the “The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz” that dates back to my days interning for the guys at 790 The Ticket in Miami.
Anyway, there was a fascinating discussion on Tuesday’s show about realignment, TV dollars and the college football landscape with John Skipper, the former ESPN president who brokered a lot of these media rights deals, who’s now the head of Meadowlark Media with Le Batard.
The deeper dive on the business of college sports, what drives viewership and media rights deals, the balance of programming and politics and the potential for four, 16-team super-conferences was sensational and eye-opening. I encourage you to watch the video above. There was a discussion about UCF, at the 19:29 mark, so I transcribed it for you. It’s probably not what you want to hear.
Le Batard: “Is UCF ever going to get into this game?”
Skipper on UCF getting into the playoff: “I think it’s pretty hard. These things are like weird college clubs, skull and bones. Getting in is a hard thing. I don’t think any of these schools want to see another super power.”
Producer Mike Ryan-Ruiz: “They don’t want to get in it, Dan. They like occupying their little piece of real estate, ‘oh, if we played, we would have whopped you. Everybody is so unfair to us,’ yet any time it comes to scheduling a game they’re like home, home and away.”
Le Batard: “Please stop crucifying UCF…it’s the only space for them, based on the way they’ve been boxed out by the super powers, getting together and forming a monopoly.”
Skipper: “Unfortunately, the ACC has Miami and Florida State and the SEC has the University of Florida.”
Meet the Mafia 🤝: Landon Barimo, UCF '16
Every few weeks, we’ll get a chance to meet a member of the #UCFTwitterMafia here on the newsletter. If you have a suggestion, email me.
Say what’s up to Landon, a favorite of mine in the Twitterverse!
Graduated 🎓: 2016
From 🏠: Titusville, FL
Current city 📍: Orlando, FL
Current job 👔: Social Media Marketing/Manager
Twitter handle 🐦: @landonb94
Favorite UCF memory 🏈: Attending the Peach Bowl win over Auburn and/or the 2018 AAC conference title game vs Memphis post-McKenzie Milton’s injury.
Random fact ❓: I’ve met hundreds of pro athletes and celebrities!
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By Ryan Bass
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