There’s a big reason why we’ve reached another crossroads of conference realignment. It centers around a 51-year-old media executive who has been pulling the strings behind the scenes for some time.
No matter how this round of reorganization ends, Mark Shapiro will play a significant role. The president of Endeavor – a powerful global sports, entertainment and content company – is currently advising the Big 12 on its next media rights deal after its current deal expires before 2025 season.
You already know the Big 12 is in the midst of its realignment for the second straight summer as it looks west to possibly catch some members of the Pac-12. At the same time, college athletics is anticipating the Big Ten’s new media rights contract, expected to be announced any day. It could be the biggest in history.
Those two things are not related. Back in 2004, Shapiro, then an ESPN executive, offered former Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany a take-it-or-leave deal to renew with the Worldwide Leader. Delany declined amid what he felt was a lowball offer.
“You’re rolling the dice,” Shapiro infamously told Delany.
“Looks like they rolled,” Delany replied.
Delany further monetized his conference rights by taking some of them in-house and starting his own channel. The Big Ten Network was very successful, to the extent that subsequent conference expansions to Nebraska, Maryland and Rutgers contributed to that success. Those moves provided more content for the network as well as linear cable partners Fox and ESPN.
Then Delany made another brilliant move that brought us to this moment. In 2017, he signed a short six-year, $2.64 billion deal with Fox and ESPN that landed the Big Ten in the vantage point it now finds itself in: on the verge of signing an annual media rights deal of ‘$1 billion.
The circle is almost complete. Shapiro is among those awaiting a Big Ten announcement that will almost certainly reshape conference alignment and possibly college athletics. The size of the deal could force more movement, force Notre Dame into the Big Ten and/or further consolidate power within the Big Ten (and SEC).
Perhaps none of it would have been possible without Delany’s vision being accelerated by Shapiro’s lowball offer. So far, Shapiro is getting high marks for his work with the Big 12. In fact, conference athletic directors are baffled by what Endeavor has already accomplished by positioning the Big 12 ahead of the Pac 12 — if only slightly — in terms of earning power.
Without Texas and Oklahoma, the Big 12 is valued at north of $30 million annually for each school, CBS Sports reported last week.
“The numbers seem to favor us,” said one Big 12 AD. “Not by a huge amount. This isn’t like comparing Texas to Texas State. But there seems to be a noticeable difference.”
Conference realignment notebook
Further expansion could create legal problems
The only conference commissioner to run a 16-team league in the modern era has a warning for the SEC and the Big Ten: Beware the legal ramifications of expanding beyond 16 teams. This may interest you : United States hosts US-EU Space Dialogue – US Department of State.
Karl Benson, former commissioner of the old WAC, presided over 16 members from 1996-98 before the league folded because — surprise — the money didn‘t attract enough. When BYU was left out of the Bowl Alliance (the forerunner of the BCS) despite becoming the first Division I-A (now FBS) team to win 14 games, Senate hearings were called. The word “collusion” was thrown out as it related to college football’s powers that be keeping other programs at bay. That word may come up again.
“Maybe the reason Washington and Oregon didn’t go with USC and UCLA [to the Big Ten] at the same time is the fear of collusion,” the now-retired Benson told CBS Sports. “This is a legitimate concern of the damages that one conference does to another.”
The stakes are higher this time. The SEC and Big Ten have a chance to monopolize the sport. Maybe this has already happened. Administrators within both leagues are treading lightly out of awareness of the antitrust issues. Well, sometimes. SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said he could organize a playoff with his own league.
“[No one has] ever come in and canceled a conference,” Benson added. “If the Big Ten cleaned up a conference and took Washington and Oregon, [if I were Pac-12 commissioner] George Kliavkoff, I could pursue antitrust action there.”
Big Ten interest has cooled in Pac-12 teams
After the anxiety caused last week about further expansion of the Big Ten, industry sources indicated that the Big Ten is no longer so interested in adding California, Oregon, Stanford and Washington. This may interest you : Web3 and Music: Let’s Focus on What’s Broken and Fix It. The rights holders were reluctant to pay the same amount for those schools as the 16 Big Ten schools ahead ($80 million-$100 million).
While those four programs could eventually have options, the Big Ten is concentrating on its new deal in 2023 while trying to lure Notre Dame, which has an open invitation. More and more stakeholders now believe that the Fighting Irish will ultimately remain independent.
Opportunity lost
Let’s not forget that the Pac-12 had a chance to strengthen its ranks last year when the Big 12 was hurt by the exit of Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC. Sources told CBS Sports this week that the Pac-12 vote was 8-4 against any Big 12 school taking over. See the article : Notre Dame targeting $75 million in annual media rights for independence. It would certainly be interesting to know which Pac-12 schools voted for expansion. a year ago. We already know that USC president Carol Folt “discontinued” interest in the expansion.
“We were all jumping,” one Big 12 AD told CBS Sports in reference to the Pac-12’s interest in Texas.
Pac-12’s future may hinge on a time zone
West Coast late-night games are called the “Fourth Window” — after 10 p.m. ET. As much ribbing as the Pac-12 received for those games (#Pac12AfterDark), there is no way around them. They are valuable programming that fills late night TV slots with guaranteed ratings.
That’s why the late window is essential for the Pac-12. It could be because ESPN could remain committed to the conference beyond Thursday’s reported deadline of an exclusive 30-day negotiating window. Without the Pac-12, ESPN might not have late night football. Fox is already there with its Mountain West contract.
One course from the industry speculated: If ESPN doesn’t take a piece of the Big Ten, will it go with everything that’s left of the Pac-12? More importantly, if ESPN gets a portion of the Big Ten, will the Pac-12 continue to market without either of college football’s two biggest rights holders (ESPN, Fox) having interest?
“This is a huge advantage for us to basically get what we want in expansion with [the Pac-12],” one Big 12 source told CBS Sports. (The vultures are going.)
Big 12 remains well-positioned
Fox and the Big 12 disagreed five years ago when the conference was scaling back its championship game. Figures were not available, but sources said Fox did not want to pay the value deemed for the game by the Big 12’s media consultant. Last summer, former Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby came out an ESPN takedown as strident as any of us have experienced. But when it comes to the nitty gritty of the business – media rights – bygones can always be bygones.
The Big 12 remains committed to both Fox and ESPN for its new rights deal, which will begin in 2025.
