Let’s not kid ourselves, it’s not the Big 10 vs SEC, it’s FOX vs ESPN. When a realignment move occurs, it doesn’t happen without FOX and ESPN evaluating and approving or rejecting it. They may be even initiating it depending on who you ask.
In the last 2 years, Texas and Oklahoma joined the SEC. USC and UCLA went to the Big 10. The Pac-12 collapsed with Oregon and Washington going to the Big 10 for virtual pennies. Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and Arizona State are now in the Big 12.
So who ended up better in this latest round of realignment and media deals if you are a network? I think it was FOX.
Now both networks FOX and ESPN are dealing with similar cord-cutting and out-of-control media rights costs, so it’s about strategic moves and content.
ESPN got the initial victory landing 100% ownership of the Big 12’s biggest brands Oklahoma and Texas, and reuniting them with former longtime rivals like Texas A&M and Arkansas, but since then it has been all FOX.
ESPN lost all television rights to the Big 10 team leaving a big gap in ESPN’s content and some major fanbases that now belong to the Big 10’s primary carrier FOX, plus NBC and CBS. This was after pulling the two biggest brands in Los Angeles, California UCLA, and USC.
Then as Oregon and Washington go to the Big 10, ESPN loses those brands too. FOX got them cheap too – just $30 Million per year until the end of the decade. What an incredible bargain.
Now they still retained partial pieces to Arizona, Arizona State, Utah, and Colorado, but would you rather have UCLA, USC, Oregon, and Washington for your west coast content? Yea, that’s what I thought.
Throw in now that ESPN’s second biggest property the ACC looks perception-wise diminished and unstable, and now there is a risk of losing even more brands to FOX if the ACC crumbles.
So in 2 years, ESPN went from having a significant piece in all Power 5 conferences to 3. They lost one, lost the biggest brands in a second one, and have a third that’s struggling with potential stability. Oddly enough that 3rd conference the ACC could be solidified by ESPN itself, with another look at the current media rights deal.
That’s a lot of eggs in the SEC basket, whose own deal ends around the end of the decade. I suspect ESPN holds on to them at virtually any cost.
What is ESPN going to do? Their decision-making seems a little suspect the last couple of years.
