NEWS FROM A FOX SOURCE

[DawgLover]

Where do people think things stand right now in terms of timing of an official announcement of the new conference? Are they waiting to announce until after conference tournaments? Will they wait to announce just before/during the NCAA tourney (say, during the first Thursday of the tournament) for maximum news impact (lots of live games with announcers who will have lots of time to fill)?

Are there any more major decisions to be made about teams in--or have those already been made? Any significant meetings coming up--C7 presidents, meetings of boards of trustees of potential member schools at which they might be voting on acceping an invitation to join the conference?

In short, is this all a done deal waiting for the proper time to announce for maximum impact or is this still a work in progress?

[BillEsq]

Deal is done Schools are notified... waiting for opportune time...
Also they will most likely refrain from any announcement until the BE/C7 separation deal is done. Likely why the press release was held off yesterday. From what I hear it will be this week. As far as official announcement they may wait for what both sides consider an opportune time.

[xu95]

Deal is done Schools are notified... waiting for opportune time...
Also they will most likely refrain from any announcement until the BE/C7 separation deal is done. Likely why the press release was held off yesterday. From what I hear it will be this week. As far as official announcement they may wait for what both sides consider an opportune time.

I'm not sure why everyone says this. If the deal is done for all five schools there would not be any spread out joining times. The deal is definitely done for both Butler and Xavier and maybe Creighton, but if Dayton and St. Louis were definitely getting in, they would be joining this year and not next year.

It makes no sense to wait.

[ljay]

Exit fees create the wait/ the five are aware. XU and Butler...willing to pay them. Creighton, none to speak of. STL and Dayton, contain costs.

One man's speculation.

[more cowbell]

The A10 buyout is $2m and the A10 tv contract is 350k. The buyout is not the holdup.

[prebilliken]

Deal is done Schools are notified... waiting for opportune time...
Also they will most likely refrain from any announcement until the BE/C7 separation deal is done. Likely why the press release was held off yesterday. From what I hear it will be this week. As far as official announcement they may wait for what both sides consider an opportune time.

Do you know this for a fact, or is this just speculation?

[BillEsq]

Deal is done Schools are notified... waiting for opportune time...
Also they will most likely refrain from any announcement until the BE/C7 separation deal is done. Likely why the press release was held off yesterday. From what I hear it will be this week. As far as official announcement they may wait for what both sides consider an opportune time.

Do you know this for a fact, or is this just speculation?

Neither, my comments are a reasonable deduction based on readily known facts.

While i do not have any secret source or personal contacts with the parties involved I do have common sense and some experience in corporate decision making. I do know is that most major business decisions are not made spur of the moment. This is a major business decision I would find it quite surprising if not shocking if the C7 are at the point of finalizing the C7BE separation contract with such a major issue as future members not already decided. I would also be shocked if fox was willing to spend as much money as they have without knowledge of who exactly they were paying. Therefore while my comments are not fact themselves they are logical conclusions as opposed to rampant speculation, wild rumor mongering, or blind support for my team.

[yorost]

Wouldn't it be reasonable for Fox and the BE7 to have 2 or 3 proposed alignments/contracts, with the BE7 still deciding which to go with? If Fox didn't care on Richmond vs Dayton couldn't it just be that both sides agreed the BE7 will pick one of those two for the final spot?

[BillEsq]

Wouldn't it be reasonable for Fox and the BE7 to have 2 or 3 proposed alignments/contracts, with the BE7 still deciding which to go with? If Fox didn't care on Richmond vs Dayton couldn't it just be that both sides agreed the BE7 will pick one of those two for the final spot?

I could see where "hey we are sure about these 11 but the 12 is either Dayton or Richmond" is possible due to their similar markets. The market size of Dayton and Richmond is nearly close enough where a proposed alignment would be possible. So it would not be unreasonable for 2 to 3 proposed alignments. Do i think it likely, no. I mean if I had the 400 million dollars and you had the business plan I would want to know what the main points of the plan is before i send the check.

Remember Fox is in this to make money and money is made by increasing the rates to the Speed network. that is going to be done by bundling the Fox sports networks together. Richmond is in a NBC controlled city as is Creighton. Dayton is in a Fox Regional area. Yes Xavier is there too but all the more reason to crank up the fees. The question we need to ask is the Richmond/Creighton markets strong enough to balance out any additional fees that Fox can squeeze out of the Fox Ohio region? Fox Ohio is also conveniently one of its strongest. so many factors involved in this and so many dollars to be made. The fact is the business of cable is different than broadcast tv. Market size is nice but not everything. It does not matter if 100,000 people will watch one game over another. With cable you get paid by licensing and bundling all that matters is households. That is why i'm so sure St. Louis is in Fox Sports Midwest footprint is so large even if they sucked this year and last they would probably still get in, do not be surprised if Dayton is in for the same reasons. If it is true that Fox was so involved in the C7 split i'm pretty sure they had an idea at who they were aiming for at that time.

There is only one school out there that would potentially change this scenario and its not zaga, creighton, Dayton, or richmond. Its ND. i'm sure if the C7 said hey we could get ND Fox would drop just about any one of the schools, but ND is such an anomaly in college sports.

[jkc_dawgs]

Does anyone know what announcers they are going to get? ESPN has some 'lesser game' talent that I enjoy listening to call games...the pair that did the Nova Presidents Day game and dressed up as Lincon and Washingon (i think) come to mind.

Maybe they'll hire some pbp guys that CBS uses during the tournament. Most have other jobs, but for the right price...maybe someone like Ian Eagle? Take a look at the Big Ten Network, I'm sure there are quite a few there already too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Ten_Network

If I got to choose my own pairing to create...Dan Shulman (ESPN) & Clark Kellogg (CBS).

I'll take Gus Johnson or Chris Denari and Dan Dakich.