Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 15, 1990 TAG: 9005150034
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
There's a two-word answer - revenue sharing. The money is produced by two letters - TV.
That's the bottom line. Television fuels major-college athletics. It's the reason there is a College Football Association. It's part of the reason there is a Big East, and even a Metro.
The Atlantic Coast Conference gets about $15 million annually from television (not including bowls and the NCAA Tournament). At the 1990 NCAA basketball tournament, 85 percent of the gross receipts were from CBS and ESPN, and CBS just paid $1 billion for the next seven tournaments.
To survive in today's big-time college sports world, you need TV. And there's strength in numbers. Although there are 10 schools considered Southern independents in the CFA and 10 schools in the Southeastern Conference, the former group is assured of only 8 percent of the TV appearances over a two-year span in the new CFA contract with ABC and ESPN. The SEC demanded more, or else it would follow Notre Dame and make its own deal, and got 22 percent.
Notre Dame is the Monaco of college athletics. Sure, Florida State is making $4.5 million annually from TV and bowls in football now, but what happens when coach Bobby Bowden retires? Can Miami's strong football continue to fuel its reborn basketball program? Will Louisville's basketball go from Crummy to only good in the '90s after its glory decade?
The Metro never has shared revenue, other than money from the conference's syndicated basketball telecast package. With expansion, the Metro can sell football - which, with revenue sharing, undoubtedly would be the conference's major money-making sport. Whether the Metro gets West Virginia or Miami or Pitt - and two of those three seem more likely than other prospective candidates - the league would be a prominent football player.
Each of the current eight Metro members, including Virginia Tech, will get about $65,000 this year from the Raycom TV basketball package, which includes the $200,000 CBS telecast of the Metro Tournament championship game. Had the Metro been playing football and shared revenue on even a limited basis in 1989-90, each of the schools would have earned at least $225,000 from the league.
If the Metro expands and plays football, the revenue-sharing plan would be lopsided in favor of the school that's making the TV, bowl or NCAA Tournament appearance - as it should be. In an all-sports Metro, Louisville would keep 75 or 80 percent of the money it makes from an NBC game with UCLA, with the other 20-25 percent being divided among the other Metro members.
Using a hypothetical example - which is what Raycom did in an expansion study for the league that will be further discussed next week in Destin, Fla. - the 1989-90 revenues of West Virginia, Miami and the Metro schools can be used to figure what each school could earn in the immediate future.
Combining the Metro's two NCAA appearances (Louisville and Southern Mississippi), Louisville's non-conference national TV dates, Southern Miss' football date against Florida State on WTBS, and football telecasts and bowl appearances by FSU, WVU and Miami last season, the Metro could have earned more than $12.5 million.
If each of those schools keeps 75 percent of what it earned through success, that puts more than $3.125 million into the Metro's revenue-sharing pool.
To that, add the Metro's syndicated basketball telecast package, which would - according to industry sources questioned about the teams and their marketing potential - would bring in about $1 million per year. Of course, if the Metro played football, there also would be a conference TV package in the noon time slot permitted by the CFA. Spread over 13 weeks, with an industry-estimated rights fee of $100,000 per game for starters, that would bring another $1.3 million to be divided by the 10 schools.
Add the 25 percent pool to the evenly divided syndicated basketball and football TV packages, and even the Metro schools that didn't play in a bowl or the NCAA would earn close to $600,000 annually. The schools would add to that the CFA telecast participation pool money, which rises from $100,000 this year to at least $225,000 per school when the new ABC/ESPN deals begin in 1991.
In that arrangement, Virginia Tech would get more than $800,000 from its Metro and CFA ties annually. This year, it is getting $165,000. Even the big players who would be giving up some bucks - FSU and Miami football, Louisville basketball - would be losing only about 12 percent of what they would make without revenue-sharing.
In exchange, they would get more exposure, enhanced rivalries and boosts for their other revenue-producing program. The Metro, by adding football, also would be able to do a better job of marketing across what has been one of college sports' toughest geography tests.
Since the CFA began its television existence in 1984, between 40-45 games have been televised through the organization each year. Only 10 of 63 schools have not appeared in those six years, and five are Metro members who play as independents - Virginia Tech, Louisville, Memphis State, Southern Miss and Tulane. Cincinnati appeared only once, on a limited regional against Auburn in 1984.
Florida State has made 20 CFA appearances and South Carolina 12. The other six would get more money and exposure from an expanded Metro with football. The bowls continue to get richer, from TV and corporate sponsorships. The eight Metro members have made 20 bowl appearances in the past 10 years, and any of the conference's desired additions would tack onto that number considerably.
The Metro also is talking about a bowl tie for its champion, which could add another $1 million-plus to the pot. If the league gets football, don't be surprised if it aligns with the Sunshine Bowl, which makes its debut this December at Joe Robbie Stadium in Miami's suburbs. Raycom is the force behind the Sunshine Bowl, as well as Metro basketball telecasts and the expansion study, so, what's another handshake?
Raycom's study for the Metro on expansion has been praised for its thoroughness, for its inclusion of academic as well as athletic data, for its creation of hypothetical groupings of schools and how lucrative those prospective unions might be.
But when you get down to it, before anyone votes to expand, the Metro schools and the guys they are chasing really want to know only one thing:
How much can we make from television?
by CNB