More SEC TV math

Barnhart is blogging this morning that the little birdies are telling him that CBS may not be the only network to strike a 15-year deal with the SEC.

I’m hearing that ESPN is thinking seriously about also signing a 15-year deal with the SEC as well. But this deal may have an interesting twist. Under this deal ESPN would purchase all of the remaining television rights that CBS does not own.

Why would ESPN do this? Simple. If ESPN owned the remaining rights, it could put several SEC games on its various platforms (ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN360) and then, whatever rights it had left and did not want, it could sell back to a group like Raycom or even Comcast. Distribution, however, could be an issue because a lot of cable systems do not carry ESPNU or 360 on their basic package. And those distribution issues could ultimately complicate the deal. Some of those distribution issues could be addressed by video streaming on the Internet, which is going to be a big part of these future TV deals.

Now to do all this ESPN would have to pony up some pretty big bucks over a long period of time. But the network has shown it is willing to pay handsomely for college football.

The money – which is beginning to look like it might settle north of $100 million per year – is just short of mindboggling.  Keep in mind that the conference members split a total pot of $127 million this year.

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Dawgy doings

Random Georgia this and that:

• Chip Towers has a nice cheap shot in this article about MoMass’ mentoring of the young guys – Green and Massaquoi fighting for the starting flanker job compared to Percy Harvin and Chris Rainey just fighting – but take a look at the picture of Green and Massaquoi with the article.  Green’s got some bulking up to do, it looks like.
• Does this article strike anyone as being just a little weird?  I mean, it’s good that Sturdivant had the character to apologize without making excuses, but “We actually hugged”?
• Aron White’s getting in the mix at tight end, and tight end only.
• Warning!  Spread offense quote ahead!  Actually, it’s from Martinez in this Sporting News piece about Georgia’s overall defensive depth, but it’s a good point about why he sees the necessity for being able to rotate his d-line players:

Martinez said depth on defense is more important as he tries to keep up with modern offenses.

“You face all these spread offenses and they’re stretching the field and putting pressure on defenses to run to the football,” Martinez said. “I don’t know if anybody can play 60 snaps right now at full speed, and I don’t know if that’s what you want. You’d rather have a guy who’s fresh.”

What slow economy?

If you’ll recall this post over at The Business of College Football that I linked to a couple of weeks ago, you may remember these observations:

Does the impact of a economic slowdown or recession (technically speaking requires two quarters of negative GDP) translate into lower attendance at college football games?

Several of Atlanta’s pro teams, including the Falcons and Braves, also have cited the slow economy as a challenge in sales. One team not impacted: the Georgia Bulldogs, who have sold out of football season tickets and rejected orders for new seats from customers with less than $10,651 in lifetime contributions to the athletics program.

If you have a product worth buying the answer is no…simply no a slowdown in the economy hurts those that are offering a weak product; like the Atlanta Falcons.

The Atlanta Business Chronicle has an article up about the Georgia athletic program that reinforces that point.  (h/t Bulldogs Blog)

… Georgia has a total athletic budget of almost $83 million this year. Athletic Director Damon Evans says football revenue represents 85 percent to 90 percent of the whole.

“The thing I think that drives us is we have very, very loyal fans,” Evans said. “Historically we have good teams. If you give up seats, you might not get them back.”

Evans said the football money machine has been impervious to the economic downturn.

“It’s really been interesting this year because of the economy,” he said. “I can say this as far as the purchase of football tickets and priority, the economy did not have an effect on us. … Plus, the expectations are very high this year regarding the football program.”

The topper is the revenue generated from ticket priority – $26 million.

“I haven’t seen any higher,” Evans said of whether Georgia’s ticket priority is tops in the nation. “People are giving above and beyond their contribution to continue to build it up.”

Meme of the day

From Fiutak’s Cavalcade of Whimsy today:

And you know Bolt would give Chad Johnson a run for his money when it came to celebrations … Track talent rarely translates into football production, one big smack from a linebacker usually ends the experiment, but considering what Jamaica just did on the track, and considering the size of Usain Bolt, I send my recruiting coordinator to Kingston yesterday to see how many athletes are remotely close to firing out a 700 on the SAT. I also do everything possible to see if Bolt can run a fly pattern with any regularity.

Guess who’s already one step ahead with that thinking?

Pirates in Jamaica?

Texas Tech’s ever-curious Mike Leach may have found a new area to recruit: Jamaica.

OK, Leach was (presumably) joking during his appearance on Fox Sports Radio’s syndicated GameTime Live on Wednesday. The subject turned to Olympic sprinter extraordinaire Usain Bolt and what Leach’s offense could do with that speed.

“I got to be honest, I’ve been thinking about recruiting Jamaica since I saw that stuff,” Leach told hosts Andrew Siciliano and Krystal Fernandez. “I’ve been to Jamaica and let me tell you something … here’s the extent that I’ve thought about that subject, there’s approximately 2.8 million people in Jamaica, which is approximately the size of the state of Iowa or Kansas, or the city of Houston.

“It’s almost like the country of Jamaica is sitting there saying, ‘If you would have just told us that this was important we could have won a lot of this stuff a long time ago.'”