Fresno State gets more money but no more control of start times in new Mountain West TV deal
Fresno State was hoping to get more control of kickoff times and scheduling in the Mountain West’s next media deal, particularly later in the football season as the weather cools.
That didn’t happen in the six-year agreement announced Thursday by the conference with CBS and with FOX replacing ESPN as its secondary partner.
But the new deal is worth $270 million over the next six years, and while the conference did not break down how that will be distributed, it will be a windfall for the Fresno State athletics department.
Fresno State and the other conference members could receive around $4 million a year.
“Financially, it’s a much better deal for all of our conference members,” Fresno State athletics director Terry Tumey said.
“I think it really does show the value of the conference in terms of how we’re positioning ourselves and how the conference is making a bigger claim nationally. It also gives us some real commitment in terms of the partners putting us in some prime spots with some highlighted games and more high-profile time slots, which is vitally important, as well.”
Under the existing deal that runs through June, Fresno State received about $1.1 million annually; Boise State negotiated its home football games separately with ESPN, and will with FOX.
A breakdown of the football and basketball deals:
Football on CBS
▪ 23 games on CBS or CBS Sports Network
▪ A minimum of three games on CBS
▪ 10 additional games that may be selected for CBS, CBS Sports Network or CBS all-access
▪ Rights to Boise State conference road games
Football on FOX
▪ 16 to 23 regular-season football games on Fox networks
▪ A minimum of seven games on FOX or FS1
▪ A maximum of five Friday games, not including special dates
▪ Mountain West championship game on FOX or FS1
▪ Rights to Boise State home games
▪ The broadcast windows for football games played on a Saturday run from 11 a.m. to 7:45 p.m on FOX and to 8 p.m. on CBS.
▪ The window for games played on a Friday run from 5:30 p.m. to 7:45 on FOX and to 8 p.m. on CBS.
Basketball on CBS
▪ 32 games on CBS or CBS Sports Network
▪ A minimum of two games on CBS
▪ Mountain West Tournament quarterfinals and semifinals on CBS Sports Network and championship game on CBS
▪ 10 additional games that may be selected for CBS, CBS Sports Network or CBS all-access
Basketball on FOX
▪ 16 to 23 regular-season games on FOX networks
▪ A minimum of 12 games on FOX or FS1
▪ The broadcast windows for basketball run from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturdays and 8 p.m. on Sunday and from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays.
Highlight games across the broadcast window
Fresno State conceivably has more success filling Bulldog Stadium with earlier kickoff times as it gets deeper into the season, but there still is upside in balancing a budget that includes 21 sports programs.
“It’s going to help us financially, so we’re excited about this deal,” Tumey said.
FOX Sports president Mark Silverman suggested it would look at both ends of the broadcast window to highlight games.
“One of the benefits of obtaining these rights was to fill a 7 p.m. or 8 p.m. roughly local kick, but not the sole one,” Silverman said. “I would expect some game times to be more in the afternoon, some to be in the evening.
“Occasionally we’d love to get one actually the opposite, on the early side, which is really what we’ve been focused on as a network, that early time frame literally – it was the second-highest rated window in all of college football last year, our noon Eastern time. We’re looking all over the board. We’re not only focused on late night.”
Silverman pointed to a matchup next season with Florida State playing at Boise State as a game with potential for an early kickoff time.
“As we look at creating special events in the sports world, whether it’s an outdoor hockey game, whether it’s Midnight Madness, sometimes special time frames make the game more unique,” Silverman said.
“No one has talked about doing anything on a regular basis, but we believe, and I’ve had conversations with the Pac-12 about even an earlier game kick start. On occasion it could create a heck of a lot of interest, and we actually believe if we are able to kick that game at 10 a.m. and it would be airing on the FOX broadcast network, it’ll most likely be the highest-rated Boise State football game in at least five to seven years. We think there’s an incredible audience there.”
This story was originally published January 9, 2020 at 3:46 PM.