TV money drives college expansion

In case you're still wondering what drove the Atlantic Coast Conference to expand to 12 teams, USA Today has reported that the league is about to nearly double the fees it takes in from ESPN and ABC for its football rights -- up to nearly $38 million a year in a seven-year contract

To put that in some perspective, the Mountain West Conference -- home of Utah, BYU and their six other league foes -- is currently in the sixth year of a seven-year deal that brings the league less than $7 million a year for all sports. And don't expect that to come anywhere close to doubling when TCU joins the MWC in 2005.

Oh, the league certainly hasn't hurt itself by adding a team in a top 10 TV market that has a relatively high national profile. But adding the Mountain West's addition of TCU can't be compared to the ACC's addition of Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College.

HOCKEY WOES: Things could be worse. At least the folks in the Mountain West Conference can look forward to some kind of an increase in the money their television contracts bring in.

Which is not the case for the NHL. The fact that hockey ratings have not only failed to increase, they've actually declined is about to hit the league right in the pocketbook. The NHL currently takes in $120 million a year from ESPN/ABC; that figure is expected to drop by as much as half when the current deal expires at the end of this season.

HOCKEY VS. BASKETBALL VS. FOOTBALL: If there's any good news to be found in that, it's that the NHL is much less dependent on TV rights money than other professional sports leagues. Each of the league's 30 teams currently receives $4 million per year from the NHL's TV deal, which means cutting that in half would only cost teams $2 million a year.

In contrast, major league baseball is in the midst of a six-year, $2.5 billion contract with Fox and ESPN. That's about $417 million a year; divided by 30, that's $13.9 million per team. And that doesn't count local TV contracts, which range from less than a million bucks a year for the Montreal Expos to more than $60 million a year for the New York Yankees.

(Which means that, based on only their local TV contracts, the Yankees alone make more than half of what the entire NHL makes on its national TV contract.) The NBA is in the midst of six-year, $4.6 billion contract with ABC/ESPN and Turner Sports. That's $766.7 million per year for the league, which means each of the league's 29 teams earns about $26.4 million per year. (That's not including the local broadcast and cable deals each team has.)

And the NFL is in the midst of an eight-year, $17.6 billion contract with CBS, Fox, ABC and ESPN. That works out to $2.2 billion a year for all 32 teams and $68.7 million per team. Annually. Really.

So . . . any questions about why television has such a huge influence on sports?

E-mail: pierce@desnews.com

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