[BostonCard]

I don't think there's much TV financial upside to any particular game for most Big Five conference members. They get a lump sum from ESPN/Fox for their rights, and -- at least in the case of the SEC, Big 10 and Pac 12 -- their conference TV channel, which covers rights to all their home games. (In the case of the Pac-12, when the network started up, Stanford and other schools actually had to buy back the rights to some individual games that had been sold to regional channels like Fox Sports Bay Area.) So if Alabama were to drop Hooterville State in order to schedule University of Second Choice., the only extra money available would be from tickets, which apparently are sold out anyway.

At some point those contracts will be renegotiated, and when, say, the P12 renegotiates its contract, it would be on much stronger ground saying it can deliver 9 conference games per team, plus at least 3 non-conference games against other big5 conference teams per team (divided by two, because other conferences will own the rights to some of them), instead of saying 9 conference games plus 3 non-conference games against body bag opponents.  Moreover, when the P12 is shopping around to, say, direct TV, it would be in a much stronger position if it can say that it will be carrying some nationally significant games between power conferences instead of boring games against bad opponents.

BC

[BostonCard]

I don't think there's much TV financial upside to any particular game for most Big Five conference members. They get a lump sum from ESPN/Fox for their rights, and -- at least in the case of the SEC, Big 10 and Pac 12 -- their conference TV channel, which covers rights to all their home games. (In the case of the Pac-12, when the network started up, Stanford and other schools actually had to buy back the rights to some individual games that had been sold to regional channels like Fox Sports Bay Area.) So if Alabama were to drop Hooterville State in order to schedule University of Second Choice., the only extra money available would be from tickets, which apparently are sold out anyway.

At some point those contracts will be renegotiated, and when, say, the P12 renegotiates its contract, it would be on much stronger ground saying it can deliver 9 conference games per team, plus at least 3 non-conference games against other big5 conference teams per team (divided by two, because other conferences will own the rights to some of them), instead of saying 9 conference games plus 3 non-conference games against body bag opponents.  Moreover, when the P12 is shopping around to, say, direct TV, it would be in a much stronger position if it can say that it will be carrying some nationally significant games between power conferences instead of boring games against bad opponents.

BC