fox

[Marc-Gregor Campredon]

Charity Bowl time. Well, folks, time to liberate 42.27 plus processing fees from your wallets:

Or you could be like Ethan Stark and drop approximately 7k by moving the decimal. I want to see a historic blowout this year. I expect it, really.

In or out. Hunter Dickinson announced a return yesterday; Moussa Diabate has now announced he's going through the draft process:

Diabate will retain his eligibility. That's the smart move for a guy with all the physical potential in the world but little presence on mock drafts or even top 100 lists. He could easily catch someone's eye and get a first round guarantee; or he could get told if he does X and Y next year he'd be a clear lottery pick. I can't remember a stay or go decision more contingent on camp performances. Anonymous NBA scout:

“He is all over the board,” the scout said with a laugh. “The variance with him is crazy.”

SI's draft guy:

Caleb Houstan has announced nothing despite the NBA draft entry deadline passing at midnight last night. The NBA releases the list tomorrow at noon, so we won't have to wait long to find out whether he's also going through the process. I remain skeptical that Houstan is draft viable since last year he only did one thing well—stand-still shooting—and was very much a work in progress as a defender. It's frankly bizarre to me that draft rankings like CBS's have Houstan 37th and no Diabate.

If I had to bet I'd say that at least one team is willing to give Diabate a late first guarantee and that Houstan ends up returning. But [gestures in freezing cold Jordan Poole take].

[Hit THE JUMP for rescue one Aidan Hutchinson from the Lions]

The Big Ten will have yet more money with which to not fire Darrell Hazell in the near future:

Fox is close to signing a deal that gives it half of the Big Ten’s available media rights package, according to several sources. Deal terms still are flexible – both in terms of money and rights. However, the two sides have agreed on basic terms that will give Fox the rights to around 25 football games and 50 basketball games that it will carry on both the broadcast channel and FS1 starting in the fall of '17. The deal runs six years and could cost Fox as much as $250M per year, depending on the amount of rights the Big Ten conference puts in its second package.

Let's think some thoughts about this.

First, this is why the TV networks hurl the money. Combine this graph

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…with the relative prosperity of Big Ten folks versus the other section of the country that can't get enough college football and you get a lot of money. When it comes to Jim Delany, this is strictly Bedouins owning the land the oil is on. It's replacement-level performance. You are the reason TV networks are throwing crazy dollars at the Big Ten.

Second, it's a lot of money. Per SBD, the potential 250 million dollar deal is half of a package the Big Ten is currently getting 112 million for from ESPN and CBS. I imagine the total will come in under a half billion dollars a year unless they want to evaporate from ESPN entirely, which they probably don't. It's still a staggering amount of dough.

Third, it's not for very long. A six year term is unusually short when it comes to these kind of contracts, and it puts the Big Ten's rights up at around the same time everybody else sees theirs expire. Six years may be unusually short from the perspective of rights contracts—the BTN has their rights package until 2032(!)—but this is an unusual transition period.

In six years everyone may decide to boot the middleman and make everything more or less WWE Network, except unscripted. Or they may carry on because momentum is a powerful thing and ESPN matters. Meanwhile, networks are already looking at the number of dollars they've committed in a uncertain environment and blanching. SBN reports that ESPN's offer was "not competitive."

The Big Ten wanted a deal that would expire at the same time the BTN deal does and did not get it. Uncertainty reigns.

Fourth, mark your calendars. In six years there will be another tumultuous period of conference expansion. Contracts will be more or less up across the spectrum, grant-of-rights agreements in the ACC will be close to expiring, and it'll be time for another dance of doom.

Fifth, I'm relatively happy about FOX. Gus Johnson and Joel Klatt are both great and we'll be hearing a lot more of them call Michigan games in the future. Gus doing more Michigan basketball is also enticing. FS1 is a wasteland of hot takes delivered by morons, but FOX's actual game coverage has gotten a lot better over the last few years.

Also, adding college football to Fox networks increases the WALL OF COLLEGE FOOTBALL effect on Saturdays this fall. More options for games to watch and less pressure to bump Michigan off of noon windows* gets a thumbs up from me. I kind of want Fox to always put Michigan on at noon on the broadcast network.

*[Noon is the best time for a game if you want to watch the rest of CFB.]

Sixth, just pay some people. The Big Ten now has hundreds of millions of dollars and no additional expenses.