The BTN will now be part of NY/NJ cable packages
The BTN agreed to a contract with Cablevision and Time Warner in which it will become a part of those carriers' NY/NJ cable packages. The BTN hopes to reach a similar agreement with Comcast before the football season.
Quick thought: The addition of the parasite that is Rutgers would have been a complete disaster if this somehow didn't go through, so I suppose we should be glad given that Rutgers is set to start draining the B1G's bodily fluids in the near future. Of course, it remains to be seen whether any of the money from these deals will go to improving B1G football and/or improving the lives of athletes.
EDIT: The recent profits of B1G teams are below. The money from these deals could make more of a difference than I realized for the Minnesotas and MSUs of the world. 
A look at the profit figures from 2007-08 until 2012-13 for 13 of the 14 Big Ten schools. Northwestern, a private school, did not report figures.
| School | Total Profit | Average Profit |
|---|---|---|
| Michigan | $90,243,483 | $15,040,580.50 |
| Penn St. | $52,918,867 | $8,819,811.17 |
| Ohio St. | $52,533,144 | $8,755,524 |
| Iowa | $31,789,258 | $5,298,209.67 |
| Indiana | $24,034,454 | $4,005,742.33 |
| Nebraska | $18,202,291 | $3,033,715.17 |
| Purdue | $17,792,141 | $2,965,356.83 |
| Illinois | $16,792,323 | $2,798,720.50 |
| Wisconsin | $12,727,545 | $2,121,257.50 |
| Mich. St. | $11,821,079 | $1,970,179.83 |
| Minnesota | $6,841,924 | $1,140,320.67 |
| Maryland | $3,208,826 | $534,804.33 |
| Rutgers | $423,319 | $70,553.17 |
http://espn.go.com/blog/ncfnation/post/_/id/95196/b1g-numbers-revenues-and-expenses
Crap on Delany all you want, but the guy cracked the NY/NJ market 3-4 months before Rutgers even played a game in the Big Ten. Usually these things go down to the wire. Also, its Rutgers and no one in NYC/NJ gives two shits about Rutgers.
How about I crap on him when the regional cable service/bundling scams that he is now heavily relying on go belly-up?
Everyone keeps talking about when the current TV model is going to change, but realistically when do you think that'll happen? Its not going to be in the next five years. Might not even be in the next 10. There are a lot of very powerful and rich people that would very much like to keep TV and cable the way it is. And (not to get political) given the way the FCC and cable are very much simpatico these days, a whole lot will have to change about the way we do business in this country for things to change. Especially when it comes to sports.
So in the meantime, Delany saw an opportunity that works in the current economic structure and climate and took it before someone else did.
But so is the number of hands reaching into the pie.
So, I guess what I'm saying is USE PLATES AND FORKS YOU DIRTY BASTARDS.
Little Jim Delany
Was thought quite zany,
Eating a Rutgers pie;
He put in his thumb,
And pulled out a plum,
And said 'What a good boy am I!'
Eating pie with ones hand would ensure pie stains on one's ascot. Deplorable savages...
I guess this means that when we have to watch the football team play Rutgers and Maryland this fall instead of teams like Wisconsin, Iowa, or Nebraska, at least we'll be able to find comfort in the fact that the athletic department will have marginally more money to pay coaches.
Somehow I don't feel happy with Michigan making even more money on football by taking it from 20 million cable customers in the NY/NJ market who don't give a damn about Rutgers. And they are just going to spend it on shopping classes for players who don't have money to spend.
This deal isn't all about Rutgers. The NY/NJ market is very diverse, and I'm sure that there are alot of B1G fans there, with or without Rutgers. Rutgers may have been the tipping point, but it wasn't, of itself, sufficient for this deal to be done, is my guess.
The whole deal with Rutgers and Maryland was not about bringing Rutgers and Maryland to the Big Ten. It was about bringing the Big Ten to NY/NJ and DC/MD/VA. So, it looks like mission accomplished I guess.
My life would be so much better now. It is difficult to put in words... or maybe it wouldn't really have mattered much
Probably bitching about something else.
Fire Borges.
Even if the cable model changes (which if it is, its still a long ways off) its a decent gamble to add in Rutgers and the NYC market. Live events are the one and only thing that still gets advertisers cutting checks, and that's not changing any time soon. No other major conference was in the NYC market, so if the Big Ten has to add in shitty ol' Rutgers to tap that market, then so be it. More potential viewers, bigger checks from advertisers and bigger checks from cable affiliates. That's not temporary.
Plus, now they have a good 5, 10, 20 years (or however long it is before the cable modle changes) to get people in the #1 media market interested in their name brand schools and build up those fan bases. Plus, they can also access the already large alumni bases living in NYC, so if we go to some sort of streaming or pay per view system, then you can access the people there too.
And adding Rutgers isn't a permanent move any more than the current cable modle is permanent.
Of course the best reason to bitch still stands: for most fans, the idea of the B1G making incrementally more money isn't worth never seeing Michigan play half the traditional Big Ten.
were also asserting that the move wouldn't lead to getting into the NYC market.
I don't think TV money was the only reason. Gaining access to some talent-rich East Coast states for recruiting was a big deal, too. And more generally, it offered the chance to change the image of B1G from a strictly Midwestern league to a more Northern league in general, including the Atlantic coast.
You can certainly disagree with the rationale (I personally didn't have a problem with being a Midwestern league, and would have rather stayed with 12 teams) but you can understand it.
You act as if most people didn't know that. You weren't clever or onto something big. Stop being trite.
I think it was obvious from the get-go. This conversational goes back a lot further than 2012, friend. Rutgers was a rumored target for a long time and most smart people always knew why.
I feel like this is an expression of the contempt cable companies hold for their customers. New York isn't interested in Rutgers sports, but since most New Yorkers have even less choice than most cable customers, Cablevision feels like they can just cram the subscriber fee down their throats and tell them to like it.
Ding ding ding ding. We have a winner.
This is why my passionate for college sports is seriously waning. The conference I follow most is involved in some pretty crappy stuff.
Since it means they are also shoving Michigan down their throats, I'm cool with it.
I thought Comcast and Warner were merging.
That profit table says we really ought to be in favor of anything that reduces conference revenue, not raises it. Let's cut the conference payout by about $2.5M and put Sparty and Wiscy in the red.
As if we needed Rutgers to push through this deal. Somehow I think the Big Ten alumni base in NJ and NY would be enough to make this happen regardless.
Also, I'm saddled in CT about 10 minutes from the NY border, so fuck me, right? Good thing I'm trying to leave this godforsaken place.
Fellow CT resident here. Can confirm this place blows. I'm routinely bummed out about how expensive this state is, and what kind of house I could get for the same money back in MI (50% larger house on a lake? No problem). Or pretty much any other state.
But hey, at least I'm on Cox cable and they offer the BTN. So you know I'm all over that Oct 4th Michigan v. Rutgers game...
Everything is expensive, nothing is worth the expense, and Danbury is one of the worst places I can imagine for a young, single professional who has no interest in associating with WestConn students.
I've never even heard of Cox Cable, but Comcast has a sports package with BTN well worth the $8 a month. I'll also be at the Rutgers game if I'm still around.
Both of you should look into Verizon Fios as an option, if it is available in your area. I have it on Long Island, and BTN has been a part of their mid-level TV package for a while now.
I sympathize with you about CT, I grew up there and it can be tough if you're young and single. The coast where I grew up is beautiful, but outside of the beach there isn't much going on.
But don't talk to me about expensive, as I said I live on Long Island. I sometimes think about moving to CT to reduce my expenses and tax burden.
Like most areas, there's a monopoly on the available cable options where I live. Itx Cox or nothing (lol, Cox...never gets old).
And yeah, there are certainly more expensive areas to live. Friend of mine here had an interview for a job out in San Francisco. Would have been about double the pay, but its San Francisco, so in a lot of respects, that would be a pay cut. Even coming from CT.
Itx Cox or nothingJust like the local bar scene.
As if we needed Rutgers to push through this deal. Somehow I think the Big Ten alumni base in NJ and NY would be enough to make this happen regardless.The BTN has been around seven years. If we didn't need Rutgers, why didn't we get on cable in NYC before they joined? The pre-expansion B1G had a solid alumni base in the NYC area, but Rutgers probably was what pushed us past the tipping point.
I believe that the BTN as it is contributes around $8 million per school to the total conference payouts each year as it is, so I am guessing that number just got a healthy bump. Between that and the well-timed expansion of the conference schedule to coincide with the other TV negotiations, that projection of about $45 million per school by 2018 or thereabouts is shaping up to be pretty close to the truth for the Big Ten.
And the payout to Rutgers (and perhaps MD?) are limited, which I didn't realize: "There are also the significant financial benefits the network provides, as the member schools are projected to receive $44.5 million each in 2017-18 from the conference's next television contract. Rutgers won't be eligible for a full share until the 2020-21 school year...."
http://www.nj.com/rutgersfootball/index.ssf/2014/05/big_ten_network_has_big_plans_for_rutgers.html
Because they MAY be merging? And they want to ensure that if it's delayed, B1G will have contracts with both major providers? Or if it's blocked, they'll still have contracts? And to ensure that when they do merge, both entities have contracts in place that the successor entity needs to honor?
Mainly that.
Are they going to try to amp up their awful production values and on-air talent to impress the NY market or will they continue to do it all on the cheap?
At least the PR wreck of a university is going to make all of our athletic departments more money so we can spend it on gold plated boats for the crew team and waterfalls made of diamonds in our lockerrooms. Football ticket prices will continue to go up
![[IMG]](https://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_llqcmihIFO1qzvw5po1_400.jpg)
The numbers that ESPN used was probably from the Department of Education's Equity in Athletics Data Analysis Cutting Tool. You can find it here: http://ope.ed.gov/athletics/GetOneInstitutionData.aspx
If you look at the University of Michigan Athletic Department's annual fiscal year budgets, you get a different picture. The local newspapers report UM's Net Operating Surplus which is the difference between Current Fund Revenues and Current Fund Expenses. That's where you'll read how UM's AD had profits ranging from $8M to $15M per year (and we'll probably see the same thing next month when the new budget is presented to the Regents).
The athletic department also reports Net Transfers and Capital Expenses on its budget. This money is used largely to pay for athletic campus building and renovations along with private donations and debt. Those amounts ranged from $2.6M in FY 2010 to $31.8M the next fiscal year between FY 2004 and FY 2013.
From Fiscal Year 2004 through 2013, the Athletic Department increased its Current Fund Balances increased a little under $7M. While Michigan's Net Operating Surplus those years was $135.4M, the AD had Net Transfers and Capital Expenses of around $128M.
Er, yay #footprint?