MAC Schools Do Not Have Copy of ESPN TV Contract
Story by: Mark Gockowski
Kent State University left fielder Alex Miklos bursts a 94-mile per hour fastball right past Akron’s Devin Ahart for his second homerun of the game. While Alex is rounding the bases, the Kent State Teleproductions crew hustles around the satellite truck to make sure the instant replay makes it on air.
The hustle and bustle of the teleproductions staff helped produce the best quality coverage for the die-hard Kent State fan to have the opportunity to watch. This quality was so well produced; you would have thought it was a production from the world-wide leader in sports, ESPN.
Technically, this production was made by ESPN.
Photo credited to: Matthew Unger
As part of a new TV rights agreement between the Mid-American Conference and ESPN, 12 conference schools in the MAC are obligated to produce more than 100 non-football sports events each year for ESPN3. ESPN3 is a website available to the network’s cable subscribers.
ESPN Director of Programming & Acquisitions, Brent Colbourne, sees this contract leading to a growing long term relationship between both parties.
“ESPN’s agreement with the Mid-American Conference is a special deal to ESPN because it represents key priorities out of a partnership for our company,” Colbourne stated. “It is a long-term deal which provides premium exclusive content in all sports across a breadth of ESPN platforms.”
This agreement between the MAC and ESPN will run through 2026. The design of this deal is meant to give exposure to MAC schools nationally and also give TV production experience to electronic media students throughout the Mid-American Conference.
“In addition, ESPN’s ability to work collaboratively with MAC institutions who are directly involved with production of content on ESPN3 is a great growth, exposure and learning opportunity for all parties.” Colbourne said.
Photo credited to: Matthew Unger
Kept behind closed doors in this deal is the overall value of this agreement for both sides. Financial information regarding how much the schools receive and their production costs are kept unnoted.
This has been an issue with the Mid-American Conference that has been reported by Jared S. Hopkins and John Kielman of the Chicago Tribune, but why hasn’t this been issue been resolved yet?
Some would assume at least the athletic departments at Mid-American conference schools would have a copy of this contract. To come as a surprise, the schools do not have a copy of this contract.
I reached out to 10 sports reporters and writers in newsrooms throughout the state of Ohio to see if they have received answers about why these schools don’t have a copy. I reached out to WOIO-19 Action News, WKYC-TV3, WEWS-Channel 5, WJW-Fox 8, The Columbus Dispatch, WSYX-ABC 6, The Toledo Blade, and the Cincinnati Enquirer about this contract deal between the MAC and ESPN.
Video by the Chicago Tribune describing this contract: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-espn-mac-niu-contract-video-20150317-premiumvideo.html
MAC ESPN Contract Details
The contract between the Mid-American Conference and ESPN is a new 13-year media rights deal that will run through 2026-2027. The new contract between the MAC and ESPN rewrites the original eight-year deal that expires in 2017. According to ESPN, the new deal will be worth more to the Mid-American Conference, which earned over $1 a year off of the previous deal.
The new deal that was finalized that year between the MAC and ESPN will continue to have ESPN as the exclusive carrier of all television and distribution rights for football and men’s and women’s basketball, as well as Olympic sports events.
“We look forward to continuing our long-standing relationship and continued success with such a forward-thinking conference as the Mid-American Conference.”- Brent Colbourne, ESPN Director of Programming & Acquisitions
The only reporter to respond back to my request was Dave Chudowsky from WKYC-TV3 in Cleveland but he was too busy for an interview due to the Cleveland Cavaliers playoff run and NFL Draft approaching on April 30th.
With the agreement from Hopkins and Kielman, I received the press release on the TV deal but the conference will not release the actual contract itself.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/chi-mac-contract-with-espn-20150318-htmlstory.html
I reached out to the media relations department of the Mid-American Conference to receive the contract and supporting documentation regarding the television contract. Since the Mid-American Conference is a non-profit tax exempt organization, the MAC is not subject to public records laws and thereby does not have to provide documentation when requested.
According to the Chicago Tribune, the annual payouts by ESPN to those 12 universities will range between $830,000-845,000 per school. This deal gives each University eight times more money than they received in the previous deal.
Some of the athletic department budgets for Universities in the Mid-American Conference survive off of this contract with ESPN. These schools need the exposure to maintain the department yearly.
“Significant exposure through mid-week college football, in addition to the football and basketball conference championship games is only a few significant aspects of the agreement.” Colbourne explained.
According to the Tribune, a spokesperson from the University of Akron stated that ESPN had estimated its production upgrades to up near $2 million dollars. The University of Akron only estimated it to be around $300,000.
This doesn’t support any of my answers though if the contract can’t be released and none of the schools have a copy of this contract.
Photo credited to: Matthew Unger
How much will each University be required to pay to upgrade its production? How much may they lose on this deal?
There are a lot of questions that need to be answered by this contract, it and comes to a surprise that this multiyear contract seems to not be in the hands of the head officials at these Mid-American Conference universities.
From the beginning of my research on this television contract, it immediately showed flaws in the contract against the MAC. ESPN struck gold in cost differential for these Universities and the company couldn’t be any more excited about the agreement.
Brent Colbourne’s final statement in my interview stated, “We look forward to continuing our long-standing relationship and continued success with such a forward-thinking conference as the Mid-American Conference.”
For more documentation about the MAC ESPN Television Deal given to The Chicago Tribune, visit here: http://www.chicagotribune.com/chi-mac-espn-correspondence-20150318-storygallery.html