Report: “Champions” Bowl To Ink $80M Contract With ESPN

July 30th, 2012 11:31 AM║ Posted By: John Pennington ║ Permalink ║ Schools: Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi State, Missouri, Ole Miss, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas A&M, Vanderbilt
Tags: Champions Bowl, ESPN, Rose Bowl, SEC

When it was announced earlier this month that ESPN would fork over $80 million dollars per year for the rights to broadcast the Rose Bowl, the common view was that the new SEC/Big 12 “Champions” Bowl would eventually sign a similar deal.

And that common view was apparently correct.

According to The Sports Business Journal — hefty subscription required — ESPN has agreed to pay “roughly the same rights fee” to the “Champions” Bowl as it will the Rose Bowl. For now, the SEC and Big 12 own their game. Take $80 million and split it down the middle each year and you have the 10 Big 12 schools set to make $4 million a piece while the SEC’s 14 schools would bring in about $2.85 million annually.

Now, there are other costs to be considered, of course, and depending on how the game partners with another bowl or bowls — the Cotton and Chick-fil-A have been mentioned most often — the full $80 million might not wind up in SEC and Big 12 coffers each and every season. But you can bet a huge chunk of it will.

Interestingly, it’s taken The Grandaddy of Them All since 1902 to reach the $80 million mark while the Baby New Year created by the two best leagues in the BCS era has reached that level two years before it actually even comes into existence.

Somewhere Jim Delany scowls.

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8 comments

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Jeb3000

The only reason the champions bowl got 80 million is because it was signed after the Rose Bowl. If the deal had been done before the Rose Bowl, the Champions Bowl would have gotten less.

John at MrSEC moderator

@Jeb3000

Oh, timing surely helped a little, but the fact a "never-been-played" game is getting equal cash to "The Granddaddy of Them All" is still pretty eye-popping. And I doubt that if the -- oh, let's say -- Meineke Car Care Bowl signs a new TV deal next week that it will be worth $80 million.

Timing helped, but it's clear the football of SEC vs Big 12 is as big a draw to TV execs as the tradition and pageantry of the Rose Bowl. (A game like I watching every single year, by the way.)

Thanks or reading,

John

AndrewMartin

No way do you split the money in half. Every school in the SEC and Big 12 should get the same amount or some negotiated formula. I bet the Big 12 would love a 50 / 50 split. Heck, they should've waited to invite West Virginia and TCU so they could make $5M each. I bet ISU is besides themselves.

John Bragg

The conferences will keep every penny of that $80M. Let's be super-conservative, and say 60,000 seats get sold at an average ticket price of $50. (Give the rest of the seats away to band, family-and-friends of the athletes, boosters, etc.) That's $3,000,000 in gate receipts, before you sell one plate of nachos, sell one Budweiser.

The bowl committee that asks for a cut of the TV money in their presentation gets laughed out of the room.

MoKelly1

That perpetual scowl on the Big 10 Commissioner would be even better if the Champions Bowl figure was just north of the $80 million mark. How sweet would that be from a PR perspective.

JB TexasEx

Cha-ching!

The cash register is ringing for the two best conferences in CFB. The future of the Cotton Bowl is bright! See y'all in Arlington.

RussH

Any chance of the split not being 50/50?

John at MrSEC moderator

@RussH

Anything's possible, but I'd bet it would be 50/50. Again, though, we pointed out that we were ballparking the number. A host bowl would likely get SOME cut of the deal. And someone will have to pay the ticket-handlers, concessioneers, ushers, refs, electric bill, etc.

But ballparking it, each school should get $1 million or more per season from that single game. Not bad.

Thanks for reading,

John

Trackbacks

Champions Bowl - CycloneFanatic says:

July 30, 2012 at 2:05 pm

[...] permalink Looks like the B12/ISU are going to get paid: ESPN reportedly picks up another bowl’s broadcast rights | CollegeFootballTalk Homepage | MrSEC [...]

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Champions To Rake In As Much As Rose? - - City-Data Forum says:

July 30, 2012 at 3:40 pm

[...] Champions To Rake In As Much As Rose? If true, I'm surprised. Homepage | MrSEC [...]

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“Champions” Bowl To Sign $80M Contract With ESPN : BamaFootball4Life says:

July 31, 2012 at 7:36 am

[...] According to The Sports Business Journal — hefty subscription required — ESPN has agreed to pay “roughly the same rights fee” to the “Champions” Bowl as it will the Rose Bowl. For now, the SEC and Big 12 own their game. Take $80 million and split it down the middle each year and you have the 10 Big 12 schools set to make $4 million a piece while the SEC’s 14 schools would bring in about $2.85 million annually. [More] [...]

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