All things FSU: June 2016

Thursday, June 30, 2016

ESPN ACC SEC predictions

Auburn over Clemson? THIS is the ACC's TV network?

With friends like these who needs enemies. ESPN doesn't let reality get in the way of $$$$....picking Auburn over Clemson is a damn joke. But push SEC at all cost at ESECPN.

Elijah Hood ‏@So_Hood34

I guess I need to do some more sled pushes now...pic.twitter.com/3MTctOg8Cd

FSU Baseball Factoid

As the tweet says.......NO COMMENT...

Singleshot ‏@Singleshot25

No comment.pic.twitter.com/cXbZGE1HH3

Wednesday, June 29, 2016

New FSU revenue stream

http://www.tallahassee.com/story/sports/college/fsu/baseball/2016/06/29/beer-sales-howser-generate-welcomed-revenue/86520368/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Beer and baseball worked well, however.
Net sales for food ($290,555) and beer ($104,463) over 39 FSU home baseball games generated $395,018 – an increase of $134,091 from 2015.
A 16-ounce beer was sold for $7 at the stadium.
Wilcox credited Assistant Athletics Director/Marketing Jason Dennard and Deputy Athletics Director/External Operations Karl Hicks for their work in identifying a price point that was both affordable for patrons while deterring others.
Sales started about 25 minutes prior to first pitch and no beer was sold after the sixth inning. Fans were limited to three beers per game.
“There are some who felt the price was too high,” Wilcox said.
“And there’s a reason for that. You want to go there and be respectful and mindful of everybody else there that don’t drink beer.”
Fans spent $5.16 per person at home games on concessions compared to $3.75 in 2015.
FSU went 30-9 at home this season and 41-22 overall, sweeping its home regional in three games and advancing to the NCAA Gainesville Super Regional for the second consecutive year.
No. 1 national seed Florida swept the Seminoles in the best-of-three series to advance to the College World Series.
-- Safid Deen contributed to this report
FSU Baseball Concessions
2016 Net Sales Comparison from 2015
Food: $290,555 ... $260,927 ... 11%
Beer: $104,463....N/A
Total: $395,018 ... $260,927 ... 51%
Per Capita: $5.16 ... $3.75 ... 38%
Commissions
Food: $87,166 ... $78,278 ... 11%
Beer: $31,339 ... N/A
Total: $118,505 ... $78,278 ... 51%
Source - Aramark

Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott addresses the revenue gap with Big Ten, SEC

Everyone gets there is a huge revenue gap here and it is growing, here is just more definition around that. The goal isn't to be close to the bottom three, it is to be within striking distance of the #1.

Sadly, this suggests the ACC can't do that and it will be this way for a long time. Again, there is NO WAY FSU can sign a GOR extension and lock in these disparities. And don't forget, media/fans/etc will instantly suggests/hint/assume that the creation of an ACCNetwork will change this.....do NOT FALL FOR THAT. It is highly unlikely, even with a network (a network doesn't equal revenue automatically....especially significant revenue).

http://blogs.mercurynews.com/collegesports/2016/06/23/pac-12-commissioner-larry-scott-addresses-the-revenue-gap-with-big-ten-sec/

"First, let’s address the exact nature of the revenue gap. Since the discussion, there have been two relevant developments:
1) The Big 12 announced its latest distribution: $30.4 million per school, which was higher than anticipated. (No specifics were given, but my understanding is the increase can be traced to the terms of the Tier 1 contract.)

2) The second piece of the Big Ten’s new deal came into focus with the SportsBusiness Daily reporting that ESPN would purchase the B1G’s remaining rights for $190 million annually. Add $240 million from Fox, another $10 million from CBS, and the conference’s TV revenue is astronomical.
The double-whammy of news from the Big 12 and Big Ten will place the Pac-12 in worse shape a few years from now (relative to its peers) than it has been at any point since the start of its $3 billion Tier 1 deal with ESPN and Fox.
Here are expected distributions per-school for TV rights in 2017-18, when the Big Ten deal kicks in.
Note I: Figures do not include revenue from College Football Playoff, March Madness, etc. This is only TV rights.
Note II: Figures are estimated, largely because of uncertainty regarding the exact income amounts from conference TV networks.
Big Ten: $41 million per school(Includes Tier 1 deal, annual Big Ten Network distributions and BTN profit sharing)
SEC: $34 million per school(Includes Tier 1 and SEC Network revenue)
Big 12: $23 million(Includes Tier 1 deal and rights fee for football championship game but not Tier 3 rights, which are owned by the schools and vary greatly)
Pac-12: $22.5 million(Includes Tier 1 deal and $2.5 million per school in Pac-12 Networks distributions)"

"How does the situation stand now? When the Big Ten’s new deal kicks in, the Pac-12 schools will received approximately 55 percent as much TV revenue as their peers.
Again, the cyclical nature of the deals must be considered — for the six-year span from the start of the Pac-12’s new deal through the end of the B1G’s current deal, the gap was much smaller.
But at the same time, the disparities estimated in the figures above … $12 million per school with the SEC, $17 million per school with the B1G … are likely to exist for six-to-eight more years.
*** In general, and not surprisingly, Scott’s view of the revenue gap is no different than his view of the state of the Pac-12 Networks:
He takes the long view.
“The most important thing,” he said at the outset of the conversation about the revenue gap, “is to optimize the long-term value of our rights.”
Agree or disagree, the situation is what it is. Scott’s approach isn’t likely to change, nor is the gap itself."

http://accfootballrx.blogspot.com/2016/06/mind-gap-tv-revenue-2017-2023.html

"The Mercury News wanted to estimate the "revenue gap" between power conferences once the Big Ten's new TV contract kicks in. This is what they came up with:

Here are expected distributions per-school for TV rights in 2017-18, when the Big Ten deal kicks in (Note: Figures include all conference TV revenues but NOT revenues from the College Football Playoff, March Madness, etc; also, these figures are only estimates because of uncertainty regarding the exact income amounts from conference TV networks, etc.):

Average payout per year over life of TV contracts:
Big Ten: $41 million per school
SEC: $34 million per school
Big 12: $23 million
Pac-12: $22.5 million
ACC: $22 million (my estimate - see below)

What stands out in my mind from this analysis is (a) how far ahead the Big Ten is - even compared to the SEC - and (b) how close the Big 12, Pac-12 and ACC are."

College Conference Expansion Factoid

I don't think for a minute there is any short term rescue/solution for ACC issues, but interesting to note, none the less.

TOP Ten States for Domestic Migration to, as per a Real Clear Politics Study;
# 1 Texas
#2 Florida
#4 South Carolina
#8 Georgia
...

TOP Ten States for Domestic Migration From, as per a 2014 National Movers Survey;
#2 Illinois
#4 New jersey
#5 Pennsylvania
#6 Michigan
#7 Ohio

Random ACC TV ratings figures/toughts

https://floridastate.forums.rivals.com/threads/more-twitter-stuff-re-acc-gor.130491/page-6#post-2171505

http://www.sportsmediawatch.com/college-football-tv-ratings/

rancekay

"The problem for Florida State is we are unlike any other university in the ACC.
The closest is Clemson but even they do not bring viewers to the level we do.

If you were able to sell the media rights of each school individually Florida State would destroy everyone else in the ACC:

Here is an example of Florida State playing the two worst teams in the ACC and how the ratings compared last year:

Florida State vs BC 3.148 million viewers
Florida State vs Wake Forest 1.273 Million viewers

In comparison:

BC vs Notre Dame 1.986 Million viewers
Wake Forest vs Notre Dame 1.942 million viewers
Wake Forest vs Clemson 780,000 viewers
Louisville vs Wake Forest 629,000 viewers
BC vs Clemson 465,000 viewers

The vast majority of BC and Wake Forest games are not on tv, but on ESPN3 because the networks did not think there was enough interest to televise their games.

When Florida State played Notre Dame in 2014 ESPN had 9,750 Million viewers. "

"For those that say schools like UNC, Pitt and Syracuse bring a lot to the table for football.

Here are so more ratings from last year to chew on:
LSU vs Alabama 11.063 Million viewers
Ohio State vs Michigan 10.830 Million viewers
Alabama vs Auburn 9.299 Million viewers
FSU vs Clemson 7.563 Million viewers
FSU vs Florida 4.280 Million Viewers
Miami vs FSU 3.502 Million viewers
Syracuse vs FSU 2.588 million viewers
USF vs FSU 2.216 million viewers
FSU vs Georgia Tech 1.943 million viewers
Memphis vs USF 1.155 million viewers
Duke vs UNC 742,000 viewers
Duke vs Virginia Tech 722,000 viewers
Temple vs ECU 679,000 viewers
Hawaii vs Boise State 610,000 viewers
Pittsburgh vs Syracuse 589,000 viewers
Miami vs Duke 490,000 viewers
UNC vs Georgia Tech 386,000 viewers
Arizona vs Colorado 288,000 viewers "

bcherod

"In all fairness, this is a partial list. On the full list there are a lot of surprises.

Look at October 31 and see that ND- Temple had more viewers than Georgia-Florida, Mississippi-Auburn,

October 24, the highest rated game is Tennessee- Alabama. tOSU is second against Rutgers. Meanwhile, FSU GTech is 8th.

For example. UNC - VT had higher ratings than ND-BC, followed by

Cal -Stanford
USC - Oregon
Tennessee -Missouri
Arizona-Arizona St.

One can go through the list and there are many different conclusions that can be drawn.

You can look at the full list here. http://www.sportsmediawatch.com/college-football-tv-ratings/ "

"You are correct I did not include every game on my two posts (25 games), but I did include a large sample size.

I highly recommend everyone interested in seeing where the ACC stands please review the list from www.sportsmediawatch.com.

To me these are obvious observations:

1)The only way the ACC has large numbers of viewers is if an ACC school is competing against a big time out of conference school or it is a game involving Florida State, Notre Dame or Clemson.
2) With the exception of Clemson and Florida State the number of viewers for the ACC is rather pathetic.
3) The Pac12 also has pathetic numbers unless it involves one of their premier programs.
4) The SEC and the B10 deserve the large media deals because they bring a lot more viewers than the other the conferences.
5) Florida State's chances of bringing in revenue from media rights close to what schools in the B10 or SEC receive will not happen with Florida State being in the ACC unless major structural adjustments are made. "

"Not including:
Clemson/Florida State from the ACC
Ohio State/Michigan from the B10
Alabama/LSU from the SEC
Texas/Oklahoma from the B12
USC/Oregon from the Pac12

Here is another large sample:

SEC
South Carolina vs Georgia 3.189 million viewers
Tennesse vs Florida 4.641 million viewers
Ole Miss vs Florida 3.745 million viewers
Georgia vs Tennessee 4.884 million viewers
Georgia vs Florida 5.015 million viewers
Auburn vs Kentucky 2.226 million viewers
Arkansas vs Ole Miss 2.977 million viewers
Missouri vs Arkansas 2.390 Million viewers
Big 10
Michigan State vs Nebraska 3.470 million viewers
Iowa vs Wisconsin 2.637 million viewers
Penn State vs Michigan State 4.503 million viewers
Iowa vs Nebraska 6.189 Million viewers
Iowa vs Indiana 1.883 million viewers
Big12
Baylor vs TCU 5.108 Million viewers
Oklahoma State vs Iowa State 1.741 million viewers
Oklahoma State vs Texas Tech 2.513 million viewers
West Virginia vs Baylor 2.195 million viewers
Baylor vs Oklahoma State 4.227 million viewers
Pac 12
California vs Utah 2.820 million viewers
Arizona State vs Utah 3.059 million viewers
Washington State vs UCLA 1.923 Million viewers
Arizona State vs UCLA 2.162 million viewers
Washington State vs Washington 1.538 million viewers
ACC
NC State vs Virginia Tech 1.523 million viewers
Miami vs Duke 490,000 viewers
UNC vs Pittsburgh 1.247 million viewers
Duke vs UNC 742,000 viewers
UNC vs Virginia Tech 2.086 million viewers

As you can see from above the other conferences beat us handily in those viewing their games compared to those viewing games in the ACC.
Gene has said this many times before we are the most top heavy league of the power 5 and the ratings clearly reflect it.

If I am a network executive I would pay the ACC the least amount to televise their games of the power 5. The B10 and SEC should get at least double the revenue the ACC receives for football media rights.

This is why Florida State can not accept status quo and/or extend the GOR without major concessions from the ACC that are self serving to Florida State. "

"I didn't include Notre Dame because they are not in our conference(I only used conference games) and I took the top 2 schools out of each league because a poster said you would see similar numbers if you took out the top two from each conference, but as you can see that is not the case. As for Louisville I only put one of their games in my samples but they do not have great numbers either. Even when they played the top two schools their numbers were on par with Boston College.

Florida State vs Louisville 2.852 million viewers
Clemson vs Louisville 1.938 million viewers
Louisville vs Wake Forest 629,000 viewers

I would love it if the ACC had the best tv ratings but unfortunately they have the worst of the power 5 and when you compare it to the B10 and the SEC it is rather pathetic.

Florida State and to a little bit lesser extent Clemson deserve better than what the ACC offers with equal revenue sharing of media rights. "

"I am only including conference games and Notre Dame is not in our conference.
If Notre Dame was in our conference that would substantially help our conference game ratings. The ratings for Notre Dame and Clemson were huge as was the Notre Dame Texas game.

I don't know what the exact numbers are, but from what I can see the ACC conference football games are nowhere close to 80% of the viewers the B10 and SEC get.

Also, I checked out the Conference Basketball championship games. I assumed the ACC would be number 1, but the SEC beat us out slightly.

The numbers were higher than I expected(a 1.0 rating equals 1,156,000 households):
SEC basketball championship 2.9 rating
ACC basketball championship 2.8 rating
B10 basketball championship 2.4 rating
B12 basketball championship 2.4 rating

I welcome everyone to check out www.sportmediawatch.com to come to their own conclusions. "

CollegeTown Phase III on the way?

http://www.urbantallahassee.com/index.php/projects1/item/858-collegetown-phase-iii

Tuesday, June 28, 2016

FSU Factoid of the Day

Pick Six Previews ‏@PickSixPreviews

Longest active bowl streaks:

34- FSU

23- Virginia Tech

19- UGA

17- OU

16- LSU

14- Boise, Wisconsin

12- Alabama

11- BYU, Clemson

10- OK State

Monday, June 27, 2016

FSU Recruiting Factoid of the Day

Seminoles Recruiting ‏@FSU_Recruiting

Make your Impact Day One. #IMPACTfreshmen #FSUpic.twitter.com/JvrkCHZM2M

16 retweets 31 likes

College Town Phase 2 Update

http://www.tallahassee.com/picture-gallery/news/money/2016/06/27/college-town-phase-ii-nears-completion/86431450/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

College Town Phase II

FSU Factoid of the Day

Most wins, last 30 years (P5):
289- FSU
286- Nebraska
277- Ohio St
275- Florida
272- Miami
271- OU
260- Michigan
258- UGA
253- BYU
252- Tenn

Pick Six Previews ‏@PickSixPreviews

Most wins, last 20 years (Power 5):

196- Ohio St

191- OU

188- Florida

187- VT

186- FSU, LSU, UGA, Oregon

183- Wisc.

182- Nebraska

181- Texas

Pick Six Previews ‏@PickSixPreviews

Most wins, last 10 years (Power 5):

105- Oregon

104- OU

101- LSU

100- Alabama, TCU, Ohio St

98- Wisconsin

95- Florida, USC, Clemson

94- UGA

Saturday, June 25, 2016

Ways to improve the ACC (ND Update)

https://floridastate.forums.rivals.com/threads/five-takes-five-ways-to-make-the-acc-a-better-conference.130719/page-4#post-2167596

DotCom

"I can share that people high up at FSU were absolutely convinced that Notre Dame was joining the ACC full-time back when the GOR was signed over two years ago. Sounds like ND made some promises or at least led the ACC to believe that it was in the works. Problem is that similar sentiments involving ND have come from the Big 12 and Big 10. Anyway, the confidence of ND joining full-time isn't as high as it was back in 2013. Looking back, it appears as though ND threw out the possibility of full-time membership when the GOR/ESPN negotiations were going on as a carrot to get the deal it did as a partial member.

My honest opinion is that ND will not join the ACC on a full-time basis any time soon, if ever. First they've got an exclusive TV deal in place with NBC for another nine years. Don't see why the Irish would give that up or why NBC would want to cooperate with a competitor (ESPN) to when it comes to these rights.

As several have noted, Notre Dame covets its independence. When talking to people that are high up the totem poll with ND they quickly dismiss any notion of giving up their independent status and joining a conference.

Even if you dismiss everything else, what motivation does ND have to join the ACC full-time? Not sure what they have to gain. If they were to join a conference in football why the ACC? There's no loyalty there, just a business deal that currently benefits both the ACC and the Irish. If for some reason they start looking at joining full-time, why would they go to a conference that is probably last when it comes to financial distributions? It's looking like the B1G schools will bring in somewhere in the $40-$50 million neighborhood for distributions starting in 2017 when the Network is in place. Really think ND would join the ACC before the B1G and take a $20 million a year pay cut? "

https://floridastate.forums.rivals.com/threads/five-takes-five-ways-to-make-the-acc-a-better-conference.130719/page-3

DotCom

seminole72 said: ↑

W/ thanks to @RTM58, the viewership is a little different from how you portray it:

The Nielsen ratings numbers for 2015 are out, and guess which conference was #1 in TV viewers? Yeah, trick question... the ACC had a 700k per game lead over the SEC and over a 1 million per game lead over the other power conferences. In fact, I have to figure that the SEC Network is the only thing which allowed the SEC to remain as close as they did - that constant hype paid off, I guess. Curious that the Big Ten didn't perform any better...

How do these ACC numbers compare to football?
The top ACC football games averaged 6.1 million viewers; the top games for the B1G and SEC averaged over 8 million. So, yes, there is a big difference between regular season viewership in football and basketball.*

What about combined viewers? Ah, that's where the ACC does far better than average...

Conf -->Basketball---->Football---->Combined
SEC ------->2.3 M -------->8.1 M -------->10.4 M
B1G ------->1.6 M--------->8.5 M--------->10.1 M
ACC ------->3.0 M-------->6.1 M----------->9.1 M
XII---------->1.4 M--------->5.0 M ---------->6.4 M
Pac--------->0.8 M-------->4.5 M----------->5.3 M

When you consider basketball and football combined, the ACC is right up there with the Big Ten and the SEC in terms of viewership.

* Note: these average viewership numbers are for the top 10 games only, so bad games on week nights had no effect on these averages, since those ratings were thrown out.

Click to expand...

Really interesting numbers there. If the ACC viewership really is on par with the SEC and B1G then why is there such a disparity in TV revenue paid out to the three conferences? Either these numbers are misleading and not truly indicative of TV ratings, or the ACC leadership massively botched up the negotiations for TV rights.

DotCom

FSUDynasty said: ↑

Per Clemson Insider ( and there are others ):

Does the ACC worry about falling behind the Big Ten or the SEC in rights fees because it has not started its own network, yet?

Radakovich: “We do. There is no question."

As for Dabo, coach has said his words have been far more direct about his concern over the $ shortfall the ACC brings in versus the SEC and B1G.

Click to expand...

Was going to say that Moz is nearly correct on this other than Clemson. Have had many conversations with Tiger folks and the financial disparity between the ACC and the rest of the P5 is a major concern.

But it's probably true that the ever-widening financial gap from conference distributions isn't a real concern for a large majority of the ACC. That in and of itself is part of the problem. The conference is way too top heavy when it comes to power football programs that carry the financial burden for the ACC.

FSU DynastyNole

re: Revenue Gap

"Correct. Top heavy on Tobacco Rd and the further north you go, not much concern.

However, need to add Miami ( in deep doo doo ), Louisville and I heard both NC State and Va. Tech have their financial feathers ruffled. "

How to improve the ACC?

Great article from Warchant.com, subscribe today.

https://floridastate.forums.rivals.com/threads/five-takes-five-ways-to-make-the-acc-a-better-conference.130719/

Five ways the ACC can be improved from an FSU perspective

1. Pressure the conference for a bigger piece of the pie

"ACC Commissioner John Swofford made it clear a long time ago that he is a strong proponent of equal revenue sharing within the conference. In fact, back in 2011, he called it “sacred." However, Swofford has already fudged from that promise by allowing Notre Dame to join the conference as a partial member. The Irish gain the benefits of being affiliated with a Power Five conference but don’t have to share the financial benefits from their huge television contract.

Since the door has been opened against the strict adherence to equal revenue sharing, there’s a case to be made for programs that drive the financial train to be rewarded accordingly. By Swofford’s own admission, football brings in about 80 percent of the revenue from the ACC’s television deal with ESPN. Considering that FSU and Clemson overwhelming carry the weight in football, shouldn’t those programs reap some extra benefits?"

2. Overhaul the ACC officiating crew

" Last year, Warchant.com published a story documenting officiating bias in the ACC based on an independent research project. Not surprisingly, the study showed underdogs tended to receive preferential treatment in the ACC. Again, this is consistent with the bizarre disparity in holding calls involving Florida State. But what makes no sense is the trend is exactly the opposite when it comes to men’s basketball. Basketball powers Duke and North Carolina frequently lead the conference in free-throw disparity, and many believe that the conference officials bend over backwards to protect the premier basketball programs."

3. Get away from the basketball- and Tobacco Road-centric mentality

"As for the basketball-first mentality, if you attend a conference football championship as a fan or media member, and then compare that to the treatment received during an ACC men’s basketball tournament, it’s hard not to notice a significant difference. The basketball tournament is a well-staffed event with little expense spared. The ACC support staff is incredibly accommodating, the food is top notch and the whole event runs smoothly thanks to careful planning.

The same can’t be said for the ACC football championship. It almost seems like a bother for the ACC to have to put on this event every year. It’s very clear, maybe more so for a media member attending, that football doesn’t generate the same focus from ACC personnel and that logistical problems are more frequent. The ACC football championship has been a decent event, but it’s clearly not getting the support it should from the conference compared to men’s basketball, considering that football is the cash cow."

4. Foster a better working relationship with ESPN to both feature and protect the top programs

"With that in mind, why doesn’t the ACC stand up for Florida State when it becomes clear that its TV network partner is stepping over the line in its coverage of one of its member schools? Swofford and the ACC did nothing through it all, from Heather Cox badgering Jameis Winston on the field after the ACC Championship, to Paul Finebaum flat out calling him a “rapist," to Darren Rovell concocting an autograph scandal that never existed during the week of a huge showdown with Notre Dame, to Mark Schlabach digging through thousands of police reports hoping to find any transgression, even slight, to pile on a program that had already taken blow after blow from ESPN.

Nobody is saying that Florida State or Jameis Winston was perfect during his time on campus. Some mistakes were made. But there was a massive disparity between what was being reported by ESPN and others compared to what actually happened. This should have been the perfect opportunity for the ACC to reach out to its television partner and say enough is enough. But there’s been no indication that was ever done, at least not publicly. And you come away with the strong impression that the ACC doesn’t have FSU’s back. If that’s the case, then why should FSU care about the conference?"

5. Develop a financially lucrative conference television network

"The important focus here isn’t simply launching some sort of network -- because that’s happening, and probably sooner than you think. The key is having a network that results in a real monetary benefit to the member schools. The amount received by the schools must make a real dent in the growing financial disparity between the ACC and competing conferences. If not, the conference has failed in the promises it made when it convinced FSU to sign off on the Grant of Rights.

Launching a network for the sake of saying you have a conference network is meaningless without a real financial benefit behind it. And that’s the real fear if the ACC announces something later this year as expected. The new “network,” if that’s what it can truly be called, will likely be touted by the ACC as the greatest thing since sliced bread. I also expect the conference and certain writers/bloggers who push the company line to imply that all perceived financial shortcomings between the ACC and other Power Five schools will have been resolved."

"Just missed making the top five:

Realign the divisions -
Under no circumstances move to a nine-game conference slate. "However, a nine-game conference schedule would absolutely screw over the ACC's main powers Florida State and Clemson. Forcing an extra conference game on teams that have annual in-state clashes with out of conference opponents would drastically limit scheduling for those teams. Florida State and Clemson would have 10 games locked in every year (11 when Notre Dame slides into the rotation) and would handcuff those school's ability to schedule enough home games to meet budgets. The additional limitation could also hinder the scheduling of neutral site games like the FSU-Ole Miss game this year. It would all go back to No. 3 on the list since a nine-game conference schedule would be appease Tobacco Road but not the programs that carry the load for the conference. "

Friday, June 24, 2016

More on case against 9 Game ACC Schedule

https://floridastate.forums.rivals.com/threads/keith-jones-thinks-9-game-conference-schedule-is-going-to-happen.130968/page-2

DotCom

"First, Jimbo Fisher disagrees with your assessment.

A few facts about the economic impact of home games at Florida State:

Game weekends bring in a significant amount of tourism to Leon County. During the 2014 football season, out-of-town attendees brought $48.1 million in in direct spending during the 7 home games.26
Visitors also booked 74,427 nights and spent $10,125,000 on lodging. In total, 2014 FSU football home games resulted in $94.2 million of economic impact on Leon County.27
Typical out-of-town attendees spent $459 per day and $1,193 per trip.28

Source: http://economic-impact.fsu.edu/

It's been consistently reported that FSU brings in a little over $2 million per home game. With this year's change in ticket policy and the Champions Club you can bet that number is going up. Also, was told by an administrator that the difference in revenue between a cupcake and a sellout isn't much - maybe $100K or 200 since most of tickets have already been sold.

Nobody has any idea what increase in TV revenue might come from an extra ACC game (if any). Considering FSU might have to drop a decent game every other year to play a UVA or Pitt it doesn't seem realistic that it would be significant. The ninth game is being pushed to help the second and third-tier teams that want a better schedules. FSU and Clemson aren't for it which tells the story despite what crazy scenarios for schedules are thrown out there. "

"Think this is all a moot discussion.

Checked with someone in the know and it doesn't sound like the nine-game ACC slate is on the immediate agenda. FSU voted against it a couple years ago and was told it hasn't been raised again since. "

Projecting the P2 Revenue Gap with the ACC

Couple of solid posters and article.

Looks like 2017-2018 Revenue Gap projects to be around $6-$13 Million.

http://csnbbs.com/thread-782718-page-5.html

So back to the gap. Here is an article.

http://blogs.mercurynews.com/collegespor...g-ten-sec/

"Discussion points from Wilner:

"Here are expected distributions per-school for TV rights in 2017-18, when the Big Ten deal kicks in.

Note I: Figures do not include revenue from College Football Playoff, March Madness, etc. This is only TV rights.

Note II: Figures are estimated, largely because of uncertainty regarding the exact income amounts from conference TV networks.

Big Ten: $41 million per school
(Includes Tier 1 deal, annual Big Ten Network distributions and BTN profit sharing)

SEC: $34 million per school
(Includes Tier 1 and SEC Network revenue)
The Big 12 announced its latest distribution: $30.4 million per school, which was higher than anticipated. (No specifics were given, but my understanding is the increase can be traced to the terms of the Tier 1 contract.)
Big 12: $23 million
(Includes Tier 1 deal and rights fee for football championship game but not Tier 3 rights, which are owned by the schools and vary greatly)
I'll project the ACC for 2017-18 will payout somewhere just north of $25 million per school.
This assumes no ACC Network and no bump for not having one either (if you want to account for the rumored bump, add another $3 million per team to make it $28 million).
Pac-12: $22.5 million
(Includes Tier 1 deal and $2.5 million per school in Pac-12 Networks distributions)"

Nothing listed for the ACC.

He also said "Although we didn’t talk specific numbers and didn’t have the new Big 12 and Big Ten data, Scott acknowledged the existence of a gap and said (DTV aside) that there is “no silver bullet” for the Pac-12 on the revenue front."

What went wrong: ACC TV contract?

Great article from ACC Football RX. Just nails it.

My only side note is I don't believe the ACC got value for Pitt and Syracuse....they got value because it was undervalued contract and the time frame was extended. It was the RENEGOTIATION that brought value under the guise of these 2 schools.

Sadly, the ACC has the same people negotiating for the ACC now and they have done nothing but screwed it up, MULTIPLE ways, and gotten David Teel to call them 'ninjas' for it.

http://accfootballrx.blogspot.com/2016/06/what-went-wrong-acc-tv-contract.html

What went wrong: ACC TV contract?

In 2012 I wrote a series of posts called "What went wrong?" in which I examined why teams like Virginia Tech, Florida State, Miami and Clemson were never able to win on the big stage in the decade from 2003 to 2012.

Now, it's time to turn our attention to the ACC itself. In this post we'll discuss what went wrong with the TV contract...

1. Timing. The first big TV contract was negotiated and signed in 2010 [2010 ACC TV contract]. It was a historically bad time for ACC football [how ACC got a bad rep]. OK, not the absolute worst it's ever been, but certainly not a good time either. That did not help the value of the deal, which payed an average of about $12 million/year per team (although, to be fair, that was almost TWICE as much as the previous ACC contract).

2. Duration. If you're going to sign an unfavorable contract, at least make it a short one, right? Apparently no one negotiating for the ACC at the time of the first TV contract studied economics, because despite coming at a bad time it was for 12 years (from 2011 through 2023)! Oh, that it had only been 6 years...

3. No Competition. The ACC's 2010 contract also spelled out that it would give "the network [ESPN] exclusive rights to conference football and men's basketball games". Yep, ALL of them: Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3. As the league learned later, there is a separate market for each tier, and if sold to the proper markets, the grand total could have been much higher. Any cable company will tell you - bundles are cheaper!

4. Raycom. There are various theories as to why Raycom was included in the ACC/ESPN contract. Some think it was an act of nepotism by John Swofford (why the 12 school presidents would also approve it I have no idea). Others think it was a case of the "good ole' boy" network. At any rate, tier 2 games are being sub-licensed to Raycom for $50 million/year (money which goes to ESPN, not to the ACC). That price is apparently far enough below market value that they can afford to sublicense some of them again to Fox regional sports networks. Obviously, if 2 middle men can make a profit, the ACC did not get the best price!

What has the ACC done to try and fix it?

The first thing they did was expand by adding Syracuse and Pittsburgh. This allowed them to renegotiate their contract. However, ESPN didn't actually pay them more for the games already under contract, they simply paid market value for the new games.
Since 12 to 14 more home games per year just wasn't enough to increase the ACC revenue stream all that much, they also extended the length of the contract (from 12 to 15 years), which now runs through 2027. That added another 252 to 294 games at market prices - which were then averaged into the previously underpriced games.
Note: about this time Maryland left the conference and was replaced by Louisville. This move was revenue neutral in terms of the ESPN TV contract, though it may have an affect on other revenue streams.
Next, they added Notre Dame for basketball, baseball, etc. and signed a deal with them for an average of 5 ACC-controlled football games per year (half of which would be on the ESPN TV contract). Since the games against the Irish are almost always valued at tier 1 prices, this boosted the payments again.
Finally, the ACC schools all signed a Grant of Rights, which ESPN agreed to pay more in order to secure (about $2 million more per school, though it was tied closely to adding Notre Dame so it's hard to tell how much was for one and how much for the other).

That gets us to where we are today. On the ACC's most recent tax return (2014-15), it shows TV revenue of $217.9 million ($14.5 million per team). If we take the growth from the previous tax return and extrapolate that over the length of the contract, we get an average of $22.1 million per team - with a final payment in 2026-27 of $31.1 million per team [LINK].

Compare that to the new Big Ten TV contract, which will pay an average of $29.3 million per team from Fox + ESPN, plus an estimated $8 to $10 million more from BTN for a total of $37.3 to $39.3 million per team. Or compare the SEC, which reported $315 million from their TV contracts on their 2014-15 tax return [LINK].

BOTTOM LINE: The ACC TV contract today is way better than it was in 2010, which was way better than the previous one... but the league made some serious errors with that 2010 contract, and it continues to hold the conference back, revenue-wise. I'm not sure there is much they can do about it except wait it out...

Thursday, June 23, 2016

ACC disagreement on staff limitations?

Read the article. It is classic ACC.

The ACC "collectively agrees".....but Jimbo Fisher does not.

Sound like the 9 game proposal? Football schools vs Basketball schools in the ACC......FOR FOOTBALL ISSUES!

Basketball is not content to let football run football in the ACC, they basically demand to run football and F FSU and Clemson and this mindset.

http://www.myajc.com/news/sports/college/ncaa-considering-football-staff-limitations/nrk4p/?icmp=ajc_internallink_referralbox_free-to-premium-referral

"That particular recruiting tactic aside, the increase and disparity in the size of football staffs has gained the attention of coaches, administrators and chief decision makers. By NCAA rules, FBS teams may have 10 full-time coaches and four graduate assistants. While the size of a team’s strength-and-conditioning staff is limited to five, there are no limits on other positions, such as quality control, operations and recruiting.
The gap is evident even within the seemingly level playing fields of the ACC. Beyond its coaching staff, Clemson has 25 staffers in various positions dedicated to football. Boston College has nine. According to data provided by the schools or surveyed from their online staff directories, Boston College’s staff is smallest, followed by Virginia at 10. Tech is next with 11 — four recruiting staff members, three strength and conditioning coaches, two operations staffers, a video director and a quality-control assistant.

Most are between 12 and 15, although apples-to-apples comparisons for staff are difficult.
Said Johnson, “I think you just want to be competitive with everybody else.”
Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby, who is the chairman of the NCAA’s football oversight committee tasked with overseeing competitive issues in the game, said the possibility of a cap is on the table with the committee.
He noted what he termed a growing trend of personnel who aren’t technically coaches but are involved in preparing for games, such as Conn.
“And so I would say that there are some universities where it’s gotten out of control, and I think there’s probably some appetite for some limitations,” Bowlsby said. “But then, the other side of it, we aren’t all created equal and we never have been created all equally. You don’t want to go too far down the path of trying to legislate competitive equity, because it’s largely a mirage.”
Johnson has company. North Carolina’s Larry Fedora, who has one of the larger staffs in the conference (16 in operations/administration, video, quality control, recruiting), Pitt’s Pat Narduzzi and Boston College’s Steve Addazio are among those who endorse a cap.
“There shouldn’t be any reason why one Power Five (conference) team or staff has more staff,” Addazio said. “I mean, they regulate how many (graduate assistants), they regulate how many full-time coaches you can have, they should be regulating all this other nonsense, all the quality controls, interns and whatever else they call this.”
On the other side of the fence? Maybe the coach who has eight quality-control coaches. After the 10-man coaching staff, other assistants are not permitted to take part in hands-on coaching in practice or games, but can work with coaches in reviewing game video or game planning.
“I think the more, the merrier,” said Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher, whose staff is 20, not counting video staff. “You develop young coaches, you get guys in the business, and it makes your players and coaches better.”
ACC athletic directors have discussed the matter “any number of times,” Tech AD Mike Bobinski said. He said the group collectively agrees that there needs to be a limit in place.
“I think sometimes we tend to speak from both sides of our mouth,” he said. “We talk about how concerned we are with doing things in a way that fits a collegiate model as opposed to a pro model of doing things, and then we have staffs that start to look like a pro staff. You need to take that into account at some point.”

FSU recruiting quality

Great Tomahawknation.com article.

http://www.tomahawknation.com/2016/6/22/11997702/2017-fsu-football-recruiting-noles-achieving-historic-quality-over-quantity

"So while the quantity for this year’s haul figures to be under the typical mean, at this point, the quality of those committed to Florida State for the 2017 cycle is staggering. Specifically, it’s better than it’s ever been in Fisher’s tenure with the garnet and gold.

That may not jump out at you if you rely strictly upon recruiting ranking, with regard to which, we use 247’s composite scores. FSU currently sits eighth, nationally, for 2017, but it’s important to note that every team currently ranked ahead of the ‘Noles has more commitments than Florida State, which has 10:

Ohio State (13)
Alabama (14)
Oklahoma (15)
Michigan (15)
Georgia (11)
Notre Dame (13)
Tennessee (18)

But, simply put, most of those programs need to replace more than the Seminoles. Hence, quantity.

FSU, on the other hand, which returns the majority of its starters on both sides of the ball along with a good deal of depth, is in a position of being able to focus on its top targets. Ergo, quality. And so far, the returns are very promising. Presently, only Ohio State has a higher per-player ranking than Florida State, with regard to the 2017 cycle. The Buckeyes are at 94.48, while the Seminoles’ currently come in at 92.85.

How good is that number for the ‘Noles? Well, FSU’s stellar 2016 class finished second in the country, behind only Alabama— a Crimson Tide program that led the country at 92.85, exactly, to the hundredth of a point, where Florida State finds itself right now. That’s really saying something.

In fact, the current per-player rank of FSU recruits is as high as it’s ever been in the Jimbo Fisher era. Here’s a list of how the Seminoles’ recruiting classes have finished since Fisher took over, with the per-player average first, and each class’ final national ranking parenthesized:

2016: 91.71 (2)
2015: 92.41 (3)
2014: 90.07 (4)
2013: 89.19 (11)
2012: 92.71 (3)
2011: 90.41 (2)
2010: 88.65 (7)

2010’s signing class, of course, can be rather misleading, as Fisher had only been at the helm for about a month after taking over for Bobby Bowden— and that really serves to illustrate what a change in leadership can spawn. Prior to 2011, the Seminoles hadn’t signed a 90+ average recruiting class since 2002, when Bowden brought in the country’s No. 2 class, which averaged 91.10. But to return to the present: if FSU can maintain anywhere near its 2017 80% blue-chip recruiting rank, this class looks to be in good shape to finish quite nicely. "

Wednesday, June 22, 2016

FSU State of Florida performance funding & State funding news

http://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/2016/06/22/bog-committee-approves-millions-fsu-famu/86268382/

"Florida State University, which placed sixth in the rankings, will receive $35.6 million in performance-based funding, in addition to its $43.4 million investment, for a total of $79 million.
That’s in addition to the additional $10 million, the committee approved Tuesday to FSU as a preeminent institution."

"In its release, FSU said the money will be used to hire top professors in the STEM fields, along with student support services. It also will be invested in the university’s Center for Academic Retention and Enhancement program, which supports first-generation college students."

doug blackburn ‏@dblackburn

FSU to receive total $79 million in performance funding next fiscal year; UF $97 million (not a typo) and FAMU $26 million.

Last year, UF was at $27 Million and FSU was $21 Million (USF $22 Million).

http://www.tampabay.com/news/education/college/preeminence-vote-puts-usf-on-the-cusp-of-joining-the-ranks-of-uf-and-fsu/2282590

http://www.news-press.com/story/news/education/2016/06/21/fgcu-slated-get-178-million-performance-funding/86182936/

University Points State Allocation Institutional Allocation Total Performance Funding Allocation

University of Florida 82 $47,695,822 $49,180,011 $96,875,833

Florida State University 68 $35,574,608 $43,480,076 $79,054,684

University of Central Florida 84 $39,301,181 $38,697,580 $77,998,761

University of South Florida 79 $32,308,363 $39,487,999 $71,796,362

Florida International University 76 $25,253,750 $30,865,695 $56,119,445

Florida Atlantic University 84 $25,346,748 $21,642,163 $46,988,911

Florida Agricultural and Mechnical University 65 $11,509,132 $14,066,717 $25,575,849

Florida Gulf Coast University 67 $8,010,396 $9,790,484 $17,800,880

University of North Florida 56 $0 $12,914,791 $12,914,791

Unversity of West Florida 57 $0 $12,133,627 $12,133,627

New College of Florida 59 $0 $2,740,857 $2,740,857

Florida's public universities receive funding each year based on how they perform in 10 categories. The performance-based funding model uses

a 100-point scoring system. The Florida Board of Governors will consider how much funding the universities should get during meetings

scheduled for this week.

Proposed Performance-Based Funding for Florida's Public Universities

http://www.fau.edu/newsdesk/articles/FAU_ranked_No.1_performance_funding_031616.php

Rank	University	Points/100
1	FAU	84
1	UCF	84
3	UF	82
4	USF	79
5	FIU	76
6	FSU	68
7	FGCU	67
8	FAMU	65
9	NCF	59
10	UWF	57
11	UNF	56

How to improve the ACC?

Realign the divisions -
Under no circumstances move to a nine-game conference slate. "However, a nine-game conference schedule would absolutely screw over the ACC's main powers Florida State and Clemson. Forcing an extra conference game on teams that have annual in-state clashes with out of conference opponents would drastically limit scheduling for those teams. Florida State and Clemson would have 10 games locked in every year (11 when Notre Dame slides into the rotation) and would handcuff those school's ability to schedule enough home games to meet budgets. The additional limitation could also hinder the scheduling of neutral site games like the FSU-Ole Miss game this year. It would all go back to No. 3 on the list since a nine-game conference schedule would be appease Tobacco Road but not the programs that carry the load for the conference. "

Conf Payout comparison

Just a refresher from a couple of solid poster.

http://csnbbs.com/thread-782488-page-8.html

"Then the ACC will have a huge $$ problem as the BIG will make 200M plus more a year starting in 2017-18 than the ACC and that is before someone adds the BIG TV T3 rights... Plus the bIG will get a new contract in 2025-26 with mo money!!! Craziness..

For 2014-15 (Before new BIG Contract!!)

SEC $32.7 million/school (ESPN/CBS owns TV T1 through T3 rights so what you see is what you get)

B1G $29.3 million/school (plus TV T3 rights for each school for true TV money per school)

ACC $26.2 million/school (ESPN owns TV T1 through T3 rights so what you see is what you get, however it does include UM exit $$)

Pac12 $25.1 million/school (plus TV T3 rights for each school for true TV money per school)

Big12 $23.3 million/school (plus TV T3 rights for each school for true TV money per school) "

"Just FYI, I think the Big Ten and Pac-12 both signed their T3 rights over to their respective conference networks (as the SEC did also). So the only conference where teams actually retain ANY TV rights is the Big XII. The difference is ACC tier 3 games currently end up on ESPN3, which pays next to nothing. THAT is a huge problem (the lack of a separate Tier 1 contract is the other problem)."

"SEC FY15 numbers:
Total revenue: $527.4 million
Percentage of revenue distributed to schools: 86.8
Distribution per school: $32.7 million
(Note: The revenue includes only nine months of income from the SEC Network.)
-- Jon Wilner May 19, 2016 "

Raycom paid $50 Million from ESPN, ACC sees none of the profit

But, John Swofford's son has a job.

It is insane there are still some FSU fans (and FSU leadership) that want to trust FSU football to John Swofford.

http://csnbbs.com/thread-782619.html

Raycom pays $50 million annually to ESPN; ACC schools see zero!

The problem with the current ESPN & ACC deal is that Commish packaged all of the T3 TV rights with T1 & 2 TV rights. Basically, ESPN owns them all. Unlike the new BIG deal that is split between FOX/ESPN and then CBS SPORTS Network (basketball only), ESPN owns them all!

Many ACC fans don’t understand that the 26M avg they’re getting for 2014-15 tax return doesn’t compare directly to other conf.. The ACC TV Money is set while the BIG12(or other P5 Conf) avg TV money must be added to TV T3 rights to get the true dollar amount (23.3M+T3 TV rights.) ACC conference members did retain their non-televised third tier media rights.

How much is Tier 3 rights worth?? CBS SPORTS NETWORK just paid 10M annually to the BIG just for left over Basketball games, FOX and ESPN also get Basketball games and then the rest go to CBS SPORTS NETWORK... Furthermore Raycom pays $50 million annually in a sublicense agreement with ESPN for 31 live football games and 60 live men’s basketball games; ACC schools see none of that money. Raycom sublicensed 17 of those football games and 25 of those basketball games to Fox, which carries the games on its regional sports networks and again the ACC schools do not see any of that money!!

This can all be forgiven if ESPN launches an ACC Network as we were told! Ready for the announcement!

LINK
http://www.forbes.com/sites/chrissmith/2...93ab48622b

Tuesday, June 21, 2016

ACC TV Ratings 2015

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2016/06/20/Media/ESPN-Big-Ten.aspx

FYI

ACC #1 in TV Basketball Viewers - 2015 Nielsen

The Nielsen ratings numbers for 2015 are out, and guess which conference was #1 in TV viewers? Yeah, trick question... the ACC had a 700k per game lead over the SEC and over a 1 million per game lead over the other power conferences. In fact, I have to figure that the SEC Network is the only thing which allowed the SEC to remain as close as they did - that constant hype paid off, I guess. Curious that the Big Ten didn't perform any better...

How do these ACC numbers compare to football?
The top ACC football games averaged 6.1 million viewers; the top games for the B1G and SEC averaged over 8 million. So, yes, there is a big difference between regular season viewership in football and basketball.*

What about combined viewers? Ah, that's where the ACC does far better than average...

Conf -->Basketball---->Football---->Combined
SEC ------->2.3 M -------->8.1 M -------->10.4 M
B1G ------->1.6 M--------->8.5 M--------->10.1 M
ACC ------->3.0 M-------->6.1 M----------->9.1 M
XII---------->1.4 M--------->5.0 M ---------->6.4 M
Pac--------->0.8 M-------->4.5 M----------->5.3 M

When you consider basketball and football combined, the ACC is right up there with the Big Ten and the SEC in terms of viewership.

* Note: these average viewership numbers are for the top 10 games only, so bad games on week nights had no effect on these averages, since those ratings were thrown out.

The issue for the SEC’s national viewership is that SEC powers like Alabama not drawing interest from major media markets. “SEC country is watching the Playoff regardless,” Barnett writes. “But they’re not breaking into the New York and Los Angeles markets like USC, Notre Dame and the Big Ten powers.”

Growth of Sports TV Advertising on Cable

Over the last 10 years, the media market has undergone a drastic transformation, which has positively affected sports on TV. There is an enormous amount of sports content to choose from and a shocking amount of hours viewed. In 2015, there were over 127,000 hours of sports programming available on broadcast and cable TV and 31+ billion hours spent viewing sports, which is up 160% and 41% respectively from 2005.
Cable TV networks have seen better results over the last five years in sports advertising -- up 8% to $4.1 billion.

ESPN takes the lion’s share with $2.4 billion, rising 6% over five years.

NFL Network is at $407.5 million (a gain of 34%).

Followed by ESPN2 at $362.3 million.

Golf Channel at $302.0 million (up 7%).

And NBC Sports at $200.0 million (up 14%).

[IMG]

Sports accounted for 93 of the top 100 live viewed TV programs in 2015, compared to 14 in 2005. The amount of time spent on sports sites with a smartphone went up from 57 minutes in 2014 to 70 minutes in 2015. Streaming probably has an impact on that as well.
The College Football Playoff national title game, it was the third most watched sports broadcast of the year, trailing the Super Bowl and the NCAA men’s basketball tournament championship game.
According to Nielsen Scarborough, the highest percentage of college football fans lie in the Southeast and Midwest (SEC and BIG10). The SEC actually finished second in viewership by conference.

Monday, June 20, 2016

ACC Bowl Factoid

David HaleVerified account ‏@DavidHaleESPN

ACC in bowls, last decade:

FSU 7-3

UL 5-2

Clem 5-5

VT 5-5

NCSU 3-3

Pitt 3-5

Cuse 3-0

WF 2-2

BC 2-5

GT 2-7

UNC 2-5

Mia 1-6

Duke 1-3

UVA 0-2

David Hale ‏@DavidHaleESPN

Most bowl wins, last decade:

FSU

TCU

UGA

Boise St

Utah … all with 7.