2022 B1G Season Thread

[FearlessF]

ESPN is gonna have to pay the SEC

it could be outrageous $$$

[Abba]

From a Buckeye perspective, I don't see any of these freshmen making much of an impact this year.  Too much returning talent from last year.  Barring injuries, it'll probably just be garbage time in the first few games.

[medinabuckeye1]

I definitely expect the SEC to go to 9 games.  When your television network provider is paying over $3 billion for your package, they want as many good matchups as they can get.  Conference games are worth a lot more to them than non-conference games against scrubs, plus they retain rights to ALL conference games home or away, while the non-conference away games wouldn't necessarily fall under their umbrella.

I generally agree but I think it depends on what the extra league game replaces. If the choice is league game or non-conference game against scrub then obviously the league game is preferable. 

[utee94]

I generally agree but I think it depends on what the extra league game replaces. If the choice is league game or non-conference game against scrub then obviously the league game is preferable.

It doesn't really matter, to be honest. A league game is guaranteed inventory for the broadcast partner.  An OOC game-- even against a marquee opponent-- is NOT necessarily going to provide inventory for the SEC broadcast partner, since most of those are set up as home-and-home. During the away year, the SEC team doesn't get to broadcast the game, the opponent does. 

Unfortunately, I could definitely see this arrangement further reducing the amount of home-and-homes we see scheduled between leagues with zero intersecting broadcast partners.  And most importantly and specifically, this means we'll likely see fewer inter-league games between the B1G and the SEC.  I suspect SEC teams will be encouraged to schedule ACC rather than B1G if at all possible to keep it "all in the family."

What's really interesting is how Notre Dame will now have some divided allegiances.  The ACC is partnered closely with Disney, but I would expect NBC would love to push Notre Dame to schedule heavily against the B1G to strengthen both of those NBC contracts.

It's a whole new world out there.  Only gonna get worse IMO.

[utee94]

Anyway, that's probably better conversation for a realignment and/or TV contract thread, no need to further muck up your nice, clean B1G offseason thread with talk of the loathsome and dirty SEC.

[FearlessF]

loathsome and dirty

[ELA]

https://twitter.com/CBSSports/status/1560257844250828800?t=NDI0wAbOiVCHbdDzlZEqCQ&s=19

[ELA]

https://twitter.com/PeteFiutak/status/1560266428615299078?t=QS62OlnDiNHTpeqSrtU6pQ&s=19



https://twitter.com/kylebaustin/status/1560269054937427970?t=ZhsXiv8GkPlhHeUvQkQkaA&s=19

[utee94]

I heard that part of the new deal is that some of the games will be streamed on the peacock network?  Is that true?

No idea if that's true. I tend to doubt that though.

Yeah, about that....

[Abba]

Maryland may want to change their mascot to the peacock.  It would match their flag and the service that most of their games would be on.

[utee94]

Maryland was used to push BTN carriage in DC.  If you banish them to Peacock, then the providers in the area will have grounds to drop the BTN.  Same goes for Rutgers in NY.

Sounds to me like Indiana, Purdue, Illinois, and Northwestern better get used to the idea of streaming on a network nobody has or wants.

[Abba]

It's only 8 games per year, so even those teams would get 3 a year tops, but likely less.

[ELA]

Maryland was used to push BTN carriage in DC.  If you banish them to Peacock, then the providers in the area will have grounds to drop the BTN.  Same goes for Rutgers in NY.

Well, I believe the big part of the deal was the existing contract with Comcast mandating coverage if they were added.  Considering Comcast/Xfinity has the same parent company, and Peacock is automatically included with an Xfinity subscription, I don't think Peacock matters much

[utee94]

More carriers than Comcast were forced to swallow the BTN whether they wanted to or not.  But I'll readily admit I don't know who the players are in DC and NY.