It sort of got missed, but C-USA signed a new media rights deal last week with CBS and ESPN. After the conference was raided and then added schools like Liberty, Jacksonville State, Kenesaw State, etc., the league opened up a new media rights process to get out of their existing deal with Stadium. Under their new contract, each of the 10 schools will receive about $750k/year. In exchange, they agree to hold their conference games on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. No Saturday conference games.
For comparison, the current MW deal through 2026 pays each school around $4 million/year with some late kickoffs and some Fridays.
The C-USA deal could be looked at as a sort of Ghost of Christmas Future if our league isn’t thoughtful in how it approaches expansion discussions. In terms of national profile and television eyeballs, the MW without Boise and SDSU is not that dissimilar to the new-look C-USA. The MW without those schools would certainly still be better, but the gap wouldn’t be as great as I think many folks think it might be. If we lose those schools and aren’t able to add anything interesting, our next media rights deal in 2026 could look a lot like the deal C-USA entered this week.
I continue to lean toward the idea that SDSU and Boise aren’t going anywhere, or that it’s at least as likely that we pick up some Pac-12 leftovers as it is that we lose our higher profile schools - but the stakes are certainly high.
For comparison, the current MW deal through 2026 pays each school around $4 million/year with some late kickoffs and some Fridays.
The C-USA deal could be looked at as a sort of Ghost of Christmas Future if our league isn’t thoughtful in how it approaches expansion discussions. In terms of national profile and television eyeballs, the MW without Boise and SDSU is not that dissimilar to the new-look C-USA. The MW without those schools would certainly still be better, but the gap wouldn’t be as great as I think many folks think it might be. If we lose those schools and aren’t able to add anything interesting, our next media rights deal in 2026 could look a lot like the deal C-USA entered this week.
I continue to lean toward the idea that SDSU and Boise aren’t going anywhere, or that it’s at least as likely that we pick up some Pac-12 leftovers as it is that we lose our higher profile schools - but the stakes are certainly high.
