Too Little, Too Late

Great article here from Scott Pierce of the Salt Lake Tribune discussing the improvements to the Mountain network.

http://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=11316613&itype=storyID

What kills me is the point he makes about soon-to-be independent BYU earning nearly $8 million a year from ESPN and how that number is two thirds of the entire Mountain West sports contract.

Hey, BYU may be coming off a 6-6 season next year but they will still draw eye balls and will now be getting paid handsomely instead of receiving a pittance of a share for carrying an entire conference.

The other almost laugh out loud point he makes is the fact that the Mountain will soon reach 8 million homes and how that is a great improvement. That is true but when you compare that to the number of homes ESPN is in, roughly 100 million, (and that includes ESPN 2 – http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/article/139928) you can see what a terrible deal this Mountain contract has been. Give credit to BYU for jumping ship and going it alone.

As an aside, when you look at the list from Sportsbusinessdaily.com, check out how many homes Versus is in – 74,000. Whenever I watched a BYU game on Versus, I always just assumed they were an also-ran network as well. Boy was I wrong.