WKU Hilltoppers: Conference USA Must Fix the Television Package
We are now almost through the 2018–19 regular season. This season saw an introduction of the brand new “bonus play,” the main goal of which was to make meaningful games in March that would in turn possibly enhance the chances of the conference becoming a multi-bid league.
The idea of it is fascinating. Has it worked out? Well, it is hard to give it a firm yes or no answer through just one year. Like any system, I think we need to give it a few years before we can officially say whether it is good or bad.
The one thing that has been embarrassing for the conference during this stretch, and if we are being honest for much of the past few years, is the conference’s television deal.
This format is something that a large majority of the country has no idea about. The reasoning behind this is simple: Very limited people have beIN Sports and those that do primarily know it as a soccer station. Very few basketball fans, who aren’t fans of the teams playing, would go on Facebook to search for a basketball game.
I am guilty of this myself; on nights where WKU isn’t playing or there isn’t a top 25 matchup on, I find myself going to the ESPN/Fox Sports channels to try and find a game to watch. The one thing I never find on those channels is Conference USA basketball.
By this addition of the extra play, the conference wanted to bring big games to the conference. That, they have done. Obviously, fans wanted to see a second ODU-WKU matchup or see the Tops play UAB again. If the country doesn’t know about it though, is it even really a big game?
The other main goal of this was to possibly turn Conference USA into a multi-bid league. This season, that won’t happen regardless of what these extra games bring. Old Dominion is the only team that has a remote chance, but they only have two wins against Quadrant 1 and 2 teams which all but eliminates them from the possibility.
When it comes down to deciding between two teams that have similar resumes, the selection committee can theoretically use “the eye test.” If a team from the AAC or the Sun Belt is going up against a team from C-USA, it is a lot more likely that the committee has seen the former, because they play on bigger networks.
Just the other night, I watched back-to-back Ivy League basketball games on ESPNU. Is there any remote reason why Columbia vs. Brown should be more highly regarded than a WKU vs. UAB game?
This year will reportedly bring the end to the contract that the conference has with beIN sports. The deal with that channel has to be one of the more embarrassing in all of sports. Simply put, when a channel can’t even send broadcasters to the game and instead have them broadcast from a “remote location,” it should be obvious that something is wrong. (ed. note — This has been done previously when WKU was on FS1 as well, most notably the game against Louisiana Tech when Leon Allen suffered the injury that all but ended his career.)
So far, WKU has played three of their four games of the extra play. Two of the games have been on Facebook Live and another was on beIN Sports. Wednesday night, beIN Sports will once again broadcast the game.
The games broadcast on Facebook do have some positives: It allows for everyone to have the ability to see it instead of only those who pay for a cable subscription. What isn’t good? Is that when you go around sports bars across the state, you will see golf and cycling being played instead of WKU, because getting the Facebook broadcasts on multiple TV’s can be a pain. This takes away a lot from fans who might not be able to make it into the arena.
When WKU football played in the conference championship game in 2015 and 2016, both games were on ESPN. This opened up the opportunity for people to learn more about the program and what C-USA football was all about. The nation was given the opportunity to watch and obviously both times the Tops showed what the program was made of. It allowed for people to realize that they were more than just “the chrome helmet team.”
Another massive thing that the conference is missing out with this current mentality or rather lack there of; recruiting. When a player is considering going to a school, it is likely that they will try and watch a game. How attractive is it to a player that their game would be on Stadium or beIN Sports or even FloSports? Especially when you look at the Sun Belt and see that teams that WKU is recruiting against have almost every game on an ESPN network. Something must be done.
How should it be fixed? Well, I am obviously far from an expert, but from a fan’s perspective, getting these “big games” on an ESPN channel or even FS1/2 must be the only goal. Even CBS Sports Network is far from ideal. Fans don’t search there to watch games.
If the conference wants to become more recognized and respected as one of the top non-power five leagues, changing the television deal to make it more accessible to the everyday viewer has to be the main goal of athletic directors and support staff.
