Watch for the Money

by since1670 on Jan 22, 2012 6:59 PM EST

The Houston area has been rated among the 20 fastest-growing economic regions in the world. The fourth largest city in the U.S. is the fastest growing in North America. Houston ranked at 19 and Dallas at 36 are the only two North American metropolitan areas to finish in Brookings' Top 40 for 2010-2011. http://www.chron.com/opinion/editorials/article/Houston-earns-high-marks-for-strong-economy-2655834.php With the two Texas cities, San Diego, and Orlando, the Big East will soon be much larger. Great expectations for media contracts next year. The Big East presidents and commisioner were not dummies when rejecting their contracts last year. Size == TV $. The Big East will have the biggest and best media markets. Other conferences will not even be close.The Big East has offered much to the four new schools but not without gain. Cheers!

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It will be interesting to see what they can do

As long as they don’t go with those idiots at Comcast (BSU and SDSU will definitely say something about that if the Big East starts heading that way), it should be a decent deal. My hope is that they land something like the other BCS Conferences (Rabbit Ear networks with ESPN filling in the gaps) as that will give them the best possible media exposure.

by Jesterrace on Jan 29, 2012 11:54 PM EST reply actions

You have an excellent point...

…that the media markets they encompass will be huge.

However, the saturation is the issue. Most Texas markets will still be saturated by the likes of UT and aTm. As will Florida markets by UF and FSU.

That being said, if those teams aren’t playing whose to say that people wouldn’t watch the Big East teams to get their football fix? If they find sustained success, the fanbase will grow, as well.

"that place laid the foundation for who I am. A lot of outsiders make fun of it and say negative things about West Virginia. Fuck them" - Jerry West

by MountaineerAirman on Feb 1, 2012 1:59 PM EST reply actions

Regarding Saturation

Airman -

On December 3, the Houston-Southern Miss game TV ratings blew away the following games in the Houston area:

Texas-Baylor (RG3 Heisman push)
Oklahoma-Oklahoma State (de facto Big 12 title game)
LSU-Georgia (SEC title game)

In fact, the Houston-Southern Miss ratings blew away all the ratings for all the BCS bowls in the Houston area except the LSU-Bama game.

In the future, Texas games, Texas A&M games and Houston games will dominate this market. There will be times when the Houston game is 3rd in the area TV ratings. There will be times when the Houston game is 1st in the area TV ratings.

But Houston games will get higher ratings in this area than all the other games not involving Texas or A&M. That’s the way it was in the SWC days. That’s the way it has become recently. And that’s the way it will stay when Houston moves up in class to the Big East.

by CougarRed on Feb 3, 2012 11:06 PM EST reply actions