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Further Review
Dave Reardon
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WAC reaping rewards of its football success
Those who said Boise State's Fiesta Bowl win could have a lasting effect on college football were proven only partly correct this week. Coupled with Hawaii's run to the Sugar Bowl last year, the Broncos' BCS buster has translated into an ESPN contract extension giving the WAC a big boost in basketball and women's sports, too.
Ian Johnson's overtime 2-point conversion against Oklahoma, Ryan Mouton's interception against Washington and all the other big plays in the magical seasons of Boise State and Hawaii will continue to pay dividends to the entire conference as today's players approach middle age.
There are many things to like about the new deal. One is that it goes through the 2016-17 season.
Commissioner Karl Benson used the football success of the Broncos and Warriors the past two years to benefit the entire league. The extension includes more national telecasts in a variety of sports.
A rights fee increase means more money for every school in the conference. No official word on how much, but the grapevine says each school can expect to bring in $300,000-$600,000 per year; before the extension, each school got only around $50,000 a year.
But before Hawaii fans get too excited about all this, they should remember one thing: Whenever the Warriors are on ESPN a lot, the athletic department could lose money.
Because UH sports dominate this broadcast market, the Warriors, Rainbows and Wahine enjoy lucrative local media deals unlike any other in the WAC, and maybe beyond. Even in tough economic times, advertising for UH sports has been the closest thing there is to an easy sell in that tough business.
Unless a football game must be moved to a different day to accommodate ESPN, there is no immediate financial dividend for being chosen to appear nationally.
Language in UH's recently completed contract with KFVE includes a refund provision of rights fees to the local network if it loses too many opportunities to ESPN.
The national televising of women's sports helps with Title IX concerns, and should get the Wahine flagship program, volleyball, some great exposure.
The WAC hopes that getting basketball back into the national consciousness will mean better recruits, resulting in more NCAA appearances and hence more revenue.
Yes, not all exposure adds to the cachet of a conference - especially the WAC, where the lower echelon in football remains, in a word, pathetic.
The contract's proviso that every WAC football team be telecast at least once a year means Idaho and Utah State get the opportunity to be blown out in front of a national audience.
Of course, Benson has to give every conference member a chance to "Play Up." If they don't, however, it will hurt the credibility of the entire league. If the deal were in effect now and Idaho's 70-0 loss to Arizona were on ESPN, enough poll voters would claim to have seen it, giving them first-hand cause to discount Cinderella III (Fresno State).
Nit-picking with hypotheticals? Yeah, OK.
No deal is perfect, but this one comes as close as the WAC can get.