Xavier: A Glimpse Into the Future

[xudash]

It doesn't take an aerospace engineer to appreciate how fortunate Xavier is today as compared to the night the Xavier men's basketball team took the floor against Cleveland State in the first round of last year's NIT with Travis Steele still at the helm. First and foremost was the fact that yet another NCAAT was missed. Then there was the truly chilling issue of the lack of fan interest at that contest; the Cintas Center looked like a shell of its former self as compared to when guys like Trevon Bluiett and J P Macura lit the place up in the very recent past.

As a few of you have noted, imagine if certain bid thieves had not "come through" for us, leaving us with Travis still.

But now we are past all that. Our coach has come home. I fully expect him to stay on Victory Parkway for a long time, and given his knowledge and understanding of the game and what it takes to be successful, I see him knowing/recognizing when the time comes for him to step down. The good news is that I don't see us having to worry about that for many years.

An NCAAT 3-Seed out of the gate and living in the Top 25 for a large chunk of the season! And with a roster he didn't put together save for one key contributor that he and his staff found and brought in.

All of the above is about a glorious reset and the NOW. I can only hope that Clark Kellogg is truly prescient. Would that not be insane and a wonderful story for Xavier to make it to the F4, having won the NIT the year before. Any way you cut it, Xavier basketball is well positioned for the future with Sean back in Cincinnati - SO LONG AS THE BUSINESS SIDE OF THINGS DEVELOP IN OUR FAVOR.

That is what this post is about. I am as much, if not more focused on where we are headed with our next media agreement as I am on this year's tournament, even though I know I'm premature on the former given the timing of where it stands. Nonetheless, as sometimes happens with human beings who get excited and who are in the know - not me; I'm talking about people who are really in the know on this issue - little blurbs make it out here and there, giving us at least a sense of where all this may be headed.

Please allow me to share the attached from HLOH: https://frontofficesports.com/basket...rticle-sharing


Key Quotes:

“It’s too early to say where that deal will land — and how we adapt to the changing media landscape,” Ackerman said. “Because it’s not the same as it was 10 years ago. There’s players now that didn’t exist. We’re now into a world of streaming.”

A representative from the network was unavailable to comment for this story, but a spokesperson sent the following stats: The men’s regular-season games averaged 779,000 viewers — a tie for the most-watched regular season ever on Fox. The women’s season averaged 285,000 viewers, the most across networks ever.

Fox would be hard-pressed not to at least consider a renewal.

Ackerman said she doesn’t often think about her early days at the Big East, given the whirlwind of changes the industry currently faces. But she agrees the conference is dealing from a position of strength — particularly compared to its rebirth a decade ago.

“I just sort of say, ‘God, I’m glad we got through all of that,’” Ackerman said. “I’m glad, to the extent there were naysayers, our schools proved them wrong. That’s satisfying.”


So, I'm not reading "negative" into any of that at all. Translation: I don't see our per school payout per year going down with the existing 11 members involved. I also personally don't believe that the quoted material gives enough credit to the relationship between the Big East and Fox. I believe that relationship is thought to be very strong and engaging. It was wonderful reading about how strong the MSG relationship was and is with the Big East. That has been a key component of our overall success.

My bottomline with all this is simple: let us wake up one day and read that the Big East has successfully entered into a new multi-year media agreement that clearly evidences the power of the Big East in college basketball, and that the duration of that agreement enables the Big East and its members to navigate through what transpires with NIL/collectives, portal dynamics, etc. I'm talking about establishing a reasonable level of wherewithal, understanding that we will never be able to compete against a land grant school's alumni base and its collectives.

Change may be constant. But solidifying one's position to thrive through change is what this is about. Money can only help with that. Brand strengthening can only help with that. Those two things create a beautiful circular reference when they're spinning together in a complimentary fashion. A very strong new media package will provide a stamp of relevance and respect for the Big East and its members.

If this thing works out well for us, Xavier will be well positioned for the foreseeable future. We are now months from specifically understanding how this will shake out, but learning here and there by the day that it looks like it will shake out quite well gives me hope.

[XU_Lou]

Great post.

How crucial do you think it is for the BE to have a strong showing in the tourney this year?

Also, does anyone think adding Pitino in the mix makes us more attractive from a TV contract POV?

[xudash]

Great post.

How crucial do you think it is for the BE to have a strong showing in the tourney this year?

Also, does anyone think adding Pitino in the mix makes us more attractive from a TV contract POV?

Lou, thanks.

To your first question: very crucial. It's all about optics now. I'm hoping for at least 3 BE teams to the S16. And I would love to see X breakthrough - certainly with a sprinkle of luck involved - to the F4. We got almost 50% of our conference into the NCAAT. Let's show the world there was a good reason for that.

As far as Pitino is concerned, I read Nick's thoughts about it and I have to say that he made very good points. Nonetheless, I'll be the greasy business guy here: Pitino can only help the television package. It's that simple. It may have been MHettle who countered that the Johnnies could onboard him and have him turn it around for about 5 years, then move on to a coach who could take it from there. The timing is NOW though, onboard him now in order to have hi in the mix for the next media negotiation. I'm not saying one individual alone will sway multiple more millions our way, but think about it from a TV exec's point-of-view. Pitino. NYC. Johnnies. BE. Casual fan interest should bump handsomely from that.

[xavierj]

Great post.

How crucial do you think it is for the BE to have a strong showing in the tourney this year?

Also, does anyone think adding Pitino in the mix makes us more attractive from a TV contract POV?

Yes on Pitino. A strong St John’s with the NYC market would be a very good thing.

[xudash]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/co...-original.html

Now the Brits are chiming in. If you read the attached article and came away with wonderful chills and a smile, I'm right there with you.

The reborn BE should be a business case study in B-school:

* "We're going to give you a bunch of our money, but we want the conference name and MSG"

* "Ha! Sure, no problem. But we're taking all the back office infrastructure along with the money"

* Okay. Enjoy Providence and competing in football. We're moving to NYC.

I believe we all know how all this turned out.

I hope we truly have a great tournament, but damn if I'm not excited for the future. It's aligning very well in Xavier's best interests.

[Masterofreality]

The Fox coverage of the Big East Tournament was 100% first class. Absolutely superb.
-Multiple cameras and varying angles. Made a difference in at least one game.
-A Drone camera in the building
-Floor level camera to show how packed the stands were.
-Top Shelf announcers.
- Great Pre and Post game shows..

I hope Fox is our partner for a long time!

[GoMuskies]

The Fox coverage of the Big East Tournament was 100% first class. Absolutely superb.
-Multiple cameras and varying angles. Made a difference in at least one game.
-A Drone camera in the building
-Floor level camera to show how packed the stands were.
-Top Shelf announcers.
- Great Pre and Post game shows..

I hope Fox is our partner for a long time!

Add Roundball Rock as the theme!

[XU_Lou]

Lou, thanks.

To your first question: very crucial. It's all about optics now. I'm hoping for at least 3 BE teams to the S16. And I would love to see X breakthrough - certainly with a sprinkle of luck involved - to the F4. We got almost 50% of our conference into the NCAAT. Let's show the world there was a good reason for that.

As far as Pitino is concerned, I read Nick's thoughts about it and I have to say that he made very good points. Nonetheless, I'll be the greasy business guy here: Pitino can only help the television package. It's that simple. It may have been MHettle who countered that the Johnnies could onboard him and have him turn it around for about 5 years, then move on to a coach who could take it from there. The timing is NOW though, onboard him now in order to have hi in the mix for the next media negotiation. I'm not saying one individual alone will sway multiple more millions our way, but think about it from a TV exec's point-of-view. Pitino. NYC. Johnnies. BE. Casual fan interest should bump handsomely from that.

Dash - agree with all this.

Regardless of how long Pitino would coach (assuming he does make a move), he's a national name that would make the BE more attractive for a TV contract (hopefully Fox). So yes, I believe he would be a positive when negotiations start.

And to MOR's point, that tourney was awesome. Would love to know how the attendance and TV eye balls for the BE compares to the other 5 F-ball conferences. Moreover, every game except the championship was a barn burner - great entertainment!

[Masterofreality]

And to MOR's point, that tourney was awesome. Would love to know how the attendance and TV eye balls for the BE compares to the other 5 F-ball conferences. Moreover, every game except the championship was a barn burner - great entertainment!

As to the Big East, once the Wednesday session sold out, the entire Tournament was guaranteed to be a sellout.
19,812 on Wednesday, Two sessions on Thursday each, Friday and Saturday. Awesome.
I’ll research on other conferences, but I’ll wager none had a higher average than 19,812.

[zippin']

When is the date for the TV renewal? I've seen that mentioned a ton but when can we expect to know more?