Sunday, October 17, 2021

The playing field is not leveled until SWAC teams like JSU, FAMU are televised in prime time

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Please do not be deceived by ESPN televising HBCUs on ESPN+, Thursday Night ESPNU HBCU Game of the Week or Friday Night Lights (Howard vs. Morgan State). JSU has been playing lights out football in front of record FCS crowds this season, and the best this monopoly ESPN can provide as coverage is ESPN+.   Why? 

I get it that they have billion-dollar contracts with Power 5 schools and multi-million dollar deals with lesser conferences. If transparency was part of the equation, all would see that the playing field is not leveled for HBCU conferences.  HBCUs need the same income streams as Alabama and Mississippi State in order to be competitive.  Scholarships, equipment costs, supplies, travel, conference affiliation fees. facility maintenance, medical and to a lesser degree at our schools, salaries and benefits. cost money.  In fact, lots of money.  All cannot be covered in a ticket price to a game and/or student activity fees.  

And these expenses are not covered by State appropriations as some fans wrongful believe.  Fund raising is a major component to any program success.  

All HBCUs are struggling, including JSU, FAMU, Howard, etc., due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the lost revenue of the 2020 athletic season.  It may take many years before FCS athletic programs will have the necessary cash reserves to move forward with major upgrades within their programs, especially for those sports that do not generate income.  This is a delicate balancing act and why a major television contract with ESPN is long overdue and necessary for the SWAC and the MEAC.  Our collective survival is at stake 

When we are televised in prime time, we eat steak.  When we are live streamed on ESPN+ platform, we get chicken salad.  You can't survive solely on chicken salad and compete with the big dawgs.  

Think about this ... 43 years the SWAC has been dominating FCS football in attendance with the most iconic brands in college football. Why are we not on ESPN every week in prime time on the ESPN main platforms?   Until you can explain this phenomenon, the playing field is not leveled regardless if your alma mater sells-out every home game.  If you are blacked-out on main stream TV, you are not making money.  Period.

Our HBCUs desperately need that ESPN prime time television revenue to survive and the capital that comes from annual alumni fund raising/corporation sponsorships.  The difference is clear between the SWAC and that fat television contract ESPN has with the SEC.  

Don't get it twisted that full-house means full-athletics account and level playing field.  Game day attendance is only ONE very important piece of a complex athletic business financial model.

Now the rest of the story...

Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)