CUSA Report

The “significantly more revenue” is double the last deal. That alone makes this a better situation. Beyond that there is still the possibility that old partner ESPN gets involved in the deal.

Over on CUSA Report, where more league coverage will be (including power rankings etc), I wrote a post breaking down the league’s new deal and the implications for everyone. For North Texas the increased revenue is a very big deal.

The cash influx will help the department achieve those goals they have been aiming for. Combine this with the student vote to increase, the money that Athletic Director Wren Baker has found through more efficient management of the department, and you can see why North Texas just might have the cash to host the next CBI game (great win by the squad, by the way).

Right now CBS Sports is the primary rights holder, but we will continue to see North Texas football and basketball on Stadium and mostly — it seems — on Facebook, where both CBS and Stadium will be putting some of the games they produce. It also means honest-to-goodness production values by professionals. The FAU broadcast last season was awful. Depending on the school doing the production, the quality would suffer.

BeIN SPORTS is still a media partner, although this is the final year of the deal. Given that ratings were godawful last season, that may be at risk. Still, BEIN is relatively rich, and is using the deal to enter the college football business not make big bucks. We’ll reserve judgement on that until later.

Although I would prefer ESPN to CBS because of the former’s streaming capabilities, CBS Sports does have streaming options that are simply not available to me as easily. So it goes.