FOX Sports’ Brady Quinn says that he believes the Big 12 has a better chance at financial survival compared to the Pac-12 because of their earlier broadcast windows.
Quinn told CBS Sports HQ that the driving force behind all of the recent realignment shuffling is television and television’s most watched games coming from the ones that start earlier.
“I think there’s a thought that in order to get into the earlier time windows to generate greater television revenue, you’ve got to be able to play some games in the central time zone, Eastern time zone,” said Quinn. “As of right now, the Big 12 is going to offer that, starting next year, and at least in the central time zone starting this year.”
Quinn also said that it’s a natural advantage for the Big 12 to generate revenue. “You just don’t have that luxury right now in the Pac-12, unless you find a bunch of non-conference games over on the east coast. But again, once you get into regular conference play, those rights aren’t going to be worth quite as much.”
The analyst says that until the Pac-12 can get more of their games to kickoff earlier in the day, it’s going to be an uphill climb for them to garner more media rights cash.
“Unless you’re a conference that can find ways of getting those earlier time windows, like the noon window — which was the most watched window in college football last season, and has been a growing window for years — you’re just not going to be able to be apart of as big of a piece of the pie when it comes to the television rights deals.”
