A lot has been reported about the media rights deals of the Power 5 conferences, but with the college conference landscape evolving, just as interesting is where the valuations of the Group of 5 conferences end up totaling.
Conference USA is one of those conferences that is losing multiple teams to the Sun Belt but is adding as well, including bringing up FCS universities that have had a lot of college football success. That conference will have nine teams for next year with another recently being approved to move up to FBS. That makes it an interesting time for the conference as their current deals with CBS, ESPN and Stadium expire this summer.
“The No. 1 thing we’ve heard from our fans in the current deal is the confusion of where and when we play, and it’s been difficult to find,” Western Kentucky Athletic Director Todd Stewart said.
Conference USA is looking to make it easier for fans to find their team’s games and that might start with consolidating the number of potential avenues of viewing. The league has had discussions with ESPN and CBS according to The Athletic. Stadium appears to still be in the running for some local broadcast content at this point.
“They want to make sure the discoverability is a key consideration to bear in mind,” said William Mao, Octagon’s senior vice president of global media rights. Octagon is handling a lot of these discussions as the league’s media rights consultant.
