Posted on: Tuesday, April 24, 2001

WAC exploring TV deal with ESPN

Advertiser Staff

The Western Athletic Conference will explore with ESPN this week an agreement to televise football and men's basketball, officials said.

The WAC's two-year contract with Fox Sports expired last month and, while negotiations continue, no new deal has been signed.

"We are in early discussions and we're waiting to see what ESPN is putting on the table," said Karl Benson, WAC commissioner.

At its annual spring meeting this week in Monterey, Calif., the WAC will meet with representatives from ESPN and its regional marketing arm about re-establishing ties that were severed following the breakup of the 16-team conference in 1999.

"We're a more valuable TV product than we were two years ago," Benson said.

At the time, ESPN contracted with the Mountain West Conference, which was formed by eight breakaway members of the WAC, for a seven-year, $47 million deal. The WAC rejected a lesser proposal and signed with Fox.

The just-completed Fox deal has been criticized by some coaches who feel it hasn't given teams enough exposure and by administrators who said it hasn't provided a financial guarantee.

Under terms of the arrangement, Fox and the WAC share revenues, if any. Last year, the WAC didn't receive any rights fees, according to conference officials.

Should the WAC sign an exclusive deal with ESPN, the University of Hawai'i would be left to preserve its secondary agreement with Fox Sports West, which televises UH home football games to the West Coast in conjunction with KFVE (Channel 5). That deal has two years remaining.