WVU Football: Oliver Luck Hits Jackpot on Broadcast Rights for WVU

WVU Athletic Director Oliver Luck just hit a financial jackpot with their third tier media rights deal.

Independent sources report that the Mountaineers will receive just over $9 million a year for 12 years in their agreement with IMG. 

Four other Big 12 schools contract with IMG for their third tier rights, including Texas, Kansas, Baylor and TCU.

 The deal puts WVU between Texas and Oklahoma for third tier media rights income. Texas receives $9.4 million and Oklahoma $7.5 million. Also by comparison the University of Florida receives $10 million.

Not all third tier media rights contracts are the same. Different schools determine what is included in each contract.

Allan Taylor reported in WVMetroNews.com this morning in great detail everything the WVU deal encompasses and how it affects the average fan. Mr. Taylor defines the third tier media rights like this:

• Television rights to one football game per season and a handful of men’s basketball games that are picked over by the major networks

• Complete radio broadcast rights

• Coaches’ shows produced for television, radio and web streaming 

• Television rights to all other WVU sports (the ones lovingly categorized as non-revenue).

 • Rights to sell advertising signage and sponsorships

• Online content.

Mike Casazza of the Charleston Daily Mail later reported the deal to be worth up to $9.1 million per year with incentives. That is approximately $5 to 6 million more per year than WVU currently receives handling the third tier rights in-house.

The Big 12 owns first and second tier media rights to all the member schools for the next 13 years. The schools receive $20 million per year from the conference plus bowl income which is divided evenly among the schools.

The Big 12 conference pays for each school's unsold tickets for their bowl games. Many schools in other conferences lose money in bowl games after paying for unsold tickets.

According to Forbes.com, the Big 12 currently pays each member more per year than any other conference in total payout.

This deal is a budget booster that should help the Mountaineers with facility upgrades and personnel salaries in all sports.

As always, comments and debate are welcome and appreciated! What do you think?