College Football: BYU Versus Utah in the TV Exposure Debate

There’s been a lot of talk in Utah in the past year about exposure for the state’s two top football programs as BYU forays into independence and Utah joins the Pac-12.

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BYU and Utah both have lucrative TV Deals

BYU has its own deal with ESPN which will carry its pick of games on the ESPN national networks, as well a few that will be shown on its secondary networks. Games not picked up by ESPN (just one this season) will be aired on BYUtv, the schools’ own existing network.

Terms of the deal are not disclosed, but reports indicate that BYU could make as much as a million dollars per game.

Utah and the Pac-12, meanwhile, landed a killer TV deal with ESPN and Fox which, combined with its new Pac-12 network, is expected to bring each conference member as much as $18 million a year in revenue share.

10 Pac-12 games each season will air on ABC or Fox to a full network national audience. 34 will be seen nationally through cable on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU or FX.

The rest of the games (about three per week) will be on the conference’s newly minted Pac-12 Network, which consists of seven channels in all; a national network and six regional ones.

Which school will get better exposure?

There’s no doubt the University of Utah will make more money through its TV deal, due to its grouping with USC, UCLA and the major pacific markets.

But which school will end up with more people watching more of its games?

BYU will be broadcast on a major sports network almost weekly

We know BYU will be on ESPN or ESPN2 seven times in 2011. Another three will be on the ESPN networks, which could include ESPNU or another channel of the family. One will be on BYUtv. The Oregon State game is TBA, but depending on each team’s record, could land on ESPN or ESPN2.

That means BYU will be right in front of national audiences, in the places they naturally go to watch sports, 7-10 times this season.

Utah’s exposure is up in the air

Playing BYU and Pittsburgh in non-conference games probably gets The U of U on ESPN twice.

It’s safe to bet the USC-Utah game will be nationally televised on one of the major networks.

After that, it depends on the matchup and team's performance. If Utah is stellar, games could end up on ESPN.

If the Utes are middling in the Pac-12, it’s very possible none of their remaining games end up on a channel anyone watches.

Exposure doesn’t just come in games

There’s more to this than just the televised games, too. If ESPN has BYU up against Texas in week two, what do you think College Gameday and the other ESPN college football shows are going to talk about in the week leading up to it?

BYU will get a lot of pub all season long as The Mothership looks to pimp its product. They did it with Boise State, and they’ll do it with BYU.

It doesn’t have the same motivation for a middle-of-the-pack Pac-12 school that plays on a regional conference network.

Let the ratings do the talking

Both sides may want to debate this issue, but the fact is, the answer will come with the ratings. Higher ratings = more exposure. It’s simple math.

Average games on ESPN get about a 2.0 rating while ESPN2 games get around a 1.0.

Games on regional networks? They don’t even rate. Even good Pac-10 matchups on Versus in recent seasons have failed to get above 1.0.

It’s like they say: “If you’re not on ESPN, you’re not on TV.”