I hope it pays a lot more than the current contract, because the current one is a joke On my opinion. We get publicity and nothing else for playing weeknights in cold weather with small crowds

found this quote from another article about the new contract-

"Although the continuation of the MAC’s deal with ESPN in no way rivals the mega-TV deals of SEC, Big Ten and other major conferences, it does favorably position the MAC ahead of the other schools in the Group of Five conferences (the American, Conference USA, Mountain West, Sun Belt and MAC)."

Ahead of the rest of the G5? ESPN has the ability to be king makers, would be interesting if they turned the MAC into the highest earning G5.

ESPN could be the rich benefactor who saves mid-major football. (ESPN the benefactor wears a monocle and a houndstooth newsboy cap in my mind) The live rights bonanza in TV  could be a last minute reprieve from extinction. If they want mid-week live programming bad enough, they could ask the SEC, Big Ten and Pac 12 to throw the network a bone and keep scheduling MAC and other mid-major conferences  teams.

Just look at the local baseball TV contracts. Insane numbers for a sport that a majority of Americans find boring and slow (that group doesn't include me). Live sports are so valuable and what else can ESPN put on TV on Tuesday and Wednesday nights in November on ESPN2 that will get ANY viewers?

I think I've been wrong about mid-week games all these years. I thought they were a waste of time and hurt attendance. It's possible that the quirkiness and flexibility of these smaller conferences allow them to stay alive.

I'm not counting on it, but that could be an avenue to staving off irrelevance.

In that spirit, I'm ready for the conference to go full bizarro.

Bill Veeck style. Weird promotions. Have the officials wear orange uniforms. Mandatory spread offenses. No defensive back recruits of more than one star. Embrace talking about sports gambling and talk about the lines all over the MAC website and ESPN broadcasts. Force every stadium to sell beer. Have certain coaches become heels and others fan favorites. Even more outlandish uniforms. Have the audience vote for certain play calls via Twitter if a game gets out of hand. Outlaw punting. Have bands run out on the field during kickoffs on purpose.

I'm not even joking. Make these games events. Make them weird. Become the Burning Man of college football.

Obviously my final opinion on the contract will hinge on financials and coverage amounts (would love to get more hoops, especially).

On the TWCSC end, I doubt a change there. ESPN has owned all football rights for quite a while. Fox Sports Ohio, STO, and now TWCSC sublicense their games for broadcast regionally from ESPN. That's why they're available online and PPV outside that area through ESPN3 and Game Plan - ESPN retains those rights. So I wouldn't expect any change there.

(Obligatory note: my views and educated guesses, not speaking for my employer or with any knowledge of situation)

13 years?  So the bean counters figure they can extrapolate the worth of MAC sports to ESPN based on what they currently know until my 4 year old is applying for college?

Smarter people than me.  I usually fill up my car the night before a 15 cent overnight drop.

I suppose they might have put a clause in there if the MAC drops down to FCS or whatever other contingencies that might happen to make us even less likely to be a cinderella story heading into November.

There are...have been...people who still don't see how genius the mid-week MAC football MACtion games are?

At least according to Hustle Belt, the TWCSN deal is DEAD. Please let it be true!

That's a nice improvement.  Still not as good as CUSA or MWC. 

13 years seems like a long, long time however.

Hey, at least ESPN thinks there will still be an audience for non-big 5 football.

If TWCSC deal is dead, I'd love to be wrong!

If our deal is really only ahalf of CUSA and MWC, and is locked in for 13 years, every person in the front office should be fired. We're going to prostitute ourselves on weeknights to make half the money as a conference with FIU, FAU, ODU and MTSU? Seriously? Oh but look, "digital streaming. ooooh" Not pleased.

This is a 622% increase in revenue for Ohio.