ACC Marketing?

[Mike'sMarbles]

I don't get why our league has Louisville-Kentucky going up against a Duke and UNC double-header on ESPN2. Is it just "whatever ESPN says, goes"?

It seems like it hurts the league, dividing ratings the games might get if not going up against other ACC teams.

I just don't see how this helps the league at all other than obeying our ESPN master for money. We shouldn't have our top teams all playing at the same time on a weeknight.

At some point you have to think about whether we should go head-to-head against our partners in the ratings. Or am I totally wrong, it's no big deal?

 

[Morgantown Card]

I don't get why our league has Louisville-Kentucky going up against a Duke and UNC double-header on ESPN2. Is it just "whatever ESPN says, goes"?

It seems like it hurts the league, dividing ratings the games might get if not going up against other ACC teams.

I just don't see how this helps the league at all other than obeying our ESPN master for money. We shouldn't have our top teams all playing at the same time on a weeknight.

At some point you have to think about whether we should go head-to-head against our partners in the ratings. Or am I totally wrong, it's no big deal?

I see what you are saying, but Duke is playing Elon and UNC is playing Northern Iowa. If I'm a sports fan with no dog in the fight, I know which game I am watching. The problem is Tobacco Road and the State of Kentucky is probably half of all college basketball fandom, with the other half being Ohio, Indiana, and the rest of the country.

 

[zipp]

I don't know how much the ACC has to do with this. Our TV rights guys know better...does the ACC control these OOC games as much as they do the conference games? Do they even control the dates on which they're scheduled? I thought TV made those calls.

And the sad reality for some of our fans is that you may be overestimating the value of the LPT series nowadays. I don't think this game gets slotted on a weeknite leading up to Xmas because it's regarded nationally as must-see TV. It's a game for the locals that features two nationally ranked teams. That's the best way to describe it without overstating its importance...

 

[Mike'sMarbles]

I see what you are saying, but Duke is playing Elon and UNC is playing Northern Iowa. If I'm a sports fan with no dog in the fight, I know which game I am watching. The problem is Tobacco Road and the State of Kentucky is probably half of all college basketball fandom, with the other half being Ohio, Indiana, and the rest of the country.

No doubt we win over the neutral fans. But I think you're also right about North Carolina+Kentucky being a huge part of the TV market. I think we lose any Duke-first or Carolina-first fans. We lose a lot of "my team first, ACC second" fans.

As for Duke and Carolina, maybe they get more of a neutral audience for their game, plus any UofL "my team first, ACC second" fans on a different night. Heck, they probably get a lot of UK hater fans tuning in to their games if UK isn't on. It just seems like a lose-lose for the ACC, though I'm sure it all works out for ESPN in the end.

 

[Mayoman]

Other games tonight on the ESPNU are two rivalry games: Mizzou-Illinois and Clemson-USC east.

ESPN is killing CBB doing this type of weekday programming IMO.
3 regional rivalry games, Duke and UNC games all on at overlapping times is silly and foolish.

The CBB Golden Goose is looking like Fools Gold nowadays. The rating for all the games will likely be lower than the norm this year. Fodder for the Zipp to salivate on I'm sure!

 

[zipp]

...Fodder for the Zipp to salivate on I'm sure!

Don't need tonite's ratings... The LPT-UNC number was a little more than 2% this past weekend, and that was the highest rated OOC game in awhile.

But that also means that 98% of the nation was tuned into something else. I realize U of L and LPT aren't responsible for the national decline in college basketball ratings. It's just that fixating on this basketball game is increasingly like rallying around horse-and-buggy racing. We can be passionate as hell about it, but no one else is gonna care...

 

[JohnKBA]

I don't know how much the ACC has to do with this. Our TV rights guys know better...does the ACC control these OOC games as much as they do the conference games? Do they even control the dates on which they're scheduled? I thought TV made those calls.

And the sad reality for some of our fans is that you may be overestimating the value of the LPT series nowadays. I don't think this game gets slotted on a weeknite leading up to Xmas because it's regarded nationally as must-see TV. It's a game for the locals that features two nationally ranked teams. That's the best way to describe it without overstating its importance...

I'm in a sports group on Facebook with guys from all over the country and I can tell you that for real sports fans, there was only one real option during the 7pm slot tonight. Granted, these are die hard sports fans who will talk about almost any sport, so maybe not the best representation of the average joe, but the game drew plenty of interest from fans outside the 2 school fanbases.

 

[Mayoman]

Don't need tonite's ratings... The LPT-UNC number was a little more than 2% this past weekend, and that was the highest rated OOC game in awhile.

But that also means that 98% of the nation was tuned into something else. I realize U of L and LPT aren't responsible for the national decline in college basketball ratings. It's just that fixating on this basketball game is increasingly like rallying around horse-and-buggy racing. We can be passionate as hell about it, but no one else is gonna care...

In one of your future analytic posts you will cite the ratings #'s to make your point about how the game doesn't move the needle anymore and the rivalry has lost any luster it once may have had.....and that only folks in KY and Louisville specifically care at all about viewing this game and the #'s prove it. And this years #'s would likely bear that out.

And KBA....I lot folks in IL & MO, and SC likely watched their rivalry game....and by the way the folks in NC (UNC & Duke) might have channel switched some who knows for sure. My point is this.....ESPN sucks the big one and is destroying CBB with this type of BS and helping the "But no one else is gonna care" assertion that Zipp makes....and that is how I really see it.

Zipp is winning his argument with ESPN's help and this idiotic scheduling and over saturation of CBB games by them.Good for Zipp.....I just dislike seeing it happen in real time. I love CBB games.....and good, hard fought rivalry games in particular are quite enjoyable. It brings a lot of JOY into my life. So there is that.

At least I can be honest about it all. Tonight's game was very enjoyable for me. You?

 

[JohnKBA]

In one of your future analytic posts you will site the ratings #'s to make your point about how the game doesn't move the needle anymore and the rivalry has lost any luster it once may have had.....and that only folks in KY and Louisville specifically care at all about viewing this game and the #'s prove it. And this years #'s would likely bear that out.

And KBA....I lot folks in IL & MO, and SC likely watched their rivalry game....and by the way the folks in NC (UNC & Duke) might have channel switched some who knows for sure. My point is this.....ESPN sucks the big one and is destroying CBB with this type of BS and helping the "But no one else is gonna care" assertion that Zipp makes....and that is how I really see it.

Zipp is winning his argument with ESPN's help and this idiotic scheduling and over saturation of CBB games by them.Good for Zipp.....I just dislike seeing it happen in real time. I love CBB games.....and good, hard fought rivalry games in particular are quite enjoyable. It brings a lot of JOY into my life. So there is that.

At least I can be honest about it all. Tonight's game was very enjoyable for me. You?

It was a good game, I enjoyed it. I had a feeling this was gonna happen tonight - I bet on you guys when it opened U of L -1, but honestly would have bet on UK had it opened UK -4.5. The line just stunk to high heaven to me, huge red flag.

Good, hard fought game. As many on this board pointed out after Monk went stupid on Saturday, he was due to come back to earth. I just wish he had gone 3/9 instead of 1/9

And yeah, good point about the other games - I meant to say that for fans that didn't have another game on with a dog in the fight likely watched our game.

 

[Ipartiedwithhopgood]

NFL is playing on Saturday this week - may have had an impact on the schedule.

I do agree, college basketball has lost some of it's shine though.

 

[zipp]

The way to get these games back on the radar is to move them later in the season as U of L played 20-30 years ago. The SEC allows LPT to do that to schedule Kansas, which the Big XII allows as well. That's because the SEC and Big XII are operating at a big disadvantage as far as basketball. The ACC and Big Ten will not free up any weekends in January and February for their members to play OOC games.

But if anything, I think the OPPOSITE will happen. I can envision the ACC adding another team in the next few years, and the ACC Network will pursue even more content beyond a 20-game schedule. That will kill more of these "intersectional" games like UNC-LPT...

 

[Mayoman]

Good point. The ball is really in the ACC's court to make this happen. And the B1G.

The real question is can/will the ACC get away from the Carolina Centric ideal of only promoting Duke/UNC as the greatest rivalry game of all vs emphasizing great new or existing intersectional rivalries (i.e. like UK/UofL, IU, UCLA, KU, etc) to establish those great games as close equals to the Carolina Centric ways of today and yesterday?

I am not sure the ACC powers that be are capable of 'sharing the wealth and notoriety' of making that happen. JMO.

I despise that phrase 'sharing the wealth' but could not think of another way to say it. In any event.....one could create many rivalry games in CBB on a yearly basis with a little thought put into the process for Feb and early March if they wanted to.

 

[zipp]

...The real question is can/will the ACC get away from the Carolina Centric ideal of only promoting Duke/UNC as the greatest rivalry game of all vs emphasizing great new or existing intersectional rivalries (i.e. like UK/UofL, IU, UCLA, KU, etc) to establish those great games as close equals to the Carolina Centric ways of today and yesterday?...

I brought up UNC-LPT... You got a glimpse this summer when Roy Williams talked about dropping their future games with LPT. If the premier ACC programs are willing to sacrifice marquee intersectional games, it's only a matter of time until it happens. All of these conferences want to make and keep as much money as possible.

I would prefer that conference basketball games move up on the schedule once the football schedules are played. It's better for the game and the fans to be playing meaningful games against good ACC teams instead of these December rinky dinks. Maybe leave a couple of December weekends open for good OOC teams, maybe another weekend in January. November and December feels more like an extended period of preseason exhibitions. IMO, that's not good for anyone in the long term...