BCS WANTS BIG MONEY FROM FOX

The folks who run the NCAA’s Bowl Championship Series are talking with FOX about an extension of the arrangement that awards televisions broadcast rights to the Fiesta Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Orange Bowl, and the BCS title game.Per John Ourand and Michael Smith of SportsBusiness Journal, the BCS wants as much as 60 percent more than the amount FOX currently is paying.Still, that’s only $132 million per year.The more amazing aspect of this is that FOX currently is paying only $85.4 million for the right to broadcast four of the biggest college bowl games.Considering that ESPN forks over $64.7 million per week for regular-season NFL football, FOX currently is enjoying quite the bargain.Even at $132 million per year, it sounds like the kind of price that other networks would be more than willing to pay.Under the current deal between FOX and the BCS, FOX has to decide whether to accept the final offer extended by the BCS. If FOX chooses not to do so, then FOX won’t have a chance to match later, if another network agrees to pay that same amount.And it would be naive to think that the BCS would draw a line in the sand with FOX without at least having a wink-nod-burp-fart idea as to what another network might be willing to pay.ABC/ESPN currently holds the broadcast rights for the Rose Bowl. The thinking is that the BCS has asked for such a large increase specifically in order to take the four games aired on FOX to market, in the hopes that ABC/ESPN will make a play for the package.If ABC/ESPN gets all five of the major postseason college games, some of them could land on ESPN, including the Rose Bowl.