I thought this an interesting read on many fronts. #1. It gives motive for the news agencies to try and successfully take down the best team in the BIG 10 scandal style. #2. It also shows you how only a few share the wealth of revenue in college sports and really makes you think about how & why these kids should be paid. #3. I think it also helps to connect the dots with all of the BIG 10 hate over the years. Very very good article. Good for Delaney. Curious to the response this gets on the board.
ESPN's 'lowball' offer triggered Big Ten expansion
Failed negotiation also led to Big Ten Network
* Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany speaks in Lincoln with Nebraska's athletic director Tom Osborne and Nebraska Chancellor Harvey Perlman.
(Nati Harnik, Associated Press)
July 01, 2011|By Teddy Greenstein, Chicago Tribune reporter
The conventional Big Ten expansion timeline begins Dec. 15, 2009, when the conference released a statement calling for a "thorough evaluation of options."
But uncovering the true origin of Nebraska joining the Big Ten — which becomes official Friday — requires a trip in the way-back machine and involves champagne and bruised egos.
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The date: April 30, 2004. That's when a posse of ESPN executives, led by Mark Shapiro, John Wildhack, Loren Matthews and Chuck Gerber, met with conference honchos at Big Ten headquarters in Park Ridge.
The Big Ten's long-term deal with the network had three years remaining, but Commissioner Jim Delany wanted to dip his toe in the pool. Turns out the water was ice cold. And shark-infested.
In his early 30s, Shapiro had risen to executive vice president of programming and production after spearheading the "SportsCentury" series and boosting ratings with shows such as "Pardon the Interruption," "Around the Horn," "Dream Job," "Playmakers" and the World Series of Poker.
Shapiro also was a cutthroat negotiator, as chronicled in the book "Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN," and his style rankled the likes of NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and the NBA's David Stern.
An amiable session in which the Big Ten and ESPN cleaned up "housekeeping matters" — schedules and announcers — took a nasty turn at the one-hour mark. That's when talk turned to a contract extension, a negotiating session that went nowhere. Fast.
"The shortest one I ever had," Delany told the Tribune. "He lowballed us and said: 'Take it or leave it. If you don't take our offer, you are rolling the dice.' I said: 'Consider them rolled.' "
Delany had warned ESPN officials that without a significant rights-fee increase, he would try to launch a new channel that would pose competition both for TV viewers and the Big Ten's inventory of games: the Big Ten Network.
"He threw his weight around," Shapiro said in a telephone interview, "and said, 'I'm going to get my big (rights-fee) increase and start my own network.' Had ESPN stepped up and paid BCS-type dollars, I think we could have prevented the network. In retrospect, that might have been the right thing to do. Jim is making a nice penny on that."
Said Delany: "If Mark had presented a fair offer, we would have signed it. And there would not be a Big Ten Network."
The BTN, profitable in its second year, doled out about $7 million to each Big Ten school in 2009-10. Without that chunk of a $22 million per school TV revenue distribution pie, the conference might not have had schools such as Nebraska thirsting for an invitation.
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www.Lipcon.com/MaritimeLawThe network's formation also encouraged new thinking from the universities' typically conservative presidents and chancellors. A 12th team would lead to two divisions and a conference championship game in football and another giant payday. Fox purchased the rights to the first six title games for between $20 million and $25 million per season.
Said Delany: "The Big Ten Network was a factor, but I think we still would have expanded. You can take a different tack."
Shapiro, an Iowa and Glenbrook South alumnus, called adding Nebraska a "genius" move: "You're taking one of the most storied institutions in the history of college football and plunking it into one of the best conferences. Iowa-Nebraska will become a rivalry overnight, and Michigan and Ohio State will play every year. It's a dream showcase."
Shapiro left ESPN in October 2005 for a $10 million signing bonus from Redskins owner Dan Snyder to run the Six Flags amusement parks. He's now the CEO of Dick Clark Productions and consults for the NFL Network and sits on the board of the Tribune Company.
In 2006, Delany went back to the negotiating table with Wildhack and executives George Bodenheimer and John Skipper. They hammered out a 10-year, $1 billion deal for roughly 40 football and 60 men's basketball games. Another 35 to 36 football games and more than 100 men's basketball games went to the BTN, which launched Aug. 30, 2007.
Feeling emboldened, Delany sent a package to Shapiro that included champagne and a note. Shapiro said the note read: "See, I did it."
"My reaction was: Who does that?" Shapiro said. "It was so juvenile. I sent the note to Bodenheimer and poured the champagne down the drain."
Delany said Shapiro's recollection of the note isn't accurate: "That's not how I would express myself. What I wrote was tongue-in-cheek. I believe it was: 'Enjoy the champagne while enjoying the network.'
"It wasn't juvenile at all. We did toast to Mark, and I was thanking him. If it hadn't been for him, we never would have pushed ourselves to do (the Big Ten Network). It was a continuation of the conversation. He left (ESPN), so I didn't get to tell him that in person."
Said Shapiro: "In every negotiation with Jim, there is a potential for fireworks. He's incapable of ordering a la carte. And in terms of this deal with ESPN and bringing Nebraska in and launching the network, he got the buffet. To his credit, he got it all."
He didn't even have to spring for the champagne.
"It was a pre-existing bottle in a cooler," Delany said. "It was a re-gift."
tgreenstein@tribune.com
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