AAC, ESPN reportedly reach agreement on 12-year, $1 billion deal

The American Athletic Conference will receive a boost in media rights revenue from its new deal with ESPN, according to a Sports Business Journal report.

The 12-year deal with ESPN will be worth $1 billion, or an average of $83.3 million per school over the life of the contract. The new deal will run from 2020-21 through the 2031-32 academic year.

For UConn, the new contract will increase its yearly conference media revenue from $2.16 million to $6.94 million. Given a nearly $40 million gap between revenues and expense, the increase is needed.

A significant part of the deal, according to SBJ, is the absence of a grant-of-rights agreement which would have prevented schools from jumping to a Power Five conference. Such agreements enhance media rights deals because conferences offer TV partners the assurance that the composition of the league will not change.

But with no grant-ofrights agreement in the deal, schools such as UConn, UCF, Cincinnati, USF and Houston will be looking for seats at the Power Five tables during the next round of conference realignment — possibly between 2023 and 2025, when current media rights deals are set to be renegotiated by the Big Ten, Pac-12 and Big 12.

The AAC also has a smaller contract with CBS, but SBJ reports renewal talks have not yet started.

According to the report, “the majority of basketball games and a significant number of the football games will go to ESPN+,” which is a subscription digital streaming service. The contract will include some Saturday football games on ABC, while most football, and men’s and women’s basketball will remain on ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPNU — at least those not on the streaming service or CBS networks.

UConn has its own media partnership with SNY, which broadcasts a significant number of women’s basketball games each season. SNY, which reaches 11 million households and has been a UConn partner for seven years, broadcasted 15 women’s basketball games and seven men’s games this season, part of 300 hours of UConn basketball programming this season.

SNY is also a driving force behind a Connecticut college hockey tournament that will feature UConn, Yale, Quinnipiac and Sacred Heart at Webster Bank Arena in January 2020.

But the deal with SNY is negotiated through ESPN, which owns the rights to all AAC lives events. So the partnership could be jeopardized by this new ESPN/ AAC contract..

A spokesperson for the AAC said the conference had no comment on the SBJ report.