Hawaii to get share of new Mountain West broadcast deal with CBS, Fox
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Hawaii quarterback Chevan Cordeiro (12) tries to control his balance and cut back on to the field in the first half of an NCAA college football game on Nov. 9 in Honolulu.
The University of Hawaii will share a percentage of the Mountain West Conference’s new, 6-year TV and media rights agreement with CBS Sports and Fox that was announced today, commissioner Craig Thompson said.
The total MWC deal for football and basketball is valued at $270 million over the life of the deal, Thompson said.
The deal will impact only Rainbow Warrior football since UH competes in the Big West Conference in men’s and women’s basketball and will be dependent upon what UH negotiates with its next Spectrum contract.
UH’s current deal with Spectrum expires in July.
“Whatever Spectrum and Hawaii negotiate compared to whatever the other (11) institutions make, Hawaii will get 80% of that delta figure,” Thompson told the Star-Advertiser.
UH was not immediately able to provide an estimate of what that might be.
Currently, UH keeps only the money from its local TV rights with Spectrum and does not share in the conference pool. That has meant about $2.5 million in recent years for UH since it was due to share in the overall pool only if the payouts to all 11 other members exceeded that figure. Boise has been getting $2.9 million while the other 10 members averaged approximately $1.1 million.
For the MWC, CBS will be the primary partner with the first choice of 23 football games and up to 10 additional picks after Fox also picks 23 games.
The MWC hopes to sell remaining games to a separate partner,
As part of the deal, CBS has the rights to all Boise State road games while Fox gets the Broncos’ home games.
