ESPN has reached a 12-year agreement with the SEC and Big 12 for the rights to air the Allstate Sugar Bowl in New Orleans across multiple platforms from January 2015 through 2026. Each year, the Sugar Bowl, previously referred to as the Champions Bowl, will be played Jan. 1 in prime time. In a joint statement ESPN president John Skipper, SEC commissioner Mike Slive and Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby said...

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"Given the history of excellence by teams in the SEC and Big 12, we recognized the value in securing long-term rights to the Sugar Bowl,", "the matchup will provide college football fans with a memorable way to start the New Year on ESPN's many platforms."

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UCLA hosts USC this weekend in what is being called “The Los Angeles City Championship.” To celebrate that fact, some dorms on the UCLA campus did this...

According to an ESPN press release, the Rose Bowl, the Pac-12 and the Big Ten reached a 12-year contract extension with ESPN on Thursday for the network to continue broadcasting “The Granddaddy of Them All” through 2026. ESPN President John Skipper said...

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“The Rose Bowl Game is one of sport’s most meaningful and celebrated events,” “Extending our relationship long term with such a prestigious brand will play a significant role in the way fans continue to define ESPN – as the leading destination for college football all year long.”

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According to an estimate prepared for USA TODAY Sports by a college sports rights-valuation firm, the Pac-12 will more make than the SEC due to their TV contracts. Even though the current 12 SEC schools are about to renegotiate TV deals, the Pac-12 still beat them out with a combination of their recent TV deals and new conference-owned networks. Here's an excerpt...

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The estimate, premised on the SEC continuing without a conference-owned network and again having 15-year deals, would give the SEC more guaranteed TV revenue than any college athletics conference: nearly $25 million a school per year over the full contract term ($5.2 billion total).

However, the Pac-12's full ownership of national and regional networks that have lined up substantial distribution before their scheduled launch in August, indicates that the conference is on track to generate at least $30 million a school per year over the 12-year term of agreements with ESPN and Fox that begin later this year ($4.3 billion total). Only the money from ESPN and Fox — about $21 million a school per year — is guaranteed, though. And because of the networks' start-up costs the actual per-school revenue the first few years is likely to be well below the projected annual average.

The estimates come from Navigate Research, a Chicago-based firm that is not currently working with the SEC or Pac-12 but has done multimedia rights valuations for schools in various power conferences.

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The Big 10 and the Pac-12 are expanding their partnership for an annual inter-league game for each school in the two leagues. While the details are yet to be worked out, two things are certain: The partnership will start in 2017 and the TV rights will cost a fortune. Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany said...

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"It's sort of in lieu of what some other people are doing (with expansion)," "Our idea is you can't stand still. You have to build in an environment where people are competing for attention, where they're competing to have the best competitive assets and to present themselves in the best way. I think both of us believe … this is the most constructive way for us to do that."

"We're going to continue to play other conferences in bowls," Delany insisted. "We're going to continue to play challenges against other leagues. And we're going to continue to be involved in the NCAA and all of its championships. We're just trying to deepen our collegial relationship, build on what we've had."

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I like this idea.