Does media influence how decisions are made within collegiate athletics? Did the media play a role in the reshuffling of conferences a few years back? Those questions were brought up during Wednesday nights Landon Lecture series at Kansas State University.
Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby joined ESPN President John Skipper former University of Texas Athletic Director DeLoss Dodds and Kansas State University President Kirk Schulz on the stage at McCain Auditorium for the lecture.
Bowlsby commented that in his three decades in the business he has never had a media partner tell him what to do.
“I think they express their opinions and we express ours, and there’s some pushing and shoving that’s involved,” Bowlsby said. “Indeed they really are partnerships. I don’t ever have to ask John Skipper if he cares about the education of our student athletes because he understands that side of the business, and so does his staff.”
“To say that they’re ever in a situation were they are barking orders or driving the agenda is just not accurate. It really is a partnership.”
Whether or not the media had a role in the conference reshuffling three years ago is far from accurate Skipper made clear. He explained that when the reshuffling occurred ESPN actually ended up having to spend more money.
“When the Big 12 became ten schools, this was with Bob’s predecessor, we agreed to pay the same money for ten schools as twelve schools. That was not a desirable financial outcome for us but it helped keep the conference together which was a desirable outcome,” Skipper said.”We were engaged in the discussion but that wasn’t a good move for us, and by the way when those schools moved to another conference we paid those conferences more money.”
Skipper said that at ESPN they like to maintain the status quo and compared it to musical chairs,”Everybody has a seat right now. I’d like to stay seated, and I’d like everybody to stay seated because we like the traditional rivalries, we like what happens in these conferences, we love our relationships with the Big 12 and the Big 10, the PAC 12, the SEC and the ACC.”
In reality the media does play a big role in collegiate athletics because of the exposure it gives and the revenue it creates. ESPN partners with 35 conferences and this year alone covered approximately 1,700 basketball games and 400 football games.