MWC TV Deal Announced

[TheCup]

That structure mirrors what ESPN has done with ESPN+ and what Fox is building with its new FoxONE DTC strategy. The industry is clearly moving toward hybrid linear + direct subscription models. The Mountain West isn’t acting out of desperation, it’s aligning with the broader media trend.

We cannot compare entities that have NFL media rights to Tier 3 Mountain West inventory. Yes, streaming has a better future than linear, but we are marketing a niche product through a start-up brand (Kiswe), not leveraging the brand and technical equity of two of the biggest linear providers in the world.

First, the Mountain West has already been paying to operate and produce content for a free app for years. Schools have been underwriting production for games that generated zero direct revenue. In 2025, institutions are still covering those costs while fans watch at no charge.

I agree completely, but we should recognize that the likely revenue is immaterial, and not buy into the messaging bullshit from Gloria that this provides league members "unlimited upside." Sure, if all Ohio State fans switch tomorrow to UW we may see significant coin. And to the extent that something is better than nothing, I agree. The fact is that the streaming revenue from this deal will not move the needle for a department with a $50 million+ annual budget. This streaming component was a band-aid on a mediocre deal - nothing more. It was Gloria recognizing that the Tier 3 rights have almost no value and laying out a roadmap for the member schools to try to get something for it while also creating a cute talking point for the PR rollout.

Will this turn Wyoming into a media powerhouse overnight? Of course not. But going from paying to stream for free → to potentially earning something while reducing operational burden is a rational evolution. Hey lets say Wyoming nets $500K on top of the $3.5M they will get all of a sudden they are getting $4M from TV revenue. not just $3.5M...

This is the main misnomer in this entire production. Wyoming is not set to receive anywhere close to $3.5 million annually from the new media deal. Wyoming will receive $3.5 million from the conference every year until 2032, funded in part by the media deal, but also in large part by funds withheld from the departing PAC members to satisfy the terms in the GOR. I have reason to believe that the media revenue ONLY will total about $2 million annually to the legacy members like Wyoming.

To the extent this media deal preserved the MW as a going concern until 2032, it was a good deal. Anyone who believes it is anything more, or that it will provide revenue in 2027 for Wyoming greater than we received in 2025, is fooling themselves.

This is subsistence level revenue for Wyoming, nothing more.

 

[WYOFLETCH]

We cannot compare entities that have NFL media rights to Tier 3 Mountain West inventory. Yes, streaming has a better future than linear, but we are marketing a niche product through a start-up brand (Kiswe), not leveraging the brand and technical equity of two of the biggest linear providers in the world.


I agree completely, but we should recognize that the likely revenue is immaterial, and not buy into the messaging bullshit from Gloria that this provides league members "unlimited upside." Sure, if all Ohio State fans switch tomorrow to UW we may see significant coin. And to the extent that something is better than nothing, I agree. The fact is that the streaming revenue from this deal will not move the needle for a department with a $50 million+ annual budget. This streaming component was a band-aid on a mediocre deal - nothing more. It was Gloria recognizing that the Tier 3 rights have almost no value and laying out a roadmap for the member schools to try to get something for it while also creating a cute talking point for the PR rollout.


This is the main misnomer in this entire production. Wyoming is not set to receive anywhere close to $3.5 million annually from the new media deal. Wyoming will receive $3.5 million from the conference every year until 2032, funded in part by the media deal, but also in large part by funds withheld from the departing PAC members to satisfy the terms in the GOR. I have reason to believe that the media revenue ONLY will total about $2 million annually to the legacy members like Wyoming.

To the extent this media deal preserved the MW as a going concern until 2032, it was a good deal. Anyone who believes it is anything more, or that it will provide revenue in 2027 for Wyoming greater than we received in 2025, is fooling themselves.

This is subsistence level revenue for Wyoming, nothing more.

Oh yeah, you’re absolutely right. Wyoming should probably just fold it up, head to FCS, maybe even DII while we’re at it. Clearly the only logical response to “subsistence-level revenue” is to burn the whole thing down and start fresh in the RMAC. It’s all Gloria’s fault anyway, right?

IIWII I’ll just have to disagree with you. Let’s walk through the doom spiral for a second.

You’re upset that we can’t compare Mountain West Tier 3 inventory to NFL-backed media giants. Correct. We can’t. That’s kind of the point. We don’t have NFL-level leverage. Neither does the rebuilt Pac-12. And yet somehow the expectation is that Wyoming should magically negotiate like Ohio State.

Based on the Pac-12’s new deal and the Mountain West deal, even if the two leagues had merged, both would still be paid less than the American. So if your baseline is “we should be making AAC money,” then yes, disappointment was inevitable no matter what logo was on the contract.


Now let’s talk about this “band-aid” Kiswe piece. You’re right, it probably won’t suddenly dump $10 million into a $50M athletic budget. But what was the alternative? Keep the free app that Wyoming had to pay for every single year? Continue producing content, covering costs, and collecting exactly zero subscription revenue?

That makes total financial sense.

Or, crazy thought, partner with a platform, create a paid product, and at least generate something instead of nothing. “Subsistence-level revenue” is still revenue. And unlike 2025, it’s revenue the school can influence.

If the upside ends up modest? Fine. But saying it has no value because it doesn’t “move the needle” ignores that we were literally paying to distribute content for free before.

Should we have fired Gloria and joined CUSA instead? That would’ve really shown everyone. Even less money, less exposure, and zero flexibility. I bet we’d all enjoy that.

And yes, the $3.5M figure isn’t purely media revenue. We all understand that. Conference distributions are blended revenue streams. That’s how these things work. But pretending the media deal itself is meaningless because it isn’t SEC-level is just setting an impossible benchmark.

Here’s the reality:

• The Mountain West preserved stability through 2032.
• Schools aren’t paying to host their own free digital platform anymore.
• There’s at least a path to incremental revenue instead of dead-end inventory.
• And flexibility remains if the landscape shifts again.

No one is claiming this is a gold rush. It’s survival with optionality. Could it have been better? Sure. Everything could. But acting like it’s catastrophic because it doesn’t instantly change the athletic department’s balance sheet feels a little dramatic.

We’re not Ohio State. We never were.

But we’re also not required to torch the program because the check isn’t nine figures. Subsistence? Maybe. But compared to paying for your own free app and earning nothing?

That’s called progress.

 

[TheRealUW]

Oh yeah, you’re absolutely right. Wyoming should probably just fold it up, head to FCS, maybe even DII while we’re at it. Clearly the only logical response to “subsistence-level revenue” is to burn the whole thing down and start fresh in the RMAC. It’s all Gloria’s fault anyway, right?

IIWII I’ll just have to disagree with you. Let’s walk through the doom spiral for a second.

You’re upset that we can’t compare Mountain West Tier 3 inventory to NFL-backed media giants. Correct. We can’t. That’s kind of the point. We don’t have NFL-level leverage. Neither does the rebuilt Pac-12. And yet somehow the expectation is that Wyoming should magically negotiate like Ohio State.

Based on the Pac-12’s new deal and the Mountain West deal, even if the two leagues had merged, both would still be paid less than the American. So if your baseline is “we should be making AAC money,” then yes, disappointment was inevitable no matter what logo was on the contract.


Now let’s talk about this “band-aid” Kiswe piece. You’re right, it probably won’t suddenly dump $10 million into a $50M athletic budget. But what was the alternative? Keep the free app that Wyoming had to pay for every single year? Continue producing content, covering costs, and collecting exactly zero subscription revenue?

That makes total financial sense.

Or, crazy thought, partner with a platform, create a paid product, and at least generate something instead of nothing. “Subsistence-level revenue” is still revenue. And unlike 2025, it’s revenue the school can influence.

If the upside ends up modest? Fine. But saying it has no value because it doesn’t “move the needle” ignores that we were literally paying to distribute content for free before.

Should we have fired Gloria and joined CUSA instead? That would’ve really shown everyone. Even less money, less exposure, and zero flexibility. I bet we’d all enjoy that.

And yes, the $3.5M figure isn’t purely media revenue. We all understand that. Conference distributions are blended revenue streams. That’s how these things work. But pretending the media deal itself is meaningless because it isn’t SEC-level is just setting an impossible benchmark.

Here’s the reality:

• The Mountain West preserved stability through 2032.
• Schools aren’t paying to host their own free digital platform anymore.
• There’s at least a path to incremental revenue instead of dead-end inventory.
• And flexibility remains if the landscape shifts again.

No one is claiming this is a gold rush. It’s survival with optionality. Could it have been better? Sure. Everything could. But acting like it’s catastrophic because it doesn’t instantly change the athletic department’s balance sheet feels a little dramatic.

We’re not Ohio State. We never were.

But we’re also not required to torch the program because the check isn’t nine figures. Subsistence? Maybe. But compared to paying for your own free app and earning nothing?

That’s called progress.

I appreciate your positive spin on this new media deal, but I’m having a really tough time seeing it that way.

Imagine if you worked for a company in which a bunch of senior management jumped ship and the company came to you and said, ‘We lost a bunch of revenue when all those senior managers left, so we are going to cut your salary in half, but we’ll get you back to 80% of your previous salary via funds we think we might get from some lawsuits that we currently have filed. The good thing is that we’ve converted some of your previously guaranteed salary into a productivity bonus structure which means unlimited earning potential for you! If you just increase you productivity 500%, you’ll actually make what you were making before!’

Is that a company you would believe is making progress? To me, it looks like a sinking ship.

 

[WYOFLETCH]

I appreciate your positive spin on this new media deal, but I’m having a really tough time seeing it that way.

Imagine if you worked for a company in which a bunch of senior management jumped ship and the company came to you and said, ‘We lost a bunch of revenue when all those senior managers left, so we are going to cut your salary in half, but we’ll get you back to 80% of your previous salary via funds we think we might get from some lawsuits that we currently have filed. The good thing is that we’ve converted some of your previously guaranteed salary into a productivity bonus structure which means unlimited earning potential for you! If you just increase you productivity 500%, you’ll actually make what you were making before!’

Is that a company you would believe is making progress? To me, it looks like a sinking ship.

I get the frustration. On the surface, it feels like a pay cut dressed up as “future upside.” That’s a fair emotional reaction. But I think the analogy breaks down when you look at what actually happened.

When five members bolted chasing projections of $8–15 million per school, there was a real opportunity for the remaining schools to panic. They could have splintered. They could have called Conference USA or quietly explored FCS options. Instead, programs like University of Nevada, Las Vegas, United States Air Force Academy, University of Wyoming, University of New Mexico, and San Jose State University made a conscious decision:

Stay together. Rebuild. Control what we can control. That’s not a sinking ship. That’s a group deciding not to abandon the hull in rough seas.

Commissioner Gloria Nevarez didn’t cause realignment. Realignment has been driven by the SEC/Big Ten TV arms race for over a decade. The Mountain West isn’t immune to gravity created by billion-dollar leagues. No Group of Six conference is.

What she did do:

• Promoted University of Hawaii to full membership.
• Added University of Texas at El Paso, Grand Canyon University, and University of California, Davis.
• Kept long-standing TV partners Fox Sports and CBS Sports. (PAC12 has no ESPN or FOX TV)
• Added a new partner instead of shrinking exposure.
• Even floated a merger concept to the rebuilt Pac-12 Conference to increase leverage and total inventory value.

The Pac side chose a different strategy, a smaller membership footprint, a leaner payout structure (not 8-15M they thought they would get), and creative scheduling (including quasi-non-conference matchups among themselves). That’s their bet. The Mountain West chose stability and scale. Let me ask you why did Fox chose to stay with the MW and not pick up any media form the PAC12? ( Sounds like FOX think the MW will be around for awhile and the PAC12 could implode in the next five years?)


Now about your “salary cut” comparison. In your example, management cut guaranteed pay and replaced it with unrealistic bonus targets.

But here’s the difference:

The Mountain West didn’t voluntarily slash revenue. It lost members who believed they could monetize at a higher level elsewhere. Once that happened, the remaining schools had two choices:

1. Collapse into smaller leagues for guaranteed but lower payouts.
2. Preserve FBS status, preserve media relationships, and create a structure that includes baseline guarantees plus upside through direct-to-consumer growth.

That’s not fantasy productivity math. That’s optionality.

If the league had dissolved, UNLV, Wyoming, Air Force, New Mexico, and San Jose State wouldn’t be sitting at “80% with upside.” They’d likely be at a lower fixed number with no growth lever at all.

The new DTC component isn’t replacing guaranteed TV money, it’s attempting to monetize inventory that historically cost every team to produce with zero revenue. That’s closer to a company saying: “We’re no longer keeping part of your base salary, and we’re launching a new product where you can participate in profits.”


Could it fail? Sure. Every innovation carries risk. But calling it a sinking ship ignores that:

• The conference retained linear exposure.
• It avoided a mass exodus spiral.
• It added membership instead of shrinking below viability.
• It attempted consolidation talks.
• It preserved FBS autonomy.

You can absolutely argue that the schools would be safer in Conference USA. Or that dropping down would reduce travel costs and expectations. That’s a philosophical argument about ambition versus insulation.

But staying FBS, keeping media partners, adding members, and building a hybrid revenue model is not the behavior of a league that’s given up. It’s a league that took a punch and decided to stay in the fight.

And in this era of college athletics, surviving the punch might actually be progress.