ABC Gets CFA Rights for 5 Years

Beginning with the 1991 season, all non-cable college football telecasts will be limited to one network.

That is the essence of an agreement between ABC and the College Football Assn. announced Wednesday.

No terms were announced, but industry sources said it is a five-year, $210-million deal.

From ABC’s point of view, it shows the network is still in the sports business.

ABC, over the last six years, has been shut out during negotiations for other sports rights deals--major league baseball, three different Olympics, the NBA, and the NCAA basketball tournament.

ABC, once dominant in televised sports, had not acquired a major sports property since Jan. 24, 1984, when it got the rights to the 1988 Winter Olympics for $309 million.

Now CBS and NBC have been shut out of college football, except for bowl games.

From the viewer’s point of view, there will be fewer games to choose from on college football Saturdays after next season, although the smorgasbord on cable television will remain intact.

CBS, which had held the rights to CFA games, had exclusive negotiating rights. But CBS was not prepared to meet the CFA’s asking price of more than $40 million a year.

CBS, a source said, offered about $32 million a season.

CBS will pay about $16 million in rights fees next season, the final year of its current four-year deal with the CFA.

“We were not prepared to triple the rights fee, which was the price requested by the CFA and apparently agreed to by ABC,” Neal Pilson, president of CBS Sports, said in a statement.

NBC’s bid, the source said, was a little lower than CBS’ offer.

ABC last fall signed contract extensions with the Pacific 10 and Big Ten conferences that run through the 1996 season, one more than ABC’s new contract with the CFA.

So the Pac-10 and Big Ten are unable to offer their games to another network, thus resulting in a logjam of games on one network.

The CFA consists of 64 Division I-A college football schools. They include the members of the Atlantic Coast, Southeastern, Big Eight, Southwest and Western Athletic conferences, plus 20 independents, among them Miami, Notre Dame and Florida State.

Stephen Solomon, an ABC senior vice president, said: “There’s one network that will be covering it all. We think the opportunity for putting together all of college football is a wonderful broadcasting opportunity.”

Solomon said that ABC plans to televise 50-55 college football games over the 15-week season, but most of those will be shown regionally.

During 10 of those 15 weeks, there will be an overlap between the ABC’s Pac-10/Big Ten package and the CFA package.

Thus, West Coast viewers will get to see only a few of ABC’s CFA telecasts.

“We haven’t got an exact breakdown (on how things will work),” Solomon said. “There will be some flexibility.”

Solomon also said there will be some doubleheader dates.

ABC, on most Saturdays, will have to leave the 9:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. time slots alone because of various conference packages. The Pac-10 package is carried by Prime Ticket in Los Angeles, and those games are usually televised at 3:30.

The Big Ten may be able to sell a 9:30 a.m. package to a Los Angeles outlet, but the top games will belong to ABC and may not be shown here at all.

All of college football was included in one TV package sold by the NCAA until June, 1984, when the Supreme Court voided it as a violation of antitrust laws.

Asked if things would be similar to the way they were before 1984, Solomon said, “The difference now is you have all the cable packages.”

The CFA already has a separate cable contract with ESPN, which is for $110 million over four years, 1991-94.

As for the new deal with ABC, David Ogrean, assistant executive director of the CFA, said: “This was clearly the best deal for a variety of reasons. There’s no getting around that, in this marketplace, the bottom line is money.”