In many recent NCAA media rights discussions, we’ve seen greater prominence for the idea of conferences working with various external partners on media rights strategies and deals. It’s not always just about teaming directly with networks or streaming partners, but also about working with firms that can help devise wider strategies, put conferences in touch with particular media companies that might be a fit, and even help negotiate what eventual deals look like. One notable firm expanding in that space is Collegiate Sports Management Group, and Tuesday saw them announce their eighth Division I partnership, this time with the Summit League. Here’s more on that from a release:
The Summit League announced today that Collegiate Sports Management Group (CSMG) will be exclusively representing them to play a key strategic role in formulating their conference media rights strategy under new Commissioner Josh Fenton.
…“The Summit League is continually focused on enhancing the experiences for and connectivity with both our student-athletes and passionate fans,” said Fenton. “We look forward to working with trusted leadership at CSMG in a media rights evaluation process with the goal to provide broader exposure to the successes of Summit League student-athletes, while building stronger fan affinity with our devoted students, alumni and fans.”
The partnership with The Summit League marks the eighth Division I Conference to partner with CSMG which is rooted in intellectual property rights management, acquisition, and development through media rights, Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL), valuation services, licensing, and sponsorship sales. CSMG also manages ESPORTSU, focused on uniting the collegiate esports community through original content and events, including the Collegiate Esports Commissioner’s Cup (CECC).
“CSMG is excited to partner with The Summit League which is home to great institutions and one of the best college basketball tournament atmospheres in the country,” said Ray Katz, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer for CSMG. “With the ever changing college landscape and a lens on what’s next, we are confident we will drive a winning media rights strategy with regards to revenue and exposure on behalf of this exceptional conference.”
The Summit League was founded in 1982 as the Association of Mid-Continent Universities, then rebranded to the Mid-Continent Conference in 1989, and took up its current name in 2007. They have has 10 full members (Denver, Missouri-Kansas City, Nebraska-Omaha, North Dakota, North Dakota State, Oral Roberts, South Dakota, South Dakota State, St. Thomas and Western Illinois) spread across eight states, and also have eight associate members (Drake, Eastern Illinois, Illinois State, Lindenwood, Southern Indiana and Northern Colorado) for combinations of baseball, swimming and diving, men’s tennis, and men’s soccer. They sponsor championship competition in nine men’s sports (baseball, basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, swimming and diving, tennis, indoor track and field, and outdoor track and field) and 10 women’s sports (the above minus baseball, but plus softball and volleyball).
Collegiate Sports Management Group is an integrated sports and entertainment media company. As per their website, “The focus of our business verticals – CSMG and ESPORTSU – is rooted in intellectual property rights management, acquisition and development through media rights, Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL), valuation services, licensing and sponsorship sales.” Co-founders Katz and Michael Schreck have significant experience negotiating media deals in college sports and beyond. Their other Division I partners include the ASUN Conference, the Big Sky Conference, the Colonial Athletic Association, the Horizon League, the Northeast Conference, and the Southern Conference.
The Summit League’s current Tier 1 media rights deal is with ESPN, but that’s mostly for men’s basketball, and even there, most of the games covered by that deal are shown on streaming on ESPN+ (they were an early adopter there, with their games amongst those included at that service’s 2018 launch). They also have a deal with cable company Midco. Fenton, who officially took the Summit League commissioner’s job last April after previously serving as commissioner of the National Collegiate Hockey Conference for nine years, had some interesting things to say about their media strategy in a March 2021 interview with Mike McFeely of The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead:
Q: One of your top accomplishments with the NCHC was establishing NCHC.tv, a digital network. Could there be a SummitLeague.tv to get all of the league in one spot digitally?
A: “Yes, in terms of possibility. How it comes to together is maybe another thing. We have a Tier 1 relationship with ESPN, obviously a great media partnership. ESPN is very powerful across the country. As part of that relationship we’ve got a smaller linear component — they’ll be here for the championship games Tuesday night. And then we have a digital component through ESPN+. But not everything gets pushed to ESPN+ so we can’t look at that as the digital home for the Summit League, so to speak. Then we have a secondary partnership, a great one, with Midco.
“We have to try to figure out where we’re going forward with the overall media landscape. Is there something we can do linear nationally? Linear regionally? And maybe we’ve found a bit of a sweet spot with Midco. Last, in combination with the linear side, is the digital component. I’m not naive enough to believe that we’re going to have all the Summit League games on an ESPN linear channel because that’s just not going to happen. So we have to be able to provide a digital option that makes sense for fans. The biggest thing for me is we have to find a way to organize it and aggregate it in a way that is conducive to the fan base. Not just the NDSU fan base, but the Oral Roberts fan base and everybody else. I believe the way to do that is to aggregate the rights and put something together collectively.”
…Q: I heard Matt Larsen, the athletic director at NDSU, say on the radio the other day in Fargo that he would like to see the Summit League, as you mentioned, get a national linear TV deal of some kind, even if it’s for a Summit League game of the week or something like that. The other thing he mentioned was a scheduling alliance with another mid-major conference to maybe bump up the league’s NET rankings, get some consistency there. Are those possibilities?
A: “So from the television side of things this is where the membership, and this is where we are very early in our discussions, has to come together and say, ‘What is most important to us?’ There is a financial aspect to it, there is an exposure aspect to it and then there is maybe an impact to some local partners. For NDSU, is there an impact to WDAY? So we’d have to figure that out and the membership would have to understand what’s most important. Are those things possible? Sure they are possible. Are they snap the fingers and they are easily done? No, they are not. Distributors, the ESPNs of the world and others, are in the business for ratings. And so one of the things we need to do, going back to one of your earlier questions, is raise the profile the Summit League, enhance the competitiveness of the programs in the Summit League, so it becomes more attractive to linear television outlets. You can’t just walk in and say, ‘Hey, television entity XYZ, we want to be on a game of the week.’ They are not just going to give it to you. You have to provide the value. I think we have value, but I think we have to grow in additional value. Those are conversations we’re going to have with ESPN and potentially others.
And those are now conversations that CSMG will help the Summit League with. We’ll see what that winds up meaning for their media rights.
