Courtesy Columbia Tribune

(May 12, 2010) It was more than the promise of a paycheck that brought Mike Hall to the Big Ten three years ago. A victory on ESPN’s reality show “Dream Job” landed the Missouri broadcast student a job at the cable network, which later turned into an anchor chair at ESPNU.

But in 2007, the Big Ten was about to launch something new, something bold: a 24-hour cable network devoted to nothing but the 11 schools that make up the conference. The network’s home would be Chicago, not far from Hall’s native Glen Ellyn, Ill.

Leaving the royalty of sports television for the rookie station might have seemed like career suicide, but Hall was a believer in Jim Delany. The Big Ten Network was the Big Ten commissioner’s baby. And nobody puts Delany’s baby in the corner.

“The thing I don’t think a ton of people get is Jim Delany doesn’t make a move unless it’s a home run,” Hall said. “He didn’t add a team to the conference until he had Penn State” in 1990. “And that was a home run. He decided to use instant replay for officials before any other commissioner did. Then he started his own network before anyone else thought it was possible.”

Possible and lucrative.

And as the Big Ten Network approaches the third anniversary of its Aug. 30, 2007, launch, Delany’s billion-dollar baby might be the most influential factor in the story that’s holding college sports captive this spring and beyond: conference expansion.

The network, already in the black after its first two years on air, is the Big Ten’s cash cow with the golden udders. And everyone wants a sip.

“To me, there was never a question if the network would be successful,” Big Ten Network President Mark Silverman said in a recent phone interview. “The question was, how successful would we be? Would we be able to really create a significant enterprise here?”

Yes, you have.

The BTN is a joint venture between the Big Ten, the 51-percent majority owner, and Fox Cable Networks, a division of News Corporation. Their 25-year agreement is estimated to be worth $2.8 billion by industry experts.

The BTN airs 35 to 40 Big Ten football games every season, ensuring that every home conference game is televised either on the network or by broadcast partners ABC/ESPN. In 2008, all but two of the Big Ten’s 88 football games were televised nationally. No other conference had more than 70 percent of its games covered nationally.

The BTN features 105 men’s basketball games annually — plus approximately 55 women’s games — and offers Web streaming for games that aren’t televised.

During the latest men’s basketball season, 211 of the conference’s 251 regular-season games (84 percent) were televised. Another 25 games were streamed online, making 94 percent of Big Ten games available on TV or the Web. The Big 12 had the next best percentage of its games broadcast with 79 percent.

Nonrevenue sports have a place on the BTN, too, giving Big Ten coaches in sports like volleyball, softball and baseball a valuable recruiting pitch.

“Our softball team has been a top-10 or top-15 program the last five years, but until the network came along, the amount of coverage we got was limited to the postseason,” said Northwestern Senior Associate Athletic Director John Mack. “This year, we’ll have 10 to 15 regular-season games played on the Big Ten Network.”

“Penn State is a women’s volleyball dynasty right now,” Hall said. “And they can tell recruits, ‘Great, go to UCLA. But how many games can you see on TV? Probably none outside the Final Four. But if you’re in the Big Ten, you can watch games on the network or on the network’s website.’ ”

BTN programming only starts with game coverage. The network offers a full slate of studio analysis and highlight shows and various specialty programs, including its most popular, “The Journey,” a documentary-style behind-the-scenes look at different Big Ten teams. This fall, the network is launching “Big Ten Icons,” a countdown of the league’s 50 greatest athletes, hosted by Keith Jackson. Also, the BTN plans to re-air old coaches shows featuring legends like Woody Hayes and Bo Schembechler.

Silverman credits that creative approach to programming for the BTN’s growth. The network turned a profit in its second year — neither the network nor the conference discloses the exact figures — yet Silverman confirmed the network increased advertising revenue by more than 30 percent last year.

“Our ratings are getting higher,” Silverman said. “Advertisers are noticing us. Fans are noticing us. It’s now our third year, and now that we’re well past the early distribution challenges, people are well aware that we’re out there. … And like any TV network or business, you get better over time.”

Initially, finding the Big Ten Network on your TV was a chore, even within the eight-state footprint that’s home to Big Ten teams. Cable providers balked at including the network on their packages, but by the summer of 2008, the heavyweight providers — notably Comcast and Time Warner — ended heated negotiations and reached agreement with the network,.

“They fell like dominoes,” Hall said. “It was like boom, boom, boom in a matter of days. By the time the second football season came around, it was like we penetrated all of basic cable in the entire Midwest.”

“Obviously, in that first year, when we were working so hard on distribution, there were some skeptics,” said Pac-10 Deputy Commissioner Kevin Weiberg, who worked under Silverman at the BTN during its early stages. “That’s the nature of the hard battle we were engaged in with the cable companies. But it’s been all positive since then.”

Now, the BTN collects fees from 45 million households and is available in another 30 million that have the option on their cable or satellite packages.

“Now you can see that the network has become ingrained in the sports television landscape,” said Northwestern’s Mack.

And that’s where expansion enters the picture.

The conference takes in approximately 70 cents per subscription each month from within the Big Ten footprint, a figure that’s been widely reported and confirmed by Mediaweek Senior Editor Anthony Cruppi. Outside the footprint, in states such as Missouri and Nebraska, BTN subscriptions deliver about a dime per month to the conference.

From there, the math is simple: As CBSSports.com’s Dennis Dodd figured last month, if Missouri should leave the Big 12 for the Big Ten, adding the state and its 2.2 million households to the Big Ten footprint, the conference could increase its monthly Missouri intake from $220,000 to $1.54 million.

That formula also explains why Rutgers or Syracuse could line the Big Ten coffers with East Coast cash. Cablevision, the super-sized carrier that brings cable to New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, agreed to offer the BTN to its subscribers last fall.

“We think expansion would have a positive impact for us, regardless how many schools or what schools they are, because we’ll have additional games to cover,” Silverman said. “We’ll wait to see what will happen. Even if there isn’t any expansion, we still feel like we have significant growth ahead.”

In the Big Ten, football revenue is shared evenly among the 11 conference members, at around $22 million per school each year. Big 12 schools pull in considerably less under their TV agreements — approximately $9 million for MU last year.

For athletic programs in the Big Ten, the difference is vital.

At Purdue, for example, a $100 million renovation to basketball’s Mackey Arena would be impossible without the TV revenue share, assistant athletics director for communications Tom Schott said.

“A third of that is being paid for by private donations and fund-raising,” Schott said, “but the rest is in large part from the TV deal money.”

Schott said former Purdue football Coach Joe Tiller made a habit of reminding Schott, “Just remember the Big Ten Network is building you a new office.”

“He was joking,” Schott said, “but it really was true. We’re able to do something on a huge scale that we wouldn’t be were it not for” the TV revenue.

“It has far exceeded what any of our expectations were going into this,” added Kent Brown, Illinois’ assistant athletics director for public relations. “I don’t think any of us knew what we were getting into when all of a sudden we had a network. We had to figure out how to fill 24 hours seven days a week. But they’ve got big plans, and the fact that the network showed a profit after two years, that’s huge.”

Even the most optimistic among the believers in Delany’s vision couldn’t have predicted that rate of growth, not even Hall, who now waits for the expansion drama to unfold, for personal reasons, too.

“As a Missouri fan, I desperately wish my team has a network like this,” he said. “I only get to see a couple Mizzou football games a year and a handful of basketball games, whereas a Minnesota Gopher fan will see every single football game his team plays this year. … There’s really nothing else like it.”

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