ESPN is not the only game in town. We’ve been partners with them forever, BYU was their first televised CFB game, and they paved the way for BYU’s independence. We should all be thankful for that partnership and we’d love for it to continue. BYU loves ESPN and ESPN loves BYU. But that doesn’t mean we have to sell out to them for any price because of a misperception that BYU is desperate any TV deal we can find.

BYU has options and those options means BYU gets a major raise with our next contract.

The obvious alternatives are Fox and NBC. and there’s no reason to think that ABC might not be interested, yes there could be some dark horse candidates (root sports? No, thank you) But why think so 2 dimensionally? TV is changing rapidly and who knows where we’ll be in the next three years. What we do know is that BYU has the full broadcasting capabilities and years of experience doing it. BYU could do something that no one else could do, something so trailblazing that could turn sports broadcasting on its head and we’d be the only one in the country that could do it. The answer? BYU could sign with Netflix. That’s right. BYU sports, exclusively on Netflix. Think about it.

Netflix has just begun to see tremendous success developing innovative content and have made a business out of drawing network viewers away from expensive cable platforms and spur millions of cord cutters. I think we can easily expect more ‘netflix only’ content in the next few years as they get better at developing exclusive content but no matter what Netflix comes up with, people will always pay for cable to get their precious sports. What would Netflix pay to get CFB off of broadcast TV and away from ESPN? it's a huge risk for them. Live TV, broadcasters, commercials, hardware.This is a very different business model than they're used to. if only there was a program that could act as a partner that has full broadcasting experience, full HD facilities, broadcasters, experience with live TV, and that really ONLY NEEDS someone to distribute content over a fully mature nation-wide distribution platform? Netflix could even throw in a few 4K TV cameras to sweeten the deal (how about BYU football in full 4K Netflix glory?) And how big is Netflix? In 2012 it was bigger than any cable network and its mobile distribution has always been better. If BYU values distribution and exposure, this is bigger than ESPN. (http://www.forbes.com/sites/dorothypomerantz/2012/07/03/netflix-has-more-viewers-than-any-cable-network/).

It would be a risk for both parties, and BYU would certainly miss ESPN's matchmaking abilities, but it’s one I think Netflix would pay for and there is tremendous upside. If Netflix wants to get into sports, and they should , what would it cost them? The Big 10 price tag was $2.8 Billion. The Pac 12’s price tag was $3 Billion. SEC’s next deal will be bigger. Netflix could ‘try us out’ for a mere $100-200M, depending on deal length. it could be Netflix' first foray into live TV and BYUtv could teach them a ton about to run a digital live TV network. If it works, perhaps Netflix could decide to pursue some big time sports deals when they next come due. Meanwhile, BYU gets even better distribution, gets its raise, and really cashes in on our HD broadcasting facilities.

Likelihood of this scenario? probably not very good because BYU is so cautious. But the idea of BYU being the first college football broadcast in 4k with greater exposure, more money and available outside of cable is pretty tantalizing. You heard it here first.