While it has been in the works for a while, we are finally getting most of the details for the new Mountain West TV Deal that will be going into effect this next season, after the five universities leave for the Conference formally known as the Conference of Champions (RIP Bill Walton). We have known for about eight months that CBS would be continuing their coverage of the Conference, but there had been questions about what the other parts of the deal would be, FOX has been part of the media rights deal pretty much since the Conference left their ESPN deal, the Conference had also seen coverage in recent years on Turner Sports, ROOT Sports, and the Mountain West Network (TV edition) which was well before its time. We now know who’s going to be part of the deal, and what the coverage will look like.

While we don’t have the financial terms of the deal, we do know that the legacy members will still receive the 3.5 million they have been receiving during the deal that will be ending at the conclusion of this athletics year. The deal will include three TV Networks with those being CBS, FOX, and The CW, and the other big news from the day the Conference will be putting their streamer platform behind a paywall (more about this later) and getting rid of the free MW Network platform. I think the best way to view this, is that nothing much changes with the CBS and FOX aspects of the deal, most of the difference in the amount of games on TV has more to do with the loss of Conference Games than just losing the platform, and The CW aspect of this deal should be mostly viewed as the ROOT Sports or what ever Regional Sports Network that has shown MW Games before, it will be on TV but don’t expect it to be on every station on The CW Network. Some of the members will see very little if any change to how much they are going to be on TV, but there will be members who will see a big difference. You’ll be able to see some of these changes with the amount of games the Networks will be showing for each of the sports that are on Network TV.

Football: 41 games on Network TV with 15 games on CBS Sports Network, 13 on FOX Networks, 13 on The CW, and one CBS game).

Men’s Basketball: 65 games on Network TV with 24 games on CBS Sports Network, 20 on FOX Networks, 20 on The CW, and one CBS game).

Women’s Basketball: 15 games on Network TV with 3 on CBS Sports Network, and 12 on The CW.

This will likely be the setup for the length of the deal with The CW being the wildcard with things, the CBS and FOX part of the deal will run for six years, while The CW deal will run for five years with an option for the sixth year.

Depending on somethings, I would guess that their is very little if anything that will change for the Lobos and their appearances on Network TV with this new Media Rights Deal, which is exciting to see. There are some disappointing things with all of this, but that is mostly due to what could have been with this Media Rights Deal if the Conference wasn’t breaking up. The UNM Athletics Department has to see opportunities with this deal, and that leads me to probably the most exciting part of the deal for UNM.

After years of have a free streamer option of the Mountain West Network, the Conference will be putting their streaming option behind a paywall, which is a bummer for the fan, but their is some silver lining to this news, with the subscription model, the conference will be paying the universities that are bringing in the subscriptions, and this isn’t part of the Network driven deal. One thing that helps UNM with this aspect of the deal is they have a good size fanbase that will pay to watch their teams, and part of that money going to the University and not the Conference or some unknown should help people hit the subscribe button for the Lobos. If the Lobos are able to get where they are bringing in over 1 million off of the subscriptions, that can be game changing for the Athletics Department. Something that UNM has going for it right now is they have a really good setup for their broadcast so they don’t have to make too many changes to what they are doing. While we don’t have a true understanding of what this will look like, it does look like you will be able to watch these broadcasts on Prime Video.

Conclusions on the Media Rights Deal can’t be made until we actually know the numbers, but we will also only know what the Network part of the deal will be. With the number staying at 3.5 million for UNM, I would say that this deal is a net positive considering where the deal or the Conference could have been at 15+ months ago. It’s disappointing because of what this deal could have been, and the incredible basketball conference it would have been. We will be keeping an eye on how this deal looks moving forward, but I believe there is reason to be optimistic of where the UNM Athletics Department is at with this deal, and what added value their could be. Time to keep pushing forward and be innovative in what they can do with this new deal.