SB Nation Boston: All Posts by Jeremy Mauss

ROOT SPORTS contract is a seven-year deal

2013-05-19T01:14:14Z

Details of the Mountain West's latest television deal with ROOT SPORTS Rocky Mountain has been revealed, and the Albuquerque Journal was able to get some more insight of the deal. The agreement is a seven-year deal and worth approximately $2 million per year when including revenue and savings from production costs.

This timeframe matches up with the deal that the Mountain West has with ESPN and CBS Sports, and having all of those deals line up for the same amount of time makes it much easier when it comes time to renegotiate their next contract.

The way the amount comes to $2 million is that ROOT SPORTS Rocky Mountain will be producing these games themselves, this taking on the cost. Last season, some of these games were produced locally but picked up on ROOT SPORTS. The rights fees being paid are $500,000 per year but New Mexico athletic director Paul Krebs esitmates that the production savings are near $1.5 million, so that is where $2 million.

The other great news is that those who do not have ROOT SPORTS Rocky Mountain are able to access those games on the Mountain West's new digital platform at no cost. The extra viewers may not be all that many but it could work nice for those who want to watch a game who live out of the areas, or give people the option to watch online and TV as well.

Another positive note is that after ROOT SPORTS picks the 10 or so games it decides to broadcast, teams can still shop their remaining games to local providers. While ROOT SPORTS is the offical regional televison partner, the press release does not state it is the exclusive regional partner, so it could be possible for Altitude or TimeWarner SportsNet to pick up some games like those channels did last season.

2014 San Diego State football recruiting: Donavin Buck commits to be an Aztec

2013-05-19T00:47:26Z

The second linebacker that San Diego State earned a verbal commitment during their camp this past weekend was Donavin Buck (Brawley Union/Brawley, Calif.), he is on the smaller side at 6-foot-5 and 200 pounds. Despite the smaller frame, he is a three-star recruit and the 40th linebacker in the country.

He also was receiving offers from San Jose State, SMU, Arizona, Washington State, Oregon State as well as Rutgers. Buck's decision to go with San Diego State over those other schools is due to the relationship he has with recruiting coordinator and cornerbacks coach Tony White.

In his junior year Buck had 80 tackles, 21 for loss, 10 sacks and also two interceptions. He basically was all over the field and making plays, and that ability could earn him early playing time. That is the reason why he wants to go to San Diego State:

"I love San Diego State's program, it's the best fit for me and I have a good chance to play there early," Buck said. "I love the way they attack the ball, they go gang tackle everybody. Everybody's hungry, everybody's going after the ball."

However, before he made the decision to go to San Diego State, he had to get his parents on board. Head coach Rocky Long was able to answer all of their questions, and at the end of those conversations, Bucks parents were on the same page as their son.

Here are highlights of Buck:

2014 San Diego State football recruiting: Aztecs land ILB Cameron Griffin

2013-05-16T19:43:20Z

San Diego State had players visit the campus for an invite-only camp this past week, and the Aztecs came away with three verbal commits to their 2014 class -- bringing their total to five.

One of those commits is Inside linebacker Cameron Griffin (View Park Continuation/Los Angeles) is 6-foot-3, 215 pounds and made his verbal pledge on May 13. He chose San Diego State over his other offer of Fresno State. He did have interest coming from Boise State, Washington and Washington State. As of now. Griffin is not yet rated by the recruiting services, but that should change once he begins his senior season in a few months.

Heading into his visit, Griffin already thought about committing to San Diego State. However, he wanted to check out what they offer on the academic sides of things. Griffin has a 3.7 GPA and plans on being a mechanical engineer major. Once he took a look at the academics San Diego State offers he wanted to discuss with some friends about the school, so he left without making a decision.

San Diego State did offer Griffin before any other school when cornerbacks coach Tony White saw his athleticism. The decision to attended San Diego State came when Griffin was introduced to the 3-3-5 scheme that Rocky Long utilizes:

"I really thought about committing during the visit then," Griffin said. "It was probably when he was telling me how I'd be used in his 3-3-5 system, and that's what I think is the best fit for my talents. They like that I can blitz and my speed to the ball. I can bring leadership too."

Here are highlights from his junior season:

ROOT SPORTS is official regional TV partner of Mountain West

2013-05-15T20:09:33Z

The Mountain West has struck a multi-year deal with the DirecTV-owned ROOT SPORTS -- specifically this is ROOT SPORTS Rocky Mountain -- to be the official regional television partner for the league. The contract length or monetary value of the deal has not been disclosed.

The channel will broadcast at approximately 10 football and at a minimum 25 basketball games, all will be shown in high definition, starting in the 2013-14 season. This more than likely means that Altitude is not going to be able to broadcast a few games like the network did last year.

Also, NBC Sports let its contract expire with the Mountain West, so they are almost certainly not going to broadcast any football or basketball games.

This deal between ROOT SPORTS and the Mountain West will reach about 2.5 million people across nine states, and maybe more depending on if one subscribes to an out of market sports pack, you know for those displaced New Mexico fans living out on the East Coast.

For those who have Root Sports Northwest, they will be out of luck for watching any Mountain West football or basketball, unless Boise State is involved. For football, their 2013 games are all tied up with ESPN, CBS Sports Network or non-conference games.

Getting 10 additional games will certainly help the league get more exposure. With Boise State out of the loop, look for Utah State, Colorado State, New Mexico, UNLV and Wyoming to fill out the bulk of those 10 additional games.

The 25 basketball games is a good amount of games and will definitely provide a lot more coverage for the league. That amount is eight more than ROOT SPORTS aired last year, and almost shores up the loss of 12 games that NBC Sports Network aired last year.

Overall, this is a good move for the conference to get as many games on television as possible.

Mountain West basketball to have unbalanced league schedule

2013-05-12T23:55:37Z

With Utah State and San Jose State joining the Mountain West, and conversely Boise State and San Diego State staying, the basketball side of things gives the league 11 members. With 11 teams, creating a basketball schedule is not very easy as if the league had eight, nine or even 10 teams.

An 18-game schedule has been in place for sometime, but the actual format was still up in the air. That is until the spring meetings the league had in Phoenix. With 18 games there is no way to play a round robin with each team playing twice, so the decision was made to play an unbalanced schedule with the better teams facing off more often.

The reason to have the better teams play more often is to get better matchups on television with CBS and ESPN, this is similar to what the Big East did when they had its monstrous 16-team league.

However, the coaches voted 8-3 in favor of doing a random schedule, but the athletic directors smartly vetoing the vote in favor of more UNLV vs. San Diego State and New Mexico games rather than Nevada playing Fresno State or San Jose State twice in a year.

Having the better teams play more often in a season will help each others schools RPI and other metrics when it comes to NCAA tournament time, but it can also help lesser teams who can earn more wins by not having to play the upper part of the league as often. The breakdown of the schedule will have teams play eight opponents twice and two others just once.

Utah State building basketball practice facility

2013-05-12T13:00:06Z

Utah State has always been a basketball school, last two years being an exception, and with the move from the WAC to the Mountain West the school is upping their commitment to the hardwood.

The school is in the process of adding a basketball and volleyball facility. This move allows the Aggies to keep up with New Mexico, UNLV and San Diego State who all have a separate basketball facility.

The project will cost $9.5 million, however donors Jim and Carol Laub are pledging a school-record $5.25 million for the project. The 32,000 square feet facility will be called the Wayne Estes Center to honor possibly the best Utah State basketball player ever. Estes was a three-time All-American from 1963-65 and still holds many records, including points per game at 26.7.

The facility itself will be a big boost for Utah State hoops, and athletic director Scott Barnes is grateful for the donation to get this project underway:

"Jim and Carol have played a critical role in the growth of our athletic enterprise in numerous ways over the years," said Barnes. "Their most recent lead gift to the Wayne Estes Center is a profoundly generous statement that speaks volumes about their devotion to Utah State University Athletics and our student-athletes. This comes at a pivotal time as we continue to make the climb in preparation for Mountain West competition."

Utah State has had amazing success under head coach Stew Morrill who has led the team to 20 wins per year in all but one season since he has been on campus. This facility will help them keep up with the rest of the Mountain West to keep their string of 20-plus win seasons alive.

There is already an artist rendition of the facility.

Las Vegas Bowl to air on ABC

2013-05-10T12:00:07Z

The Las Vegas Bowl announced on Thursday that their 2013 edition will be played on Saturday Dec. 21 and with a 3:30 p.m. ET kickoff time. The big news is that this game will be on ABC rather than ESPN or ESPN2.

This is just the second time that this game will be on ABC, the last time was back in 2001 when Utah defeated USC.

That prior ABC game still holds the record for being the highest rated Las Vegas Bowl due to being on Christmas, on ABC and having USC.

The 2013 Las Vegas Bowl will be played on a Saturday for the second consecutive year, and if it includes Boise State the ratings should be pretty good, too.

Early projections have Boise State heading to another Las Vegas Bowl, and their projected opponent is Arizona State.

This news coupled with the announcement of more ESPN games for the Mountain West is a boon for the leagues exposure.

2013 Mountain West football TV schedule: ESPN announces more games

2013-05-09T23:56:49Z

The Mountain West television schedule for football is getting closer to being completed as ESPN announced 15 more games that will be shown on its family of networks, the league now has a total of 22 games on an ESPN platform. The other seven were announced a few weeks ago.

The kickoff times and specific channel will not be known until the games get closer; typically there is a window of 12 days prior when kick times and channels are announced from ESPN. Also, the schedule that ESPN sent out indicates that these are all Saturday games, but do not be surprised if some are switched to a Thursday or Friday.

Teams looking to bolster their national television presence were disappointed, as was Wyoming who is getting just two ESPN games -- one was already known with the road game at Boise State -- the other is an away game against Air Force. The Border War between Wyoming and Colorado State did not get picked up by ESPN, and CBS Sports Network already passed on that game as well. If that rivalry game is going to get a larger audience it will come down to ROOT Sports or Altitude to broadcast that game.

Hawaii is getting even less exposure than Wyoming, they have zero appearances no ESPN which is very strange since for years the Warriors have been a semi-staple for the 12 a.m. ET kickoffs. Yes the team is not that good but there is no live programming at that time, and ESPN probably figures they would do better with SportsCenter or some other generic programming.

Here are the additional games that will be shown on ESPN:

Date	Game	Network
Sat., Sept. 7	Tennessee-Martin at Boise State	ESPN Networks
Sat., Sept. 21	Wyoming at Air Force	ESPN Networks
Sat., Sept. 28	Southern Miss at Boise State	ESPN Networks
Sat, Oct. 26	Fresno State at San Diego State	ESPN Networks
Sat, Oct. 26	UNLV at Nevada	ESPN Networks
Sat., Nov. 2	Army at Air Force	ESPN Networks
Sat., Nov. 2	Nevada at Fresno State	ESPN Networks
Sat., Nov. 9	Nevada at Colorado State	ESPN Networks
Sat., Nov. 9	Utah State at UNLV	ESPN Networks
Sat., Nov. 16	San Jose State at Nevada	ESPN Networks
Sat., Nov. 16	Wyoming at Boise State	ESPN Networks
Sat., Nov. 23	New Mexico at Fresno State	ESPN Networks
Sat., Nov. 30	Air Force at Colorado State	ESPN Networks
Sat., Nov. 30	New Mexico at Boise State	ESPN Networks
Sat., Nov. 30	San Diego State at UNLV	ESPN Networks