Not surprisingly, ESPN has gobbled up yet another college football property.
The latest to entrench itself underneath the World Wide Leader’s ever-expanding umbrella is the Mountain West Conference, with that league announcing that its football championship game will be moving to either ESPN or ESPN2 through the 2019-20 season. The 2015 version of the title game will be played Sat. Dec. 5 at 7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN2 at the home of the team with the best College Football Playoff ranking.
The rights to the first two conference title games were held by CBS.
“We are appreciative of the growing relationship with our partners at ESPN,” MWC commissioner Craig Thompson said in a statement. “The addition of our annual football championship game to a full slate of regular-season programming across the ESPN networks will provide an exciting segue into our many ESPN-affiliated bowl games and the College Football Playoff.”
The release added that "[t]he football title contest adds to an extensive deal, which began with the 2013 season, that provides ESPN with exclusive worldwide rights to televise up to 16 Mountain West football games, plus every Boise State home game.” Of course, in addition to increased exposure, there’s a financial benefit to the teams that appear during regular season games. From the Laramie Boomerang:
There are no appearance bonuses for the teams that qualify for the championship game.
Fresno State has represented the West in each of the first two title games, winning the inaugural contest in 2013. The Mountain’s Boise State beat Fresno in last year’s game.