BearcatReport.com - Big East Conference prepares for TV deal

August 13, 2012

Andrew Force
BearcatReport.com Publisher

Monday the guild in Providence, known as the Big East Conference office, eagerly announced the hiring of Bevilacqua Helfant Ventures to spearhead the TV rights negotiations.

"The BIG EAST Conference has hired Bevilacqua Helfant Ventures, a national leader in sports media business, to be the lead negotiator in the league's upcoming television negotiations," announced Interim Commissioner Joe Bailey through press release.

Despite getting whacked by the ever-changing tide of college conference realignment the conference has bounced back. They secured a few solid football, er "athletic" programs like Boise State and SMU and a few more major television markets.

Bevil Who?

Most of us are completely foreign to the behind-the-scenes negotiating driving these astronomical television contracts.

Chris Bevilacqua and Adam Helfant are not. They live for those murky moments and have carved a career out of helping organizations, companies, and leagues collect top dollar.

They branched off to form their own company in April of this year. Within weeks they solidified clients like the Texas Rangers, Washington Nationals, Pac-12 Conference, Rose Bowl, and the Atlantic 10.

Bevilacqua is the brains. He launched CSTV and has more connections than the NYC bus line.

"If one believes that past performance is the best predictor of future performance, we have tremendous confidence in our selection of Chris Bevilacqua to be our lead negotiator," said Bailey.

Bevilacqua led the media negotiations for the Rose Bowl Game earlier this year and the Pac-12 Conference in 2011, which will be launching its own 24-hour network later this week. Both agreements have been hailed as precedent setting transactions in media and digital media.

Helfant's role is more sponsorship acquisition. He finds the money. Previous successes for Helfant include reviving the wilting ATP and working for NIKE.

"We are thrilled to be working with the BIG EAST Conference during one of the most dynamic times in the history of the media industry," said Bevilacqua. "The BIG EAST has some of the most recognizable brand names and highly rated programming within intercollegiate athletics, both of which are at a premium these days."

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