JMU AD: Digital Schedule 'Frustrating'
HARRISONBURG — The Colonial Athletic Association announced a partnership with CBS Sports Digital on Friday, but its banner football program, reigning FCS champion James Madison, will only be featured once on the platform this fall.
“As the schedule came out, it was frustrating for those of us at JMU to only have one game on the digital network with CBS,” JMU athletic director Jeff Bourne said. “But it is a digital network, and we already maintain our own digital network with MadiZone and we’ll continue to offer that coverage.”
CBS Sports Digital will stream a Game of the Week for CAA football and men’s basketball through the next two seasons.
Its initial football package will run for 12 weeks beginning on Aug. 31. JMU’s Oct. 14 home game against Villanova is the Game of the Week for that Saturday — the Dukes’ lone appearance on the network.
JMU is one of three schools in the league, along with Rhode Island and William & Mary, that won’t be featured multiple times this season. Two schools — Maine and Stony Brook — will have three of their games shown on CBS Sports Digital.
“For me, as I look at it, and I have to remind myself we’re not comparing digital to linear,” Bourne said. “We’re comparing digital to digital.”
There weren’t any traditional television options for the league, Bourne said, which in turn became one of the reasons why the 2016 national champions will only be featured once this fall by CBS Sports Digital.
CAA schools won’t make any money off the deal with CBS Sports Digital, Bourne said, but a school’s own digital network can find profit through its third-tier media rights partners. Bourne said Learfield Sports sells advertising for JMU and its MadiZone productions.
CBS Sports Digital has exclusive rights to its Game of the Week broadcasts.
“Before this digital deal was ever put together with the league, we had already worked with Learfield to sell the MadiZone Network, so for every broadcast we lose on MadiZone there’s a financial impact for that on JMU,” Bourne said. “[The advertising is] sold as a season-long package.
“It’s not sold on a game-by-game basis, and certainly had JMU gotten linear television dollars for one of those games, then that makes complete sense to us. When you’re dealing with a digital network and you’re not covering it on MadiZone, there’s a financial impact there.”
Second-year CAA commissioner Joe D’Antonio said the league wanted CBS Digital to broadcast a game from each of the home venues across the conference.
Elon is the only school that will be featured twice at home.
“The decision on how games made the [Game of the Week] schedule and didn’t make that schedule is based on the consideration of several different factors,” D’Antonio said. “One of the primary factors is the economic concern and need of our member institutions based on other contractual agreements they may have.
“Another factor is that we’re trying to get every one of our institutions a home production — one broadcast of a home game from each school. And we’re also trying to provide our fans with quality matchups that comprise the Game of the Week schedule.”
So, theoretically, CBS Digital and the CAA could have elected to feature JMU a second or third time when the Dukes were on the road.
But if last year’s scores are any indication, two of JMU’s four road games this fall likely wouldn’t fall under the description of a quality matchup.
JMU is at Rhode Island on Nov. 4 and at Elon on Nov. 18. The Dukes pummeled the Rams 84-7 and took down Elon 63-14 last year. The Nov. 4 Game of the Week is Delaware at Maine and the Nov. 18 Game of the Week is New Hampshire at Albany.
The other two road games for JMU are at Delaware on Sept. 30 and at William & Mary on Oct. 21. CBS Digital and the CAA selected Richmond at Delaware on Oct. 21 and Towson at William & Mary on Nov. 11, as the Blue Hens’ and Tribe’s home games to feature.
“We had to get as creative as we could to try to find the best digital deal possible,” D’Antonio said. “We were involved with several entities to do that and ultimately it was CBS Interactive that presented us with the best possible option.”
D’Antonio said the league is still in conversation with Twitter about streaming its sports.
“The CAA worked hard when they were forced into a last-minute decision to try to find coverage on a digital network for our league institutions,” Bourne said. “It was something that happened very quickly and is very difficult to adjust to and see some of the things that could happen.
“It was a learning experience and I just regret it’s one that put us in a position where we’re only on the CBS Digital Network one time.”
Boure said the lack of exposure at the FCS level wouldn’t change how JMU views a possible jump to FBS.
“I don’t know if it is a driving force to look at any other options more than we would already,” Bourne said. “When we make a decision like that, it’s a global decision.
“I know one thing, my goal is to take care of our program and to make sure that we are being taken care of equivalent to institutions we consider peers and I’m very hopeful that in the future we’re not going to have an instance like this again.”