Grant Cardone on the selling of the New Big East
By: Jim Williams | 11/19/11 11:05 AM
Sports Columnist Follow him @Wordmandc
Yesterday I did a column on the rebranding of Penn State with Grant Cardone the New York Times best-selling author and star of National Geographic Channel’s “Turnaround King.” He is a world-renowned sales expert who has rescued numerous struggling companies.
Today we tackle how he would rebrand the New Big East with their proposed expansion partners.
JW: How does the Big East use this western expansion to improve their brand?
Cardone: The issue has less to do with improving their brand and is more an issue of plain survival. With marquee teams like West Virginia, Syracuse, and Pittsburgh leaving, The Big East has no choice but to seek out western expansion to fill the void created by their departure.
This has created unique opportunities for Boise State, BYU and Houston. These teams now have a chance at the BCS Automatic Bid. All three teams have had great seasons in the past but have not made the National Championship games because they were not in an automatic bid league. This will also allow them to play against each other and prevent detractors from claiming that they play weaker schedules. If these teams make it through the Big East schedule undefeated then they will get the shot to play in the national championship game.
There is no way the Big East could survive without these three teams and up along with up and coming programs like Southern Methodist and University of Central Florida. You add to that group the national following of the service academies Air Force and Navy. This is a win-win, which will eventually make the brand stronger.
JW: Given the cities and the media markets involved is it fair to expect the Big East could a multi-year billion-dollar TV contract they are looking for?
Cardone: A multi-billion dollar plus TV contract is assured because of the basketball that the conference plays. The Big East is to college basketball what the SEC is to football and that remains true even after losing Pitt, Syracuse and West Virginia. The expansion of the football element to the conference put the Big East in a great place as they start the bidding process for a new TV deal in 2012.
The football is quality and will grow over years allowing the conference to rebuild its football brand at reasonable rate. The conference needs rivalries and they will come in time.”The War on I-4 between South Florida – Central Florida and the potential of a great new rivalry between Boise State – BYU provide the conference with some great long tern potential as rivalries. But it takes years to build traditional ones Ohio State-Michigan, USC-CAL and Florida-Florida State. These games are built on history, geography, and tradition. It’s going to take awhile before the new Big East teams come close to the kind of match-ups.
JW: Would the Big East be better off merging with Conference USA and the Mountain West to start a Super Conference?
Cardone : No they would lose their brand identity. Anytime you merge it is a lateral move and not an upward move. So while it may sound too many sound like a good plan it would in fact be a very bad business move for the Big East. They should stick to their expansion plan build on it.
This just in…
One last thing and last thing…I confirmed through a high ranking broadcast industry source that ESPN is not in any way blocking a BYU move to the Big East. So the rumor that they were was totally unfounded.
Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/watch/2011/11/grant-cardone-selling-new-big-east-0#ixzz1eNdkyPIH
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