:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/10169475/152040395.0.jpg)
A few weeks ago, it was reported that ESPN and the Mountain West agreed to a deal worth $6 million a year beginning for the 2013 year and run through the 2019-20 academic year. Now, that deal is official, but the exact details of how much the Mountain West will be earning is not being disclosed.
This deal allows ESPN to broadcast up to 16 Mountain West football games, plus every Boise State home game, as well as up to 31 conference-controlled men's basketball games annually. ESPN will also have the capability to show every game on WatchESPN, not surprising at all on the app front.
As part of the deal, Boise State home games will be broadcast on the ESPN family of networks, and at least three of those must be shown nationally on ESPN, ESPN2 or ABC. The other three games will be shown on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNews, ESPN3 or ABC.
First of all, there will be no games on ESPNEWS, ESPNU or ESPN3.com for Boise State, well actually that Middle Tennessee State or Wyoming home game could be on ESPNU. However, it also depends on the day of games, because those could change for television purposes.
As for the other football games they will be shown on any of the ESPN networks which include ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNews, ESPN3 or ABC. That leaves 16 games to be shown on those channels, and hopefully none ever end up on ESPNews or ESPN3.
As for basketball, ESPN will broadcast up to 31 games on every platform sans ABC. This is good for hoops which did not have any games on the World Wide Leader this past year.
CBS is still the primary rights holder and the way games will be chosen will be done in an alternating fashion with CBS Sports Network picking first and ESPN picking second. Look for Boise State road games to be on CBS Sports Network, the only road conference game that is not that desirable is at Colorado State.
The Mountain West title game is still being negotiated a title game with CBS Sports Network, and there are still games left to be sold to other networks like NBC Sports or other regional networks.