ESPN, SEC to reach into Big 12 Territory...

Anything is better than the 11am Big Ten games.

SRR, how do you see it playing out? If you’re the 11 other Big 12 schools, the last thing you want to do is to give UT any more $$ in the network contract. They might be willing to pay a one-time sum to UT to compensate for prior investments. How much leverage does Texas have here?

Isn’t the larger issue here that there needs to be another TV station that wants to make a huge investment in college sports programming (specifically, football)??

If you assume that ESPN / ABC doesn’t have too much more money to invest after spending a cool $2.25 BILLION for the broadcast rights to the SEC, and that NBC will continue to have Notre Dame as it’s sole investment, that leaves FOX or CBS as choices. Of course, CBS still has the SEC premier game at 2:30 on Saturdays (at least for a few more years), so that really leaves FOX as the only place for ANY conference to try to sell a multi-billion dollar package.

Since FOX didn’t have the appetite to continue the broadcast rights BCS games (yep, ESPN bought that too), one would have to wonder if FOX would even consider making a sizable investment in college football.

So, the Big XII, ACC, and PAC 10 can talk all they want about forming TV-friendly alliances, but that doesn’t ensure that there will be a TV network willing to spend huge money to air the package.

The key here is where the Big 10 comes down in all of this. Do they think that the Big 10 network can become a national entity and be picked-up for coverge by all the major cable providers and added to the basic programming packages? Doubtful.

Will ESPN / ABC throw more money at the Big 10 in hopes of securing the second most prized geographic footprint? Maybe. If so, where does that leave the other conferences.

As I’ve said before, the ESPN / ABC alliance with the SEC is the biggest game-changer in college sports in decades.

This is Deloss’ biggest challenge, and I wonder if he will ride off into the sunset before solving it.

“Anything is better than the 11am Big Ten games.”

After living in CA for six years, I spent many a Saturday morning drinking coffee, watching Northwestern play Minnesota, and waiting for a good football game to start.

So, do we have a chance to strike out on our own with a UT network? We’ve got a lot of pull, but not sure we have enough to entice cable companies across America to pick that up (the entire Big 10 hasn’t been able to do it).

So, back to the recruiting wars and agents…maybe we could form a voluntary “clean-recruiting” conference as mentioned in a previous article, and start a network with that group?

All in all, let’s hope the SEC goes to shit and doesn’t win any more MNCs in the next few years.

Hook ’em!

This may be an absurd question, but did any UT fans pull for OU over UF or LSU recently?

I wouldn’t pull for OU against the Taliban.

I watched the NC game at a Texas Ex Young Alumni happy hour. Every single Longhorn in the bar was rooting for Florida.

I think ou is unique in that regard when it comes to Longhorn loyalties. If it had been any other Big 12 school, I’m not sure if we would have been rooting for the Gators. Just the nature of the UT/ou relationship.

Do they think that the Big 10 network can become a national entity and be picked-up for coverge by all the major cable providers and added to the basic programming packages? Doubtful.

They have been more successful at getting into the major markets than I thought they would in this short a time.

The Big 10 Network is in 22 of the Top 25 TV markets on dish and cable. It is in 35 million homes with a potential of about 73 million homes right now.

Taylor – I’m not sure how much leverage UT has right now, but the brand new multi-media complex in the North Endzone has to be put to use at sometime.

And here is another factor. I’m pretty convinced that if the ACC was going to go in with a conference for a TV channel it would be the Pac 10. Easy scheduling (for TV) North Carolina vs. Virginia at 12:00 noon eastern followed by UCLA vs. Arizona at noon pacific. With night games as well.

But I don’t think that the dual-conference channel has much chance anyway.

Start your journey now, my Lord.

The Buck, how could we pull for OU? Tebow explains in the new SI that the Sooners are the devil’s team.

SRR, am I right to assume that the Big 10 Network is now considered a success? It sure had startup problems a couple of years ago. That example should encourage schools and conferences to launch these things, don’t you think?

Big XII needs to get off their asses with their TV deal – you can’t overestimate the impact of having your games broadcast over target-rich recruiting areas. I can’t imagine that extended exposure isn’t helping the big-name SEC teams with recruiting – helps soften the blow of going away to school if mom & dad can see you play on TV every week.

If the conference fails to act, then UT needs to strike out on their own and structure a deal to protect their own interests.

http://barkingcarnival.fantake.com/srr50/longhorn-sports-network-closer-to-reality

Levander, UT is ready to strike out on its own.

It’s interesting to note the two different paths taken by the SEC and Big 10. The SEC is maximizing revenue from its one big asset- college football. The Big 10, on the other hand, is packaging all of its low revenue assets (baseball, girls basketball, low-interest men’s basketball, other sports, historic football games) into a station that it charges fees for. A possible compromise would be for the Big 12 to re-package football (like the SEC), and for UT to package the sports channel (like the Big 10).

Taylor — the price point is a big issue for these channels, and the Big 10 had to compromise on what they would charge the cable outlets — to stay off the premium level — which is the key to success. Just ask the NFL Network or the Big 10 Network.

BTW I think this SEC Network isn’t just about maximizing football. Men’s and Women’s basketball are also available, and ESPN will be showing (and promoting) others sports, especially baseball.

“The SEC on ESPN” indeed.

The push and shove over TV contracts has, in the past, been the catalyst that has driven conference realignment.

What the SEC is doing here is Darwinian – the strong get stronger because they can.

The strong schools in the other conferences have tired of sending their part of their perceived “fair share” to the Kansas State’s and Lousiville’s of the world.

As I’ve pointed out before, the Big XII has four heavyweights from a $$$ standpoint (which, frankly, is the only relevant standpoint) – y’all, A&M, OU and NU. Look for these four schools to find a way to ensure their financial dominance.

Do we know if the Big XII office understands that among its functions are to increase exposure and explore new ways to generate revenues for its members?

Texas needs to go ahead and leave the conference. It is nothing but a bunch of plains state nobodies from a TV perspective, so the deals are only going to get worse.

For the sake of easing travel concerns, and for maintaining regional rivalries (and letting legislative dogs lie) go ahead and take the entire big 12 south with you and join the Pac 10.

Try and convince them to form a new conference with you by cutting off the oregon and Washington schools. They probably won’t go for this, though it would make more money from the remaining pac 10 schools than the status quo does. If not, then screw it, go ahead and form a 16 school conference. Push the arizona schools into the same division with big 12 south and play two teams from the other division every year with a conference title game.

The travel and TV (time zone) issues pale in comparison to the amount of money that could be made by making this deal or something like it.

Capt. Obvious, that is the only function the Big 12 is performing right now. It’s just that Iowa State wrestling is a very hard sell to cable companies in Dallas and Houston. The marketable properties of the Big 12 are disproportionately distributed among the schools.

Why the Longhorn paranoia? Because a month ago, at league meetings, the Big 12 explained to Texas that the schools were competitors, not partners. When configuring TV deals, the tune changes, and the Big 12 expects us to act like partners, not competitors. Which is it? This kind of schism is what destroyed the SWC.

Hell no to joining the pac-10. Games ending at 2am about 4 times a year… NO THANK YOU!

Taylor,

Understand which goes back to a lack of leadership in the conference. Roy Kramer was the architect of the SEC and the BCS. I can’t believe that the schools in the SEC get along much better than in the Big XII. Kramer had a vision and this from a guy who was at Vanderbilt for goodness sakes.

The schools from the Big 8 have acted like a mail order bride much of the time since the formation of the conference and someone needs to explain how the television market in Texas is bigger than the other 6 states combined.

Sailor, at least the new Evony “woman” looks like less of a tranny… they still have some work to do. I swear the previous one looked more like Frodo than an alluring woman.

Why does the Big XII not approach Fox network and set up Big 12 games every week on national TV. I heard they were working on a deal, but the big schools did not want to split the revenue evenly (like the SEC does) so the little schools wouldn’t vote for it. If we want to combat this SEC deal, that’s the way to do it. Let’s get our own national exposure in SEC territory.

Could we strike it out alone as an Independent? I know that trend seems to have mostly died, but could TV be the thing that kills some conferences off? We could still play our usual 5 in-state games (TTU, A&M, Baylor, plus Rice or TCU or Houston) and OU. But could we even get all these teams to schedule us on a long-term basis?

I am not advocating this since I think it takes awhile to adjust to not being able to prepare for the same teams each year for the majority of your games. In order to keep a national profile you would also have to schedule a lot of more difficult games against teams you may not ever see again after your home-and-home ends. That always seems a recipe for disaster. You have to try and get your team up for 3 or 4 non-rival and unfamiliar ranked teams, while each of those teams probably only have you as their lone marquee OOC game to get up for.

But if you could put together a good run like ND did in the 70s and 80s you could also ride out the rough spots without losing too much financially.

Independent won’t happen. There is a reason that so many schools that used to be independent (Boston College, Penn State, Pitt, and Miami) are in conferences now.

I do think that if Texas were really interested in a new conference, this would be an opportune time while other conferences are putting together TV and network packages to sell.

I’m not so sure that the Ags have enough national presence to be considered a “heavyweight” (maybe in their own minds, they do, which is their perpetual collective problem), but I’m sitting here trying to see who would beat them out of fourth place and I can’t think of anyone obvious.

It’s more like Texas, OU, and NU, then a big bunch at #4: A&M, Colorado, Tech (esp the past couple years), Mizzou, maybe Kansas, then probably OSU and KSU, and then Baylor and Iowa State at the bottom.

You’re right about this being the same thing that tore up the SWC.

yeah, when I think of “$$ heavyweight”, a&m pops in my head, especially now with their finances looking like the state of california.

I’m pretty sure last year established forever that you never, ever cheer for OU. EVER.

Honestly, even in 2003 when we missed out on a BCS bowl, it was worth to watch KSU make OU eat shit.

Orangechip, there is no reason in the world that games would have to end at 2AM “about four times a year” in the Pac10. Obviously any new conference arrangement would need to negotiate a new tv deal and they could easily make sure that the games where central time zone team were playing on the west coast were not scheduled for the super late slots.

Let’s not act like 2 hours is some huge deal-breaker here, especially given the heft such a hypothetical conference when it comes to negotiating tv deals.

I’ll pull the data on Big XII AD budgets in a bit – it’ll shock you.

“Orangechip, there is no reason in the world that games would have to end at 2AM "about four times a year" in the Pac10.”

#1. I imagine at LEAST 2 games would be like this because we’d be the road team and no westcoast team wants to start at 5pm local time. Hell, if UTEP has enough pull to force a 9pm start… certainly a PAC-10 team will, too.

#2. I imagine at LEAST 2 games a year we’d have to bump our start game ahead by an hour. So instead of 7pm kick… make it an 8pm kick. ugh.

#3. I like following my conference. Especially near the end of the year, I’d watch every game and several a week on west coast go well past midnight.

Guess i’m just getting old. But with two little ones at home, I value my sleep more and more. Please don’t join the west coast!!

I know going Independent seems unlikely, but just because they died out before doesn’t mean conditions won’t change to make them viable again. Conditions like we are seeing now suggest that the Independents could rise again. If it truly ends up being the SEC, Big 10 and everyone else when it comes to TV dollars something will have to change. The ACC is probably tight enough and covers a big enough media zone to get by with maybe one last round of reorganization. The Big East is likely soon to be done as a major conference in football and the Pac10 will always be limited to dominating the lesser populated end of the country that is often more concerned with other forms of entertainment than football. So what do teams like Texas do when they are geographically isolated from other major programs in major media markets?

It used to be Independents thrived in football rich areas because they could get their piece of the pie and thrive by being so near major media centers but their value declined compared to the power of the conferences surrounding them and they were absorbed. Texas is in a football rich region but much of it lacks major population centers outside of the areas that Texas has a virtual monopoly on. Texas also has the advantage of being one of the largest universities and there are countless alumni spread around the country. Are the numbers enough to allow us to make such a move? Probably not…but I just don’t see how we can move to another conference considering our geographic isolation from any of the other big boys and on the flip side I don’t see any way the Big 12 can be reorganized to capture a larger media market. It can really only be reduced, but that is more about dividing scarce resources into less parts than about taking a bigger share.

Ricky, Independents used to thrive because their wasn’t the economic pressures on the schools there are today. The only indy left is ND and that has been pointed out before is in football only. They reap the benefits of being in a basketball strong conference and if you note the Big East also includes former indy’s Marquette and DePaul.

ND can swing a deal with NBC because whether you like it or not they are the most recognized name in college football much like the Cowboys. Mention ND and someone will react and will watch be it for them to win or get beat.

The other issue as I pointed out is that if Texas were to go indy they have no bowl tie-in. That would have to be negotiated with the BCS and I can’t imagine any of the conferences let alone the schools cutting the pie up one more time so Texas could get a larger share than any other individual school outside of ND.

I hear ya, Orangechip. There just aren’t any great options out there that I can think of.

The best answer is that the member schools and the leadership of the Big XII pull their collective heads out of their asses and realize they don’t have to like each other, but need each other to survive.

C.O., Texas does not need the Big 12 to survive. It just doesn’t. If Texas left the Big 12 and joined the Mountain West or C-USA, the new conference would be every bit as good as the Big East, both competitively and in marketability. What is left of the Big 12 would also be every bit as good as the Big East.

Does the Big 12 need Texas? They have to decide. I know that one month ago, in the tie-breaker vote, they unanimously told Texas to go to hell.

Taylor,

Two interesting suggestions you have with the Mountain West and C-USA. MW offers a much better football conference, has only 9 teams, but isn’t a very good basketball conference.

CUSA isn’t a good football conference, doesn’t have an agreement with the BCS, but is stronger in basketball.

The BCS issue to me is the biggest downside to CUSA. Why if you are the BCS members do you cut the pie one more time?

Because, if C-USA or the Mountain West had Texas (and TAMU?) in it, the BCS bowls would want them every bit as badly as the Big East and what was left of the Big 12.

Is there a mechanism in the BCS for a conference to be expelled? If so, I would imagine it would have to be somehow tied to rankings. Hyothetically, UT and A&M go to CUSA and TT and BU got to MW. Old Big 8 forms. They would have OU and a re-emerging NU as feature names, but fewer televisions. Big East has WVU and goodness knows who else, but more tv’s. CUSA has UT and A&M and 12 other programs no one really cares about. Who is the more attractive of the three?

Texas has a name, but who really wants to watch SMU-Tulsa, Tulane-Rice, and Marshall-UH? That is far worse than the crap UT fans get in the Big 12 conference package on that UHF station.

NCAA D-1 Rankings – Football Revenue

1 The University of Texas at Austin Big XII $72,952,397
2 University of Georgia SEC $67,053,051
3 University of Florida SEC $66,124,945
4 Ohio State University-Main Campus Big 10 $65,162,179
5 University of Notre Dame Ind $59,774,851
6 Auburn University Main Campus SEC $59,671,354
7 University of Michigan-Ann Arbor Big 10 $57,463,603
8 The University of Alabama SEC $57,370,617
9 Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus Big 10 $53,766,038
10 Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College SEC $52,687,713
11 University of South Carolina-Columbia SEC $50,433,037
12 University of Nebraska-Lincoln Big XII $49,076,861
13 Michigan State University Big 10 $43,826,312
14 Texas A & M University Big XII $42,552,070
15 University of Oklahoma Norman Campus Big XII $40,922,446

Next closest is CU at #26 – the rest are scattered back.

NCAA D-1 Total AD Revenue (these are 2007 numbers, btw…)

1 The University of Texas at Austin Big XII $120,288,370
2 Ohio State University-Main Campus Big 10 $117,953,712
3 University of Florida SEC $106,030,895
4 University of Michigan-Ann Arbor Big 10 $99,027,105
5 University of Wisconsin-Madison Big 10 $93,452,334
6 Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus Big 10 $91,570,233
7 Auburn University Main Campus SEC $89,305,326
8 The University of Alabama SEC $88,869,810
9 The University of Tennessee SEC $88,719,798
10 Oklahoma State University-Main Campus Big XII $88,554,438
11 University of Kansas Big XII $86,009,257
12 Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College SEC $84,183,362
13 University of Georgia SEC $84,020,180
14 University of Notre Dame Ind $83,352,439
15 University of Iowa Big 10 $81,148,310
16 Michigan State University Big 10 $77,738,746
17 University of Oklahoma Norman Campus Big XII $77,098,009
18 Stanford University Pac 10 $76,661,466
19 University of Southern California Pac 10 $76,409,919
20 University of Nebraska-Lincoln Big XII $75,492,884
21 Texas A & M University Big XII $74,781,640
22 University of Kentucky SEC $71,186,184
23 Duke University ACC $67,820,335
24 University of South Carolina-Columbia SEC $66,545,953
25 University of California-Los Angeles Pac 10 $66,088,264

One thing that should jump out – let’s look at average AD revenue per conference for the BCS conferences:

Big 10 – $76.4 MM
SEC – $71.1 MM
Big XII – $66.5 MM
Pac 10 – $58.8 MM
ACC – $54.1 MM
Big East – $45.5 MM

CO, what I am wondering is what happens if the economic conditions continue to deteriorate for conferences like the Big 12? If TV dollars end up making us a real little sister amongst conferences, at what point will the Texas AD be happy with that arrangement? We are the biggest fish in the whole pond but are left with the table scraps that our school of fish get. If the North division continues its decline in competition, how much longer will we want to share with them considering they are also the weak end on the population front?

If we jumped how many other teams would jump with us (even those with better conference conditions)? The bowl tie ins would adjust really quickly especially if the timing were right and playoff talk was again on the table.

AginTX’s numbers actually show the ACC is horrible. Do Miami and FSU continue to sit by as they watch Florida soaking up substantially more coin, especially if a few other teams are also making the jump?

I don’t think any of this is all that likely to happen, but it makes for interesting conversation.

the numbers show there are two major bcs conferecnes and then all the rest – Big XII average is skewed by y’all.

It looks like if you take Texas out of the numbers the average would be $61.6 MM, so while it is a big drop the Big 12 is still 3rd even without us in the picture.

But if we went to the Pac 10, the average for the 11 teams would go up to $64.4 MM and the Pac 10 would jump above the 11 remaining Big 12 teams.

Ricky, Many of the points you raise really can’t be answered because there is no way to know. The North might be down in football, but with Kansas it is strong in basketball and when you are talking money that is important. Additionally, Nebraska appears to be coming back and if they return the North isn’t so weak with KU, MU, and them.

Ag, those are interesting numbers, but just because the Ags spend a lot of money doesn’t mean that normal everyday college football fans outside of Texas think of the Ags as an historical football power any more than they think of Kansas or Iowa or Michigan State as storied football programs. There’s no national appeal at all. All those numbers mean is that the Ags are a big state university that spends a lot of money and may occasionally float up to the top of the middle of the pack every now and then. It’s mostly irrelevant to the subject of national reputation.

Ditch ISU and KSU. Have a 10 team conference with no divisions and conf champ game. Everyone plays everyone one once in football and home and home in basketball. You have an additional conference game for each team. You get additional marquee to decent games every year instead of every other year (Texas, OU, Tech, Okie Lite, A&M versus NU, CU, MU, and KU every year).

That alone should get us a better tv deal as there will be more good games. SOS would be better by getting rid of two of the worst teams and adding an additional conf game. Revenue is split 10 ways instead of 12.