The Big 12, Nebraska, and the Red Herrings

I hate HOAs.

How close is Texas to getting BEVO-D (or whatever the name will be) on air? Or is it already out there?

As a Husker fan, I agree and disagree with your points. On point 1, Texas’ use of size and power to consistently pursue its self-interest is a problem for the conference and has been a problem for Nebraska (beyond just the PQ issue). Taking away OU as an annual game was also a low blow given the history and rapport between the teams. This typed, I think it’s probably the case that if Nebraska had Texas’ resources and strength, it too would use them to pursue its interests in a similar fashion (as our current support for unequal sharing of TV revenue demonstrates). Your point about the Big 10 vis-a-vis the powers in Michigan, OSU, and PSU, though, seems misguided. Because they are three, rather than one, and because that they don’t march in lock-step with each other, means that they won’t behave monolithically as Texas does, and they don’t individually command as much power as Texas, means they won’t necessarily be able put their interests over those of the conference.

Point 3, from what I understand, is a misrepresentation of the events around the discussions of the Big XII network. It is my understanding (and could I be wrong, as I haven’t done any independent discovery) that Texas is mostly responsible for the tabling of the Big XII network idea, and that the conference didn’t begin planning for because of Texas’ disagreement with the concept, which would have undermined its plans for the Longhorn network. This isn’t to say that the other power schools in the conference would’ve agreed in their own right to Big XII network, but that Texas was primarily responsible for delaying it in the short-term, such that it could the foundation laid for its own network, which would give it a lot of leverage when the Big XII inevitably revisited the idea more seriously down the road. It just strikes one as conniving and manipulative of the process, which, in a perfect world, would elevate the conference’s interests over those of an individual member.

Overall, it does seem like Texas generally wants the conference to act as its agent, and not the other way around. The other 11 teams provide Texas a stable and decent to good schedule of seven or eight games annually, while the state of Texas provides the conference with a lot of viewers. This doesn’t really seem like a tenable relationship.

“It is my understanding (and could I be wrong, as I haven’t done any independent discovery) that Texas is mostly responsible for the tabling of the Big XII network idea, and that the conference didn’t begin planning for because of Texas’ disagreement with the concept, which would have undermined its plans for the Longhorn network.”

Check out google news archives. Texas did not kill the Big 12 Network in 2006 by itself. Nebraska participated along with the other “haves”. The commissioner at the time, Kevin Weiberg, now works for the PAC-10, and he still likes Texas.

“Overall, it does seem like Texas generally wants the conference to act as its agent, and not the other way around.”

Texas invests and markets its programs, which helps the whole conference. Texas is not the one looking to leave the Big 12. Nebraska is. Do you really think Texas is the one hurting the Big 12 here?

“The fact that the Big 12 can’t see eye to eye enough to even have this conversation is killing it, not Texas’ greed.”

Truth. Truth. Truth. Truth.

And it isn’t Texas. Or Nebraska. Or A&M. Or any other particular school. It’s everyone in general, and no one in particular.

Much like a marriage that has had trust eroded over the years, that is where the Big XII stands. All the members are guilty of not fostering trust and building a strong conference.

And much like a marriage, it can be saved if all the parties want to save it. But it the present environment, it’s only going to take one or two parties that don’t want to save it to bring the whole thing down.

I really enjoy reading this stuff, but it feels as though this argument, despite its clear rationale, just won’t even be mentioned by the anti-Texas constituents when the Big 12 realignment occurs. The truth is a way less sexy and polemical story than Texas v. the 11, which is how I fear this plays out.

All I’ll say about the HOA is that it never would have approved the brick fence to start with.

I suspect one of the reasons that the B12 network never got off the ground is because the revenue projection just wasn’t there. Population is massive by comparison in the Big Ten, and it will not be expanding to areas of low pop, with the possible exception of Nebraska, which has no pro sports and therefore is devoted pop.

It could be that the B12 totally missed the boat on calculating the revenue stream, which wouldn’t surprise me but would be disappointing. OTOH, nobody thought the B10 would make what it has so soon.

I’d pay for a Big 12 or a Texas 24-7 station. Shit, I’m already paying $125-plus on my Dish package. What’s another channel?

Nice read Taylor.

I can’t help but think that while Texas may be slow playing any move right now in order to try and not be labeled the bad guy when the Big XII implodes — there is another reason.

There is a lot invested in the potential UT channel, and there is no way to get that off the ground if you join the Big 10 (in for a dime, in for a dollar) or form an alliance with the Pac 10 because obviously a Pac10/Big12 channel is the best way for that alliance to make sense.

This is as high a stakes game of Texas Hold ’Em as you can play.

Big Ten Network Article: HERE

These are not the arguments of an educated mind, that is why the non-Texas media will not pick up on it. You mention Wieberg leaving but do not mention why and do not discuss the replacement Beebe. Beebe does what Texas wants and that is a problem. Vote on revenue sharing? Beebe says no vote because he knows Texas would rather leave than share. Leave to where is a good question as going independent has issues too – see Notre Dame, fans just don’t care about them once it comes to the conference schedule – everyone wants to know who will win the BCS conferences. And that is why the Big 10 needs to expand also. Hard to tell who wins sometimes when Wisconsin and Ohio St. are not playing each other. Anyway for revenue sharing Beebe just says – well we started this conference that way so it should remain. But we started the Big 12 rotating north south championship game sites but once the state of Texas get’s their fancy stadium they want it there every year so Beebe quickly allows a vote. Why it ended up 11-1 is beyond me. Kansas and Oklahoma can follow Texas to hell but Nebraskans won’t go. Just like Osborne would not follow and cheat to get players unlike most of the teams to the south of us. Texas is lucky Osborne retired, PQ has little to do with the swing in success. BTW, football is an outdoor game – sure you have never heard this before as you probably never leave Texas but many of us football fans consider the Cowboys stadium a piece of crap. Give us Lambeau any day. Now for #3, the network. Wieberg obviously wanted this as he left for the Big 10 to be a part of it so good luck convincing anyone that the greed of Texas did not kill this. And good luck convincing national providers to include a Bevo station. Maybe local Texas cable companies will carry it but how does that help Texas alum across the nation? BTW, universities are prepared to televise their sports – the TV was invented a long time ago. And Texas negotiations must not be going that great as I have not seen Bevo TV on Comcast/Dish/DirecTV listings yet. Good for you if you get it done – but if you miss seeing coverage of potentially great future matchups of Texas and Nebraska you have Bevo TV to blame. Do not blame Nebraska. Texas had their chance to be part of a great conference and fell back to making it into the SWC – every team for themselves. See yall!

“Beebe does what Texas wants and that is a problem.”

“Vote on revenue sharing? Beebe says no vote because he knows Texas would rather leave than share.”

“once the state of Texas get’s their fancy stadium they want it there every year so Beebe quickly allows a vote.”

I keep seeing NU fans make these claims with no sourcing or supporting evidence. They don’t even make sense. I have come to the conclusion that they hold as much truth as the “County Scholarships” story.

There is no need to vote on revenue sharing. It ain’t happening because Texas, A&M, OU, and NEBRASKA will vote against it.

When this comes full circle and Texas chooses a new conference, I hope the first post I see is “I’m stunned, I’m pissed, its the [insert conference]”.

I haven’t seen the fans this worked up since the Brown / Barnett controversy.

I’ve had Bevo-D from Time Warner Cable for the last 9-12 months. Is the Bevo-D you mention above and that is referenced in other recent posts the same as what I currently have, or something new and improved?

Bevo-D for Austin TWC subscribers has been around for a few years, but it was an on demand channel without live or high def broadcasting capabilities. I think. srr50 will probably be around to give you real information shortly.

I don’t understand why people are accusing Texas of looking out for #1. How is that an accusation? Of course we are. Everyone is. If your school is not, then you need a new AD. Sure, we are all in the same conference and, to some degree, a rising tide floats all ships. But everyone is (and should be) looking out for their own best interests and acting accordingly.

The BEVO-D available on Time-Warner in Austin is the proposed UT channel on training wheels.

I have always loved your writing but you have to let the tie-breaker thing go. Texas fans sounded enough like Whiny Bitches at the time not understanding how a three-way tie works but to still be whining about it a year and a half later takes it from nonsesnsical to beyond ludicrous.

Especially after Texas got it’s chance to go play for a national championship and wet the bed just like the Sooners have the last few trips.

But I agree that Nebraska has little to complain about with Texas Joining the Big 12. Everyones revenue has gone up and they have got a dissproportionate share based on their veiwership when it was Texas and OU for the most part going to all the BCS games and filling the coffers while they recovered from a bad coaching hire.

Nebraska has probably been the biggest beneficiary of revenue sharing compared to the number of wins per dollar received in the conference.

The only other legitimate gripe is that the Big 12 title game is more South than North and only goes to KC every few years now but that stadium is starting to become a dump, I dont mind cold weather games, I actually prefer them but I have always hated going to Big 12 championship games In Arrowhead.

“Osborne would not follow and cheat to get players unlike most of the teams to the south of us.”

Well the man still had his choice of rapists to pick from.

How about directly from the horse’s mouth?

Beebe’s related to revenue sharing and no plans for a vote because Texas does not want to vote on such a policy:
www.810whb.com/article/3555
or google 810whb.com dan beebe interview

Only 1 tuff question from the Kansas City radio host which I am assuming is a Kansas fan (no supporting evidence for that one but it’s a logical assumption). Beebe admits in the interview there will be no vote on revenue sharing.

—

And Osborne’s mouth related to the championship game site and Beebe taking a vote despite Osborne and Nebraska having reservations.
http://www.huskerextra.com/articles/2010/05/04/football/doc4bdf926c39995040840910.txt

Reservations, a nice way for a distinguished man like Osborne to say F no we want our shot at the south winner in Kansas City. Osborne is smart enough to know that he would own two more rings if he did not have to play Miami in Miami and Florida State in the state of Florida. To give Nebraska an additional site disadvantage before even getting to a bowl game is BS. We’ll go play in Indianapolis and deal with Notre Dame having an advantage someday but it is time to put a line in the sand and not allow Texas every advantage in this league.

TaylorTRoom, I think you may be the first to suggest NU fans lack knowledge when it comes to college football. I am not suggesting Nebraska disagrees with Texas on every issue. I doubt Nebraska wants to share all the revenue it generates with Baylor either. Did I say Baylor – case study in how the state of Texas controls everything. Not saying they should not be in the conference but amazing how they got in. Anyway, what Nebraska wants (potentially in addition to a better conference academically) is increased revenues and the Big 10 offers what Texas and Beebe cannot. Even if Beebe works an amazing deal with the Pac10 I think it is too late. Pac10 fans like Texas fans I guess have little respect for Nebraska fans and traditions. I’d much rather go to most any Big 10 campus for a game versus Pac10 – or even Austin at this point.

The Big Ten does allow partial qualifiers.

srr50>The General

I have always loved your writing but you have to let the tie-breaker thing go. Texas fans sounded enough like Whiny Bitches at the time not understanding how a three-way tie works but to still be whining about it a year and a half later takes it from nonsesnsical to beyond ludicrous.

Whether it is whiny or not, the powers that be were legitimately pissed about it, so it is a factor.

"Osborne would not follow and cheat to get players unlike most of the teams to the south of us."

His S&C was the biggest bunch of roiders in college football.

Again more comments about what Osborne did not do. Players are a reflection of society – Osborne is not perfect but neither are most judges. You dis Osborne for having players that took roids without giving him credit for bringing weight training to college football:

From the NSCA timeline, 8/15/1969 (since you guys like sources):
“It comes once in a great while that one decision has the ability to alter
an entire generation of athletics and change the landscape of an entire
country. It was actually Tom Osborne, the assistant football coach at
the time that noticed injured Husker football players returning to
practice much stronger than before their injuries and asked who was
helping these injured players. Osborne had the vision that strength
training could help all the Nebraska athletes and suggested to
Devaney to have the athletes begin lifting weights. This concept was
foreign to athletes in most programs in 1969. Lifting weights was not
recommended by many coaches across the country. There were no
recognized lifting programs during the season, no winter or summer
conditioning and no testing of strength, agility or power.”

Haha. Nebraska would have a better academic conference if they would quit playing the role of anchor. At least you guys can look down on ksu now, the big 10 will view see you as the ttt that you truly are.

What will all these Huskers do when Texas winds up with them in the Big Ten? Don’t they realize the Big Ten will give in to most of our demands just like the Big XII did? You don’t think the Big Ten wants to play a championship game in Dallas every other year? I bet they’d give their left nuts for that oppurtunity. Think of the money, exposure and recruiting. Nebraska fans crack me up with this shit.

Steve is partially qualified.

This isn’t about Texas and the powers that be ‘dissing’ Nebraska and Missouri. The fans might be squaking about that, but ultimately both NU and MU will go to the Big 10 (if invited) because the Big 10 will offer a more attractive financial package than anything the Big 12 could offer even if big, bad Texas would agree to complete revenue sharing. What has not been explained clearly enough is what Nebraska and Missouri bring to earn their 1/14 of the Big 10 network.

Perhaps it is the intangibles- Nebraska’s football program and Missouri’s… journalism team, but looking at it strictly from a TV market/team revenue standpoint there are many better options available.

If the package is really 1/14 of the Big 10 network does anyone think that Syracuse or Louisville would be uninterested (in addition to Rutgers)? How about Virginia, West Virginia or Maryland? All (besides perhaps Louisville and WVU) represent more TV sets, are as good or better geographic and academic fits, etc.

I remember the Delaney saying that the Big 10 is only interested in teams that ‘bring as much’ as Penn State to the table. Is there any question that neither of the Big 12 options bring anywhere near Penn State?

Nebraska fan is going to believe what he or she wants, damn the facts. Fine, but it’s not necessary to come here and whine about all of the favoritism allegedly being shown to UT. You want out, maybe the Big Whatever will answer your prayers, but you’d better be careful what you wish for. Don’t know what I’m talking about? Read Big 10 Commissioner Delaney’s comments today about wanting a “Southern Presence” for the Big 10. Care to guess which Big 12 school(s) he’s talking about? Mizzou and Nebraska are NOT southern.

You’ve got your point of view Husker fan…we’ve got ours. Right now, a majority of UT fans and administrators apparently don’t want the Big 12 to go the way of the SWC. That could easily change however, with a steady diet of the old Big 8 attitude that has been, and is, directed toward UT. We’ve more than held up our end of the devil’s bargain we made with the Big 8 when it turned into the Big 12. The same can’t be said competitively on the field of most of the former Big 8 teams. Talk to us about revenue sharing (Something Nebraska hasn’t been in favor of either.) when the teams up north carry their share of the load in wins and tv coverage.

We are, for the time being, a member of the Big 12, but “We’re UT” first, and it’s patently ridiculous to suggest that there’s something wrong with looking out for our interests first. Nebraska doesn’t look out for their interests first? Oklahoma? Mizzou? What’s the use of having influence if it’s not used, and by the way, most of the other Big 12 schools tend to vote with UT on most matters, and NOT because we’re the most loved school in the conference. Our interests are those of most of the other schools.

Nobody knows how this whole conference realignment business is going to go. We could ultimately be in the Big 12, or some other conference, and so could Nebraska, or any other fairly competitive and popular school. It’s just not productive to come here and bring a bunch of specious contentions about how UT is bringing down the Big 12. Look to the schools that are begging to be offered by other conferences first. Listening Nebraska? Mizzou? Colorado?

It must suck to find out the rich sucker you invited to your poker game because the pots had gotten so lame is good enough to take 8 hands out of nine from you. No matter in whose house you play. And that the other players in your regular game think the new guy has better ideas about pretty much everything (or at least they vote that way). Except one weasel who is always sucking up to the rich old guys to try to get in on their game. Oh sorry— did I post this on the FB revenue sharing thread? I meant to respond under “potpourri.”

Since when is “every” chmapionship game in Texas?! Houston & Dallas held two in a row in ‘01-’02 and guess what? Kansas City, Missouri held the next two. Maybe if Nebraska had made to any of those games, you might remeber that! If Dallas hosts two in a row, what do you think will happen the next two years?

I continue to give props to the barker here who first compared the Big 12 to a marriage gone bad. As this marriage continues to die, you are going to get that long repressed middle finger thrown out by the parties involved. But let’s be clear – IF this marriage breaks up, most Nebraska fans believe it is due to money first, fear second (not having a play if NU sits on sideline) and the migration of power south as third, a very distant third.

Bloggers make shitty Nebraska fans.

i wouldn’t be shocked to see texas and missouri in the big ten and nebraska not. i think the revelations yesterday show that we are still far and away the principle target and that deloss could send either or both of the other two big 12 programs packing with a 30-second phone call.

i don’t think the big ten has been playing nebraska, but i do very strongly suspect they used nebraska to smoke us out.

reality sucks doesn’t it, huskers?

Steve, FWIW the radio host graduated from K-State, and KU fans who express opinions on him can’t seem to stand him.

But, a couple of questions:

How does admitting PQ’s boost the conference’s academic reputation?

Of what Nebraska traditions are Texans disrespectful, and why should they care?

Steve,

I clicked your links. They really don’t say what you imply- that the University of Texas killed the Big 12 Network and that UT is driving the football CG into the Cowboys Stadium as a home (it does note a conference AD straw poll of 11 – 1 in favor). Is there more in the podcast?

Here is what I found on revenue sharing…

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/colleges/topstories/stories/061607dnspodavis.347b387.html

"the bylaws written when the league was formed require a “super majority” of nine schools to approve a change in the formula.
Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas – who have combined to play for five of the last seven national titles in football – are in no hurry to split all the TV money equally."

Hey, Steve, Nebraska is the swing vote! They can make the Big 12 share revenue by themselves!

Here is what I found on the Big 12 Network, from the same article…

"Weiberg said he believed the possibility of a Big 12 network was rejected because the haves were worried they would lose earning power enjoyed under the current formula."

So, Texas is guilty of not being a good partner. I’ll concede that. I won’t concede that Nebraska has shown itself to be better. Especially when you see this, from Steve’s source (different article)…

http://www.huskerextra.com/articles/2010/01/05/football/doc4b42a262273d5091907920.txt

"* No-brainer coaching move of the season: Alabama head coach Nick Saban consulting Nebraska coaches about how to defend Texas."

That’s the way to show conference loyalty, by helping your conference-mate’s opponent prepare for the game! Isn’t the Big 12 great? Isn’t it funny how the SEC and Big 10 can have all those great rivalries, but still see MNCs and bowl victories as being for the greater good of the conference, and themselves? Of course, Pelini’s old boss was doing the same…

http://www.sportingnews.com/college-football/article/2010-01-02/what-we-learned-did-stoops-give-saban-intel-on-texas

"In an eyebrow-raising flouting of Big 12 solidarity, Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops showed up in Tuscaloosa as Nick Saban’s guest at practice during December. The natural suspicion is that Stoops was helping Saban prepare for the Longhorns. According to Alabama media reports, the stated reason for Stoops’ visit was to check out Saban’s “practice organization.”
Stoops has been the head coach at Oklahoma since 1999. You’d kinda think he has the “practice organization” thing down pretty well by now."

"I asked a Big 12 administrator Tuesday what the league thought of Stoops’ presence in an enemy camp before the biggest game of the year.
“First I’ve heard of it,” he said. “There’s no rule to prevent it.”"

Isn’t the Big 12 great? Absolutely, Texas should agree to equal revenue shares, and allow a Big 12 Network to absorb their media facilitation and media content. After all, we’re all partners, right?

Oops. Here’s the correct Stoops/Saban link:

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/bowls09/columns/story?columnist=forde_pat&id=4799869