Texas keeps Big 12 together
- Thread starter hskerprid
- Start date
Mike N
Four-Star Recruit
Gentlemen...it's been a bizarre run over the past week....but what happened here is simple.
1. Texas and the other three really did want to go to the Pac 10. Texas A&M was badly split, leaning toward the SEC.
2. The TV networks (Fox/ESPN) did NOT want to see four large conferences emerge. Why? The cost of college football to them would have gone through the roof. Also, don't be surprised if there was input from the SEC, Notre Dame, and other MAJOR powers, that saw an advantage to keeping a rump Big 12 around. What's the advantage? Big 12 games will wind up on ESPN game plan, and there will be more national TV exposure for SEC, Big 10, etc.
3. So, the TV folks threw money at Texas (and to a lesser extent, the other remaining members) to stay where it is, slamming the door on a major realignment. OU and OSU were tied to Texas. A&M couldn't jump without either Texas or OU coming. The little schools were just thrilled to have a home.
So where does this leave us?
1. Not unexpectedly, Texas will eventually get more money from TV than any other school in the country.
2. Nebraska leaves the shell of the Big 8 (Big 12 north) for greener pastures, will probably wind up paying some kind of out fee to the Big 12. It's better off, easily.
3. Colorado panicked. It now finds itself in the Pac-whatever, but will be hit with a big fee to leave, the kind of hit that a weak athletic program will have a problem with.
As I said last week, follow the money trail. I have to admit, though, I really didn't think it would wind up here. Texas (The University) winds. Texas (the fans) lose.
1. Texas and the other three really did want to go to the Pac 10. Texas A&M was badly split, leaning toward the SEC.
2. The TV networks (Fox/ESPN) did NOT want to see four large conferences emerge. Why? The cost of college football to them would have gone through the roof. Also, don't be surprised if there was input from the SEC, Notre Dame, and other MAJOR powers, that saw an advantage to keeping a rump Big 12 around. What's the advantage? Big 12 games will wind up on ESPN game plan, and there will be more national TV exposure for SEC, Big 10, etc.
3. So, the TV folks threw money at Texas (and to a lesser extent, the other remaining members) to stay where it is, slamming the door on a major realignment. OU and OSU were tied to Texas. A&M couldn't jump without either Texas or OU coming. The little schools were just thrilled to have a home.
So where does this leave us?
1. Not unexpectedly, Texas will eventually get more money from TV than any other school in the country.
2. Nebraska leaves the shell of the Big 8 (Big 12 north) for greener pastures, will probably wind up paying some kind of out fee to the Big 12. It's better off, easily.
3. Colorado panicked. It now finds itself in the Pac-whatever, but will be hit with a big fee to leave, the kind of hit that a weak athletic program will have a problem with.
As I said last week, follow the money trail. I have to admit, though, I really didn't think it would wind up here. Texas (The University) winds. Texas (the fans) lose.
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Ponderosa
Five-Star Recruit
1. Texas couldn't lose. It owns the deck. The new Big XII TV contract will help all the other conferences.
2. Texas will be happy as well. Who wants (or wants to be) the team that is always the '1' in 11-1 votes? Probably time to go before it got too nasty.
Nebraska made out wonderfully - but not without (inadvertent?) help from Texas.
3. Panic? Nah. That's where they belong. Culturally, etc. They can go and put forth a weak effort in the PAC-10 - they won't care.
4. It is the New Super SWC. Check it out. With OU and OSU added.
Bet TCU and Houston will be arriving shortly...helps with the title game.
ISU and MU will eventually be helped out the door - albeit gracefully.
I know it is lame to say - but everybody won. Everybody. The Longhorn network will hammered out.
I loved the NU-OU game but OU-UT are natural rivals.
Texas fans lose? Do Texans really care what is happening outside of Texas (and maybe OK)?
BIGREDFAN_in_OMAHA
All-American
Mike N
Four-Star Recruit
They lose in the quality of football that will be played in that palace that sits outside my window. This is a ten-year deal. You'd be wise to bet that the conference champion will be Texas or OU eight of those years. Big 12 lite will be a mediocre academic conference, only one rung above the SEC. I feel like we've been cut off from the rest of the country, and especially from what should have been.
You don't get better by playing people who are worse than you.
Basically, A&M's SEC feeler enabled ESPN's deep pockets to short-circuit realignment.
sd'sker
Banned
i don't understand this. how did espn have any influence, and why did it matter what aTm did? i'm not being facetious, i really am just trying to get the story straight.
knapplc
International Man of Mystery
1. This whole shebang revolved around what Texas wanted. The wants and needs of the other schools were secondary, and we know that because at the 11th hour Texas bollixed the deal with the Pac-10, a deal that both sides had worked on for months, by making extra demands that benefitted nobody but Texas.
2. I think any involvement speculated about here is just that – speculation. Notre Dame has their deal with NBC, the SEC has their ESPN deal, and this gelded Big 12 will not affect those in the least. They have no reason to get involved with the Big 12's negotiations because, no matter what, they're going to get paid. If Megaconference Armageddon happened, the others would simply follow suit, get bigger, and get a bigger slice of the pie. So this explanation doesn't fly with me, either.
3. The TV folks didn't "throw money at Texas." Texas and the Texettes could have gotten a much better deal merging with the Pac-10. Certainly the serfs could have, and Texas' slice of the pie would have been marginally bigger – and that was the sticking point. Texas would not allow their slice of the pie to be less than huge, and they put a poison pill in the deal.
Here's where this leaves us:
1. Texas will eventually get more money from TV than any other school in the country in the short term. The deal they cut is for what? 10 years? From what I've seen there's a flat rate being paid which is approximately $135 million for the ten teams over the life of the contract. That's $13.5 million per year, which is an upgrade now, but in ten years that will be chump change much like the MLB salaries we oohed and aahed about in 2005 are paltry compared to today's money. This is a short-term fix for the Texettes, but long-term they're going to lose, and Texas will vastly outstrip them in revenue.
2. I will be the Pope before Nebraska pays the Big 12 an exit fee. If the Big 12 attempts to impose a penalty on Nebraska, the Huskers will take it to court, it will drag out for years, and by the time it would get anywhere near resolution the Big 12 will have fully imploded, leaving nobody to collect the dough. Why? Because the "solution" Texas engineered to "save" the conference isn't a solution at all. It's a band-aid on a bullet wound. The Big 12 has slowed the bleeding for now, but it has not solved the problems that led Missouri to stand on the street corner and show leg to anyone passing by. In fact, it's done exactly the opposite by making the league even more Texas' b!^@h, meaning those resentments that festered before will conflagrate soon.
3. Colorado won't pay the Big 12 anything, either, for the same reasons as Nebraska. Whether they remain a viable school athletically is anyone's guess. Philosophically they fit into the Pac-10 pretty well, but they're poor as all get-out and those travel costs for the Olympic sports are going to be a big bummer.
I agree with your conclusion – follow the money trail and you'll see who orchestrated this from the beginning, and who will be bearing the brunt of the blame when this current setup inevitably fails.
Texas bought themselves some time. They did not solve their problems.
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Texas may not realize it but the potential to get screwed is even greater now. If we have 3 undefeated or 3 once defeated teams i don't see how Texas would win considering that the Big 10 and Pac-10 will be perceived stronger than the Big 12. They will find out very quickly how much not having a CCG is gonna hurt them.
Judoka
Starter
We could lose to Texas next year and reading this thread again would make it all better.
Mike N
Four-Star Recruit
In short, A&M and Texas simply cannot divorce each other. They're like an old married couple. The relationship between the two schools goes back more than 100 years and while they're separate institutions they compete and cooperate on so many levels that were they to split, about half of all social activities in the State of Texas would cease!
When A&M made the threat to leave for the SEC, that halted Texas immediately in its tracks. The assumption was that A&M was coming west as well. Yea, right. Like the ultra-conservative Aggies were going to work and play nice with the leftist California schools. Suddenly, Texas was the position of being the entity that left A&M behind and broke up that long relationship. That pause by Texas gave the power brokers (not necessarily the conference officials) to convince Disney (ESPN) to overpay to keep the ten remaining members together. The other point about ESPN (and all other media) is that had the Western Conference actually formed, TV costs to the networks would have gone through the roof, quickly.
Another error by the Pac 10 that hasn't been talked about much is that there was under the table talk about dropping Okie State and picking up Kansas. There was no way]/b] that you're going to make T. Boone Pickens mad and not live to regret it. That was another chuckhole.
And I'm going to take this opportunity to urge everyone to read Kirk Bohls column in today's (Wednesday) Austin American Statesman. When a column in Austin contains these words....
...it's worth a look.
http://www.statesman.com/sports/we-know-big-12s-teams-are-good-but-749947.html
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Mike N
Four-Star Recruit
Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiii....dunno about that. It's an open secret here in Austin that the Texas Coaches considered the CCG just one more opportunity to screw up, that the only reason it existed was to make more money for the conference. Now that the same TV money is coming without the CCG, there are smiles all around.
sd'sker
Banned
thank you. i have one more question.... about the bold part, wouldn't tv profits go through the stratosphere? making the through the roof costs worthwhile?
Mike N
Four-Star Recruit
Yes, I suppose the roof was blown off college football TV contracts some time ago.
I remain convinced that Texas, A&M, and a number of other schools will eventually join up with the Pacific coast schools. Too many people in power want that...and the stunning TV revenues it would bring.
This time we just kind of lurched toward it, in an unorganized manner. Next time, they'll plan it out very carefully and it will work.
I give it five years...about the time the TV contracts are all up.
And for those folks who think this was just all a big conspiracy to force out Nebraska (and I mean this with no disrespect), please understand that Nebraska just isn't that important to people in Austin.
NO other school is...with the exception of Texas A&M.
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