David Boren would like to end The Longhorn Network

[MarkOU]

Here's my thought.

BIG XII will go to eleven this year and hold a ccg per new rules. Then they will work on a 12. They probably have the eleventh lined up already.

 

[Lance Armstrong]

Boren is seriously a dumb a##. How is OU suffering? They made the CFP based on the strength of the big 12, they're ranked #1 in basketball based on the strength of the big 12, and make 5 mil a year on their Tier 3 rights. More than any pac 12 and ACC schools, and the same amount as the SEC (this season anyway). WTF is he crying about really? Guy needs to quit reading Clay Travis articles.

 

[TexasExes98]

All your points are valid but you have to admit that Texas has a sizable income competitive advantage right now. People are starting to get pissed because they can't close that gap. I think you're under selling the value of a Big 12 network but launching now would be extremely tough but I'm not sure Kansas and WV would be a "very loud no" without potential numbers to look at.

Yeah, but you didn't see Texas or any other conference member crywhen KU signed their 1st 3rd tier contract back in '06 when they were making a little over $7.2M a year. Okie Jr. made $6.3M in third tier rights in '09. Nobody said shit. The Cornhuskers then signed their 3rd tier rights away in '09 which was then a record deal for $9M a year; nobody said shit. Keep in mind while all of these schools were signing lucrative 3rd tier rights deals, long before Texas did, Texas was making around $310K a year on their 3rd tier rights. I repeat, $310K a year; that isn't a typo. Your Tigers made a tad over $4.6M from their 3rd tier rights while TX made $310K. Where was the uproar then? Just saying....

 

[Deep Creek]

Yeah, but you didn't see Texas or any other conference member crywhen KU signed their 1st 3rd tier contract back in '06 when they were making a little over $7.2M a year. Okie Jr. made $6.3M in third tier rights in '09. Nobody said shit. The Cornhuskers then signed their 3rd tier rights away in '09 which was then a record deal for $9M a year; nobody said shit. Keep in mind while all of these schools were signing lucrative 3rd tier rights deals, long before Texas did, Texas was making around $310K a year on their 3rd tier rights. I repeat, $310K a year; that isn't a typo. Your Tigers made a tad over $4.6M from their 3rd tier rights while TX made $310K. Where was the uproar then? Just saying....

I've said that total equity will never be reached through equally sharing TV revenue. Yeah, you can divide the TV revenue equally all the way down to 3rd Tier, but the TOTAL revenue still won't be equal...and TOTAL revenue shouldn't have to be 100% equal.

Florida State shouldn't be punished by giving up some ticket sales $$$$ because they sell 82,300 tickets when they play Wake Forest at home and Wake Forest can only sell 31,500 when the Noles go there. tOSU, Texas, USC, Florida, etal will always generate way more revenue through gate receipts, alumni donations, t-shirt sales, etc. Now way will there be as much Northwestern paraphernalia sold as there is tOSU paraphernalia. So, the question to be answered "How close to TOTAL REVENUE equity do we need to be to satisfy everyone?"

 

[GoldRusher]

meh

The Bottom Line: Expansion, Championship Games

 

[starbigd]

Yeah, but you didn't see Texas or any other conference member crywhen KU signed their 1st 3rd tier contract back in '06 when they were making a little over $7.2M a year. Okie Jr. made $6.3M in third tier rights in '09. Nobody said shit. The Cornhuskers then signed their 3rd tier rights away in '09 which was then a record deal for $9M a year; nobody said shit. Keep in mind while all of these schools were signing lucrative 3rd tier rights deals, long before Texas did, Texas was making around $310K a year on their 3rd tier rights. I repeat, $310K a year; that isn't a typo. Your Tigers made a tad over $4.6M from their 3rd tier rights while TX made $310K. Where was the uproar then? Just saying....

You can't bring these facts to the table for discussion.......nobody wants to hear it. Texas is the bad guy, lets just accept it. We apparently aren't allowed to make money off our rights like everyone else. EVERYONE knew we'd make more.......but when they saw how much, we became the evil empire or something.

 

[GoldRusher]

You can't bring these facts to the table for discussion.......nobody wants to hear it. Texas is the bad guy, lets just accept it. We apparently aren't allowed to make money off our rights like everyone else. EVERYONE knew we'd make more.......but when they saw how much, we became the evil empire or something.

Its ok, WVU wasn't around when yall stuck it to them hick schools. We wont let that happen again, it will be ok now

 

[Deep Creek]

meh

The Bottom Line: Expansion, Championship Games

Interesting article. It could happen since UT and Houston both have new ADs. That would never have happened with the previous ones...and I don't know why. Maintaining the Tier 3 revenue may turn out to be a plus instead of a minus. I still don't see Houston and Cincy bringing enough revenue to the table to the extent it won't reduce the other's share. But, I could be wrong.

 

[The Q]

Here we go again.

David Boren would like to end The Longhorn Network

David Boren would like to end The Longhorn Network

View attachment 76995
David Boren would like to form a Big 12 Network. (Photo by Paul Hellstern)
David Boren has his sights set on something bigger than conference expansion or a Big 12 title game. The OU president is focused on what started this whole “psychologically disadvantaged” Big 12 in the first place.
The Longhorn Network.
On Wednesday, day the NCAA voted to allow the Big 12 to stage a football championship game even without divisional play or at least 12 members, Boren released a statement to the OU Daily, the campus newspaper.
“The Big 12 is disadvantaged when compared to the other conferences in three ways. We do not have at least 12 members, we do not have a conference network and we do not have a championship game. I think that all three of these disadvantages need to be addressed at the same time. Addressing only one without addressing all three will not be adequate to improve the strength of the conference.”
What Boren is talking about is the end of Bevo TV.
The Longhorn Network was the catalyst for much of the Big 12 exodus. Certainly Texas A&M and Missouri in its wake. Nebraska’s departure a year earlier was Texas-related, but more broad-based than just UT’s impending 20-year, $300-million contract with ESPN.
While other conferences, particularly the SEC and the Big Ten, have flourished with conference networks, the Big 12 has been a European caste system with The Longhorn Network. Texas is flush with money, most of the rest of the schools have garnered little from the broadcast rights available to market on their own. And a Big 12 Network is not possible as long as Texas has Bevo TV.
But The Longhorn Network has been a financial disaster for ESPN and has not spurred Texas to great heights athletically. Since the advent of Bevo TV, Texas football and basketball have nose-dived. And while UT’s other sports have ranged from solid to elite, UT’s other sports always have ranged from solid to elite.
Don’t consider this a Bevo Bash. You can’t blame Texas. The Longhorns were looking out for themselves and found the golden calf. The Big 12’s policy of giving to the schools broadcast rights not designated in contracts with ABC/ESPN and FOX was not a 1-11 vote. OU, Texas A&M and Nebraska stood with Texas.
But the folly of school networks has been exposed. Conference networks are the way to proceed, both from a marketing and from a strengthen-the-conference standpoint. A Big 12 Network, while having little chance of being as lucrative as the Big Ten’s or the SEC’s, would do exactly what Boren believes it would do: solidify a league that has been unstable for six or seven years.
So what to do about it? Texas hasn’t exactly been a Musketeer. One-for-all and all-for-one? Not in Austin. And you can’t blame the Longhorns for that. We all look out for ourselves.
But perhaps Boren senses that this is a time to strike. A time to convince Texas that its best interest is to move to a conference-network model that strengthens the league and would in turn strengthen each league member.
The architects of Bevo TV — athletic director DeLoss Dodds and president Bill Powers — are gone. New leadership is in place. Could they be convinced to adopt a Big 12 Network? Roll The Longhorn Network into a Big 12 Network?
Certainly, financial provisions would have to be made. Texas is guaranteed $15 million a year from Bevo TV. A Big 12 Network would not make that much for each individual school. At least not now. Would the Big 12 members agree to guarantee Texas $15 million a year for the next 15 years, with the rest of the league sharing equally the remaining payouts, be it $5 million or $8 million or $10 million?
Could a compromise be reached? Now certainly is the time to discuss such things.
Boren is on to something. Why patch a hole when the whole roof needs replaced. Why add a football title game when bigger issues linger? Why expand, if the same problems would exist?
Boren’s declaration that fixing everything at once — expand, ideally to 12, which would give the league a title game, while also implementing a conference network — would get the Big 12 back on the road to equal footing with the leagues it considers its peers.
Form a Big 12 Network, and suddenly different schools look much better. Connecticut, for example. An entire state of 3.5 million is gaga over UConn basketball. A Big 12 Network would sell in New England, while providing exposure for the other schools.
Brigham Young would be an interesting case. BYU TV is a major force — it was on my cable system at the Camelback Inn in Scottsdale — and the Cougars would have to move their athletic content from BYU TV to a Big 12 Network. I have no idea if that appeals to BYU; the current Big 12 system is perfect for the Cougars. But if BYU athletics moved into a Big 12 Network, that would open markets everywhere for the enterprise. BYU has a national following.
The other expansion candidates — Cincinnati, Boise State, Houston, Central Florida, East Carolina, whoever you think of — don’t really register much on the conference-network train.
But Connecticut and Brigham Young would be major additions.
Boren has been politicking for a long time for Big 12 change. His public statements on the “psychologically-disadvantaged” league. His efforts to build consensus for expansion.
This is his goal: the end of The Longhorn Network, and a Musketeer attitude in the Big 12.

UConn to the Big 12?

FUCK YES.

Make it happen.

 

[Hornsstampede2.0]

The Bottom Line: Expansion, Championship Games

I agree with everything

Expansion?? Maybe, if it makes sense, but nothing really does stand out.

Conference Network?? Waste of freaking time and money that only ends up losing money at this point. The Big 12 is not the SEC. And 2016 is a diffrent world for cable versus A' la carte offerings. Our system is actually working just fine financially.

 

[4down20]

@ Texas fans in denial.

 

[TexasExes98]

@ Texas fans in denial.

LOL at never attending a Bama football game, you "die hard" fan you.....

 

[4down20]

LOL at never attending a Bama football game, you "die hard" fan you.....

And we still won another National Championship.

 

[Lance Armstrong]

@ Texas fans in denial.

denial of what, we listed facts?

 

[fordman84]

Yeah, but you didn't see Texas or any other conference member crywhen KU signed their 1st 3rd tier contract back in '06 when they were making a little over $7.2M a year. Okie Jr. made $6.3M in third tier rights in '09. Nobody said shit. The Cornhuskers then signed their 3rd tier rights away in '09 which was then a record deal for $9M a year; nobody said shit. Keep in mind while all of these schools were signing lucrative 3rd tier rights deals, long before Texas did, Texas was making around $310K a year on their 3rd tier rights. I repeat, $310K a year; that isn't a typo. Your Tigers made a tad over $4.6M from their 3rd tier rights while TX made $310K. Where was the uproar then? Just saying....

IMO, money isn't the issue. The fucking albatross of a channel is. Right out of the gate there was shady shit going on with it, like the high school football games they wanted to show. Selling your rights to a network is one thing, owning your own network is another.

Jexas thought they were going to use that stupid channel to change their future, and they were right. The LHN has been nothing but a shit storm for Jexas since it's first moment on air.

 

[Lance Armstrong]

IMO, money isn't the issue. The fucking albatross of a channel is. Right out of the gate there was shady shit going on with it, like the high school football games they wanted to show. Selling your rights to a network is one thing, owning your own network is another.

Jexas thought they were going to use that stupid channel to change their future, and they were right. The LHN has been nothing but a shit storm for Jexas since it's first moment on air.

Yup, it sucks having a 24 hour channel dedicated to your team. National signing day is going to suck, having coverage of all the signees all day. F the LHN, i wish we shared it with 13 other schools. I want less coverage of my team.

 

[Goldbug]

Yup, it sucks having a 24 hour channel dedicated to your team. National signing day is going to suck, having coverage of all the signees all day. F the LHN, i wish we shared it with 13 other schools. I want less coverage of my team.

So you are finally admitting the LHN is a huge advantage to UT and a net negative for other members of the conference. About time.

I don't know what the answer is but let's at least admit the Big XII is not an even proposition for every member. I prefer getting the hell out of this crappy conference and letting everyone else fend for themselves. I'm sure some current members would suffer in a realignment but life's a bitch.......and then we die. I like sports but I'm more concerned about the academic future of OU.

 

[Lance Armstrong]

So you are finally admitting the LHN is a huge advantage to UT and a net negative for other members of the conference. About time.

I don't know what the answer is but let's at least admit the Big XII is not an even proposition for every member. I prefer getting the hell out of this crappy conference and letting everyone else fend for themselves. I'm sure some current members would suffer in a realignment but life's a bitch.......and then we die. I like sports but I'm more concerned about the academic future of OU.

How is it a net negative, don't you guys have a deal with fox? You make 5 mil a year, same amount as the SEC teams currently. I feel so bad for OU, you guys are suffering big time being in the big 12. You made the football playoff, currently #1 in basketball, and again make a good amount on tier 3. You're being held back, I suggest you go to the big ten with okie light and watch recruiting take off.

 

[fordman84]

Yup, it sucks having a 24 hour channel dedicated to your team. National signing day is going to suck, having coverage of all the signees all day. F the LHN, i wish we shared it with 13 other schools. I want less coverage of my team.

I didn't say it sucked for Horns fans. I'm sure it is great. It's every other person in the country that hates it, and hates Jexas because of it. And that hurts Jexas because of it.

 

[Goldbug]

How is it a net negative, don't you guys have a deal with fox? You make 5 mil a year, same amount as the SEC teams currently. I feel so bad for OU, you guys are suffering big time being in the big 12. You made the football playoff, currently #1 in basketball, and again make a good amount on tier 3. You're being held back, I suggest you go to the big ten with okie light and watch recruiting take off.

No, Lance, you misunderstood me. Oklahoma is the only school in the conference that can (mostly) go head-to-head with Texas and win a fair share of the time. It's why we are such rivals. But the rest of the conference is way behind Texas......and OU to a lesser extent. The conference is dysfunctional. It's doomed. My position is Oklahoma needs to make a move up. I'd much prefer to do it in conjunction with UT and if we have to take our little brothers with us then that's OK too. But the Big XII sucks for OU long term in spite of our current "success". I'm thinking 10-15-25 years down the road.