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What is a Big XII Network Worth Without Texas?

Eight of the schools that will be remaining in the Big XII next year recently held a meeting with Learfield Sports, a multimedia rights management company which holds contracts with about 50 university athletic departments.  They met to discuss the viability of a Big XII network.  The results of the meeting are unknown although all involved have characterized it as just preliminary.

There are many hurdles to forming a conference network, one of the most significant is ensuring that the network will have an attractive inventory of football and men's and women's basketball games  In Big XII country I would add baseball to that list.  The problem faced by the remaining members of the conference is only partly the negotiations that will take place in 2011, about the existing contracts with Fox and ESPN which are expiring.  The biggest problem will be with Texas, which wants to form its own network and will want to keep as many of its games off the Big XII network and reserved for the Longhorn Network as possible.  The removal of Texas games significantly decreases the worth of the package to any prospective partner and national advertiser.  How the conference handles its Texas problem will be the key to whether it is able to proceed with a network of it own and deliver on the $20 million in television revenue it promised to the six schools which it induced to stay rather than jump to the Pac-10(12). Good luck with that network Mr. Beebe and lots of luck dealing with the Longhorn Monster you helped create.

Full post as published by Sports Biz on August 26, 2010 (boomark / email).