The Big 12 expansion groundswell

[TheBYUGuy]

Chip brown is a Moran. In the past month he has claimed that it looks like Texas was going to:

The PAC
The B1G
The ACC
Declare Independence
Stay in the B12

Wow, he really scooped everyone this time around.

I used to make predictions like that on Cougarboard.

No, I am not exUte.

[Jarid in Cedar]

Chip brown is a Moran. In the past month he has claimed that it looks like Texas was going to:

The PAC
The B1G
The ACC
Declare Independence
Stay in the B12

Wow, he really scooped everyone this time around.

No ACC without unbalanced revenue sharing. Maybe C-USA will let them be top dog.

[SeattleUte]

Starting to see the tide turn for OU staying in the BIG 12

ESPN Source: Oklahoma nowhere near move

Note that almost everything about OU leaving has come from Chip Brown. The rest has come from ESPN who is also in bed with Texas.

Anytime you get worried about Oklahoma boing to the Pac 12 just ask me. I'll tell you every time, no way. NEVER.

[Surfah]

Who belongs in superconferences? The field of 64:

http://collegefootball.rivals.com/co...sp?CID=1264807

[pellegrino]

Who belongs in superconferences? The field of 64:

http://collegefootball.rivals.com/co...sp?CID=1264807

Sweet! We're in!

[Uncle Ted]

Sweet! We're in!

Yes but the question is where and will we still get to use our HDTV truck and watch games on our iPads.

[byu71]

I layed down a bet we won't get into the BIG12. I have taken one for the team. You can thank me later.

[dixdog]

TX Tech thinks it gets an invite to the PAC 12

TX Tech thinks that it is going to get invited to the PAC 12 without U of T because the PAC wants a footprint in Texas.

Lubbock is in the middle of nowhere and has lousy academics.

[Uncle Ted]

Interesting thought on why BYU (with BYUtv) and Texas (with the LHN) are pioneers in how you will watch college football in the future...

The Texas Gambit is that the Longhorn Network becomes successful and obviously so to the point that other big time programs realize that they need their own network as well. My thoughts are known on this subject; revenue generation from third tier rights is not nearly as important as the exposure and branding that the network provides. Will other schools realize this moving forward or will conferences hold on to third tier network control?

I may have said this before, but I’ll say it again: universities are going to want to control their cable channel for the same reason they want to control their website today. And, by the time that the children who are being born today check into Jester for their freshman year, they’ll need an older person to explain what I just wrote, because they won’t know what “cable” means.

Over a quarter-million subscribers ditched cable for internet-only content in the last quarter alone. Consumers are surprisingly happy watching things on smaller screens that fit in their pockets. If it’s in your hand, its apparent size is more or less the same to you. (WARNING: this does not mean your johnson is 67″ diagonally). Internet-to-TV boxes, furthermore, are going through their cola wars while you are reading this sentence. Consumers are also spoiled by the scheduling convenience of on-demand content. Right now, the student next to you on the shuttle bus isn’t really “there,” because they’re texting to people all over the planet. Eventually, “when” will matter as little as “where.”

This may seem like a gradual change to you, if you were born before 1980. But because this is a generational change, it will hit an inflection point in the near future, after which change will be rapid and only marginally predictable. And when The Revolution comes, you’ll want to own every last pixel of your own content, because technological changes of this sort have, in recent history, turned a lot of people’s monetization schemes into a total fuckscape. Consider: if cable TV died tomorrow, collegiate and professional sports would collapse. Start building your Ark, Noah.

It’s nothing short of poetic that Verizon was LHN’s first ‘big’ (I know) pickup.

Cable TV as we know it can still generate a lot of money between now and The End. While cable lies dying, the distinction between cable content and online content will continue to blur until they are so indistinguishable, no one will notice when cable dies, any more than you noticed when your everyday phone use stopped involving a wire sticking out of the thing in your hand. By the time you buy your next plasma, you won’t be able to find one that doesn’t connect to the internet and that doesn’t have its own browser.

LHN Short Term: a metric fucktonne of money from cable.

LHN Long Term: a university’s channel is part of their brand, and the cable companies are about to become as important as an American semiconductor assembly line worker. Will universities be comfortable with allowing an athletic conference manage their brand? I think not.

And there is most likely the biggest reason Texas will most likely never consider being a member of the Pac-whatever (unless they give the tier 3 rights and control of the team's website back to the universities).

[shoganai]

Interesting thought on why BYU (with BYUtv) and Texas (with the LHN) are pioneers in how you will watch college football in the future...



And there is most likely the biggest reason Texas will most likely never consider being a member of the Pac-whatever (unless they give the tier 3 rights and control of the team's website back to the universities).

I've been tooting this horn for a little while now. Independence is the way of the future for the most powerful teams in college sports simply because the conference revenue model will be obsolete when broadband TV and school-specific networks hit certain saturation points.

Scheduling difficulties, bowl tie-ins, motivation, etc. - none of them are the real reasons few teams are still independent. The actual reason is TV revenue. Once it becomes clear that the maximum revenue no longer exists in conferences, but in proprietary networks, then the era of conferences - and super conferences - is over as we know it.

[byu71]

I've been tooting this horn for a little while now. Independence is the way of the future for the most powerful teams in college sports simply because the conference revenue model will be obsolete when broadband TV and school-specific networks hit certain saturation points.

Scheduling difficulties, bowl tie-ins, motivation, etc. - none of them are the real reasons few teams are still independent. The actual reason is TV revenue. Once it becomes clear that the maximum revenue no longer exists in conferences, but in proprietary networks, then the era of conferences - and super conferences - is over as we know it.

You actually might be right someday. Unfortunately I won't still be alive to congratulate you on your correct prediction.

[shoganai]

You actually might be right someday. Unfortunately I won't still be alive to congratulate you on your correct prediction.

Here's something to consider...

Why did ESPN overpay Texas so severely for the LHN? Does anyone really believe that 2-3 football games thrown in with 24/7 of mostly irrelevant content is worth the money they're shelling out right now? (Much less only one guaranteed football game).

ESPN is not stupid when it comes to business. Why are they throwing such outrageous money into this project? It's because they know they need to start getting their fingers in this pie NOW. They can start building these relationships through distribution, but the real aim is to be in a position to use actual broadcast and talent capabilities to leverage these relationships with future partners when distribution is no longer a relevant issue (broadband access = no distribution barriers).

This is coming sooner than some of us think. Maybe not so soon that BYU will have no need to join a conference in the near future, but it's not so far away that the things they're doing with BYUtv are irrelevant, either.

[byu71]

Here's something to consider...

Why did ESPN overpay Texas so severely for the LHN? Does anyone really believe that 2-3 football games thrown in with 24/7 of mostly irrelevant content is worth the money they're shelling out right now? (Much less only one guaranteed football game).

ESPN is not stupid when it comes to business. Why are they throwing such outrageous money into this project? It's because they know they need to start getting their fingers in this pie NOW. They can start building these relationships through distribution, but the real aim is to be in a position to use actual broadcast and talent capabilities to leverage these relationships with future partners when distribution is no longer a relevant issue (broadband access = no distribution barriers).

This is coming sooner than some of us think. Maybe not so soon that BYU will have no need to join a conference in the near future, but it's not so far away that the things they're doing with BYUtv are irrelevant, either.

My guess is 10 years if it does. Maybe I will be around, but won't be able to recognize what happened.

[SoCalCoug]

I tend to think Oklahoma is merely posturing with the Pac 12 stuff. I'm thinking they want concessions from Texas regarding the LHN. Maybe better revenue sharing? But aren't they one of the "haves" on the revenue sharing thing?

Babs (or anyone else who has a good finger on the pulse of the Oklahoma football program): Assuming Oklahoma is posturing with this, trying to leverage Texas in all this, what are they trying to get out of Texas?

[Blueintheface]

I tend to think Oklahoma is merely posturing with the Pac 12 stuff. I'm thinking they want concessions from Texas regarding the LHN. Maybe better revenue sharing? But aren't they one of the "haves" on the revenue sharing thing?

Babs (or anyone else who has a good finger on the pulse of the Oklahoma football program): Assuming Oklahoma is posturing with this, trying to leverage Texas in all this, what are they trying to get out of Texas?

Those questions have been asked of her and everyone in general for the past week or so. Concessions with the LHN I think are off the table completely, unless you consider an agreement to not show High School games a concession. Also, while OU is a "have" they don't get as much as Texas. They could also be leveraging their standing with the other 7 teams as well when it comes to revenue although I doubt this altrisitic version of events. I think they're very seriously tired of Texas and while it may be posturing they may very well take their ball and go west.