The Big 12 expansion groundswell

[Omaha 680]

That Frescoe guy from KC also tweeted that OU and Texas both want to stay in the Big 12.

Hearing OU and UT really don't want to leave the league but want to see more teams added to keep league stable

But then added:

Also hearing today, and it WILL change tomorrow, that the ACC really wants KU...stay tuned

Obviously ND/Texas are the big prizes in all this. If the B1G or the ACC can convince them to come together, they'll take them in a heartbeat. But adding Kansas to their recent acquisitions to solidify themselves as the premier basketball conference wouldn't be a bad consolation prize for the ACC. Are Kansas and KSU wedded in all this like OU/OSU? Because from the ACC's standpoint, KU/Missouri would make more sense.

[PolyCougar]

The Big 12 is super strong!

http://www.big12sports.com/ViewArtic...CLID=205274578

Oh that silly Beebe... just holding on.

[Gaffords]

you guys are on the outside looking in, what is your take on what OU wants?

OKC — New dateline. Transcribed whole way home.
(sooner rather than later? more specific timeline?)
“I think I’ve given parameters before. I said it could be one day, one week, three weeks. I think I also said three months at one time; that didn’t get reported. I don’t think it should be that long, so that we can all go back to focusing on our principle mission at universities.

(SEC or Big Ten options at all?)
“Well, I wouldn’t comment on that. If I told you, I’d have to kill you. (speaking to Dean Blevins; Berry Tramel heard advocating this in background) You’re too good of a person for me to have to want to do that. I think we’ve had options. It’s pretty well known we had options last year.

(any interest?)
“I don’t even want to comment on that. I think, at this point in time, we want to examine all of our options. I would say that the principle focus, beyond the Big 12 itself – which is still a focus for us – is the Pac-12.

(are fans/players part of OU’s best interest?)
“It’s extremely important. You have to look at this way: One of the most important things for our fans and our students is for us to be a member of a stable conference, so we do not continue to have distracting dramas about the conference itself. We are in a very strong position at this time. I don’t need to tell you where are we in terms of athletics. I don’t need to tell you where we are in terms of academics. If we were able to use a stock market term, the stock of the University of Oklahoma is trading very high at this moment. I think it’s a time, then, for us to really look at our options and not postpone decisions but to make decisions and take them.

(Pac-12 say to back off? Academic stuff? Just OU/OSU?)
“No one has given us any words of discouragement on any front. No conference. Nor has the Big 12 given us any words of discouragement, either.

(another Texas question. Already covered this turf, right?)
“I think we have to look at what’s best for the University of Oklahoma. We can’t … our regents were not confirmed by the governor or confirmed by the Legislature to look after the best interest of any other university, except for the University of Oklahoma and with due regard to our partners at Oklahoma State. Those are the most important things to us and that’s what we’re going to act upon. Other universities feel the same sense of responsibility, I’m sure. I’m sure they’ll do what’s best for their universities. This isn’t just a decision for today. This is a decision that will affect us for years to come.
“If we were to make a decision that would keep us in an unstable situation, that’s something that, in the long term, would be beneficial to our fans, who like to see us have a chance for successful athletic programs and academic programs, as well. That’s not to say it’s a foregone conclusion that the Big 12 cannot be strengthened and become an attractive option, but it does mean the status quo is certainly not stable and, so, we’ll have to wait and see. That’s one of the things we’re weighing. Can it be made stable? The other things we’re weighing are, what are the kinds of opportunities that might be available to us in the Pac-12, if that’s the direction we decided to go.

(thoughts on 16-team superconferences? Concerns?)
“It’s certainly more complicated than eight. The Big 8 was kind of, as we go back and think nostalgically, sometimes I yearn for the Big 8. I think there are ways around that, if you really work hard at scheduling. If you create, instead of two leagues, if you create pods of four teams each, you can work out a schedule where travel – and, again, that’s important going back to our fans and students – can be minimized and you would play within the pod that geographically was close to you. I think some of these things can be minimized.
“One of the things we have to ask ourselves, too, is, Is conference consolidation moving in an inevitable direction? If it is, we have to keep that in mind, as well. That’s something we have to weigh. Is it? I don’t know. We’ve watched closely what’s happened with Pittsburgh and Syracuse in the last few days. We’re seeing what’s happening nationally. Obviously, the SEC will be expanding if A&M continues to go to the SEC. That’s something else we have to think about.

(what signals inevitability?)
“I think we just have to weigh that. It seems to be moving in that direction, but this could just be a one-off. Maybe this Pittsburgh-Syracuse thing is something that’s not going to lead to action elsewhere. We have to wait and see.

(is LHN the big problem with the Big 12?)
“We’re trying to build a positive relationship with all the universities around us. I don’t think it would serve any purpose for me to throw stones. If we were to remain in the Big 12, as you know, the University of Oklahoma was making plans to start our own network. I think whether it’s conference networks or individual university networks, they need to be operated in a way that we don’t violate any of the basic rules that should apply to all universities. For example, we don’t operate networks in a way that would give a recruiting advantage, as Coach Stoops has said, to one university over another. We simply could have a situation where you don’t play whole (high school) games where you have recruits, or people you’re trying to recruit, playing on those teams. You can play highlights and your highlights just might happen to focus on some of those players who were your top recruits. Now, is that a level playing field on recruiting? I don’t think so. We’re for a level playing field. We want to see a conference in which all the members play an equal role. Whatever conference we join, or whatever conference we stay in – those are obviously the two major options – the University of Oklahoma has no ambition to dominate any conference. We simply have the ambition of being a member, an equal member, of any conference, playing by the same rules, by having a level playing field for all the members of that conference and developing a high level of trust in each other. That’s our goal. That’s what we’re after.

(another LHN question … would OU join Pac-12 if UT kept network as is?)
“I’m not going to discuss that, because that gets us into the details of the kinds of factors we might weigh.

(LHN question … revenue advantage over others, including OU?)
“Well, if we came up with our own network, we think it would be financially successful. Let me say that we’re in the process, at this moment in time – because we’re still a member of the Big 12 – for months, for more than a year, of planning our (network). I would say the level of interest of those who would like to be partners, media partners in our network, has gone up considerably – even over the past few weeks. There are a number of financial opportunities for the University of Oklahoma, too. The important thing is, if we have a network of our own, we want to run that network in a way that doesn’t seek to advantage us over other members, particularly in recruiting and other areas like that.
“Our goal is to be an equal partner in a network and we think it ought to be the goal of any conference we’re in, to be an equal member of that conference. We all ought to value each other, every member of our conference. None of us should seek to play a stronger leadership role than anyone else.

(regrets about not being more proactive in 2010?)
“I have tremendous regret that that’s happened. I would simply say it is not a strong vote of confidence in the conference office that this has happened in such a short period of time.”
Fin. Or close to it. He did add the line about revealing something if he knew it, as he was walking away.

http://blog.newsok.com/ou/2011/09/19...ipt-part-deux/

[Surfah]

you guys are on the outside looking in, what is your take on what OU wants?

“Well, if we came up with our own network, we think it would be financially successful. Let me say that we’re in the process, at this moment in time – because we’re still a member of the Big 12 – for months, for more than a year, of planning our (network). I would say the level of interest of those who would like to be partners, media partners in our network, has gone up considerably – even over the past few weeks. There are a number of financial opportunities for the University of Oklahoma, too. The important thing is, if we have a network of our own, we want to run that network in a way that doesn’t seek to advantage us over other members, particularly in recruiting and other areas like that.
“Our goal is to be an equal partner in a network and we think it ought to be the goal of any conference we’re in, to be an equal member of that conference. We all ought to value each other, every member of our conference. None of us should seek to play a stronger leadership role than anyone else.

http://blog.newsok.com/ou/2011/09/19...ipt-part-deux/

That right there is complete BS. And why do you create your own network to share equally? That's just sour grapes over the LHN. I should also add, that may be enough to keep BYU and certainly ND out of the Big 12.

[Maximus]

That right there is complete BS. And why do you create your own network to share equally? That's just sour grapes over the LHN. I should also add, that may be enough to keep BYU and certainly ND out of the Big 12.

if byu denies the big 12 because of that fans will be deservedly pissed off.

[Omaha 680]

That right there is complete BS. And why do you create your own network to share equally? That's just sour grapes over the LHN. I should also add, that may be enough to keep BYU and certainly ND out of the Big 12.

So it is all about money in the end. Didn't we hear a couple weeks ago that Texas had agreed to equal revenue sharing on Tier 1 and 2 rights? What more could OU want than a piece of the LHN pie as well? It seems no one had a huge problem with it until the dollar amounts became public.

[Omaha 680]

if byu denies the big 12 because of that fans will be deservedly pissed off.

Revenue sharing shouldn't be an impediment to BYU if they really are about exposure over money.

[Surfah]

Revenue sharing shouldn't be an impediment to BYU if they really are about exposure over money.

I don't think it would be. But what Boren suggests is more than just money. Though I think that is just lip service and what he really means is just money.

[CardiacCoug]

I really believe that UT and OU and in fact everybody else in the Big 12 (except Texas A&M) would rather keep the Big 12 intact than leave it. I think there is a lot of bluffing going on by OU and Texas to try to get what they want in negotiations with each other and the rest of the conference.

The problem is that while OU and Texas are playing games the Big 12 is losing ground.

Maybe I'm wrong but I really don't think very many of the Pac-12 presidents are going to be excited about adding Texas Tech and Oklahoma State. Between academic weakness of these new schools and increasing isolation from the southern California schools, I just don't think it's going to be an easy sell even if it would be financially advantageous (which I'm not sure it would be).

Texas isn't going to want to be a satellite around the West Coast programs. They want their conference to revolve around them.

[Gaffords]

I really believe that UT and OU and in fact everybody else in the Big 12 (except Texas A&M) would rather keep the Big 12 intact than leave it. I think there is a lot of bluffing going on by OU and Texas to try to get what they want in negotiations with each other and the rest of the conference.

The problem is that while OU and Texas are playing games the Big 12 is losing ground.

Maybe I'm wrong but I really don't think very many of the Pac-12 presidents are going to be excited about adding Texas Tech and Oklahoma State. Between academic weakness of these new schools and increasing isolation from the southern California schools, I just don't think it's going to be an easy sell even if it would be financially advantageous (which I'm not sure it would be).

Texas isn't going to want to be a satellite around the West Coast programs. They want their conference to revolve around them.

To be honest, I think the biggest issue is this: T-1 rights are under contract to ESPN/ABC until 480 million until 2016.

It was even worse last year when Nebraska left. FOX stepped up and gave us 1.2 bil (13 years) for the t-2 rights but we are still so far behind on the SEC/PAC/B1G money wise that we will have a threat of being poached.

The year we won the NC, I think we made 13 million. Compare that to the 25 million B1G makes. Look at the 3 billion PAC deal (12 years) to the 1.7 billion we make.

See where the instability comes from? The only way we can fix it is bring in some strong or our teams show up because our contracts will always reflect on UT/OU until someone steps up and shows they will be in the top 25 year in and year out. Right now, the Networks gamble on the OU/UT not staying down forever. who else would they invest on?

[Uncle Ted]

Both OU and aTm have (or had) plans for their own networks. UT even tried to partner with aTm on a network a few years back. OU has spent millions on their network and announced spending millions more as late as last month. It seems now that UT is getting the LHN off the ground OU and aTm are pissed off because they don't have a network of their own also. They really only have themselves to blame. aTm was offered a partnership and OU, by their own omission, stated they could have easily built a successful network of their own.

Now it seems OU, faced with the prospect of adding another school to the conference that has its own and even more successful network (i.e. BYU with BYUtv), feels like it must joined the socialists (i.e. the Pac-whatever) because they crashed and burned as capitalists. OU doesn't want to admit its own failure and, therefore, would rather try to sell its fans on the idea that socialism under the brand of the PAC-whatever is better.

[USUC]

Everytime I think there might be a chance the Big-12 holds together something comes out that brings me back down.

Sources close to the situation say Oklahoma and Oklahoma State are totally focused on becoming members of the Pac-12. But there is some question about if those schools would receive a bid without Texas.

A Big 12 administrator said if Texas really wants the Big 12 to survive, the Longhorns should wait things out and see if OU and OSU get bids on their own to the Pac-12. If they don't, Texas could try to convince the Sooners and Cowboys to give the Big 12 one more chance, the administrator said.

http://texas.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1267651

Texas saying they will make their decision within two weeks. This crap just keeps dragging on. And the longer it does so the less chance the Big-12 has in surviving. Maybe cooler heads will prevail. Still no guarantees BYU has a place in the Big-12 even if it does stay together.

[Red Legger]

Not as bad as it sounds.

Now that actually makes a lot of sense why there would be a problem. Forcing me to subscribe to a Ute network to watch anything BYU, would make me blow a gasket. The fight makes more sense now, along with the talk about Oklahoma wanting to make sure there is sharing considering non-Texas fans would subscribe to watch their non-Texas team... that feel kinda sleezy.

KU has agreed to allow the UT/KU game to be broadcast on their network w/ the understanding that KU has broadcast rights in areas where the Longhorn Network doesn't exist. Basically, in Kansas. While not trumpeted like the LHN, KU does make about $7 million per year off its own 3rd tier broadcast rights:

http://www.kuathletics.com/multimedi...v-network.html

Usually, the Jayhawk Network broadcasts the in-state Div II practice game against Washburn or Ft Hays State and the crappy warmup games in AllenFieldhouse like Texas-San Antonio or UMKC. As I understood it, KU might broadcast the KU/UT across the Jayhawk Network and make a little extra money off the deal plus we get some teevee exposure in Texas which we're always interested in. The point of the 3rd tier media rights is that each school keeps their own. Seems fair and reasonable to me. The Whorns have their property and we have ours. This LHN deal has been blown way outta proportion.


Rock Chalk Jayhawk, Beat Mizzou

[Red Legger]

The thing is....

Either way it means (1) the Big 12 is unlikely to survive, because the two power players either don't care about it or are too stupidly self-interested to keep it going; (2) even if the Big 12 does survive for now, an invite to BYU is unlikely because its probably just a transitional survival while OU, Texas, and the other rats have a couple of years to move on to their next conference, so who cares about going to 12; or (3) the Big 12 does survive and invites BYU, but Texas and OU refuse to provide real guarantees that they will stick around, either because they are genuinely planning on leaving or because they believe that playing roulette with conference survival every few years is good for their bottom line. In the last case I would hate to be the admins who would have to make the call about whether to join a sinking ship or remain stranded on our desert island.

that if BYU could calm these two jackarses down south down for a while, we'd all be looking at the first tier negotiations backing a truckload of money into the conference in two years. Especially after this soap opera. And the money would cure alot of ills. UT would have their precious LHN/OU would have the Dirt Burglars network/Jayhawkers would be happily watching KU pound Emporia State in basketball on their network/BYU would be converting the heathens on theirs. And we'd all be watching UT/OU on ABC on Saturday night. It all just makes so much sense it's hard to just toss in the trash. Boren could fix this tomorrow. He just needs some guts.

Rock Chalk Jayhawk, Beat Mizzou

[Uncle Ted]

Chip Brown: Texas will make decision within two weeks

Texas will make a decision about its future conference home within two weeks, a source close to the situation said Monday.

Texas regents on Monday voted to give UT president Bill Powers the authority to make decisions on behalf of the university when it comes to conference affiliation.

The Longhorns' first option remains holding the Big 12 together with Oklahoma and Oklahoma State in it, the source said. The Big 12's TV partners (ABC/ESPN and Fox) are not interested in continuing their current contracts with the Big 12 if Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas are not all in the league, sources said.

After being given the authority by regents to make conference affiliation decisions on behalf of Oklahoma, school president David Boren on Monday expressed concern about the instability of the Big 12.

Boren also said OU has engaged in talks with the Pac-12 that have been "constructive."

Sources close to the situation say Oklahoma and Oklahoma State are totally focused on becoming members of the Pac-12. But there is some question about if those schools would receive a bid without Texas.

A Big 12 administrator said if Texas really wants the Big 12 to survive, the Longhorns should wait things out and see if OU and OSU get bids on their own to the Pac-12. If they don't, Texas could try to convince the Sooners and Cowboys to give the Big 12 one more chance, the administrator said.

"Why would Texas commit to the Pac-12 any sooner than they absolutely have to, if UT really wants the Big 12 to survive," the administrator said. "The Pac-12 isn't going to take OU and Oklahoma State and then get nervous and grab two other schools.

"The Pac-12 would hold open a spot for Texas."

Mack Brown made a passionate plea for the Big 12 to stay together during a conference call with reporters Monday.

A second source confirmed to Orangebloods.com that the Atlantic Coast Conference remains interested in Texas - but without Texas Tech. The source said the ACC would consider a Texas-Kansas or Texas-Missouri combination. But the ACC has real concerns about Texas Tech's academic standing. (Tech was ranked No. 160 in the latest U.S. News and World report rankings of America's top colleges and universities.)

It's doubtful Texas would try to find a conference home without Texas Tech, although a source close to Tech has said the Red Raiders have received some attention from the SEC as a possible partner with Texas A&M.

But the leading option for Texas continues to be the Pac-12, which would include Texas Tech, multiple sources said.

Texas is warming to the Pac-12, sources said, because UT can stay with its rivals - Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Tech. Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott also appears to have a proposal that would allow Texas to hold onto the revenue from the Longhorn Network as long as schools in what would be the Pac-16 meet a certain threshold of revenue from their third-tier rights.

But it's likely ESPN would give up control of the Longhorn Network in some sort of buyout by the Pac-12, so that programming would be overseen by the conference - to be consistent with the other six regional networks in the Pac-12, sources said. The name would likely also be changed to include reference to the Pac-16.

The Longhorns are busy doing their homework on going west, sources said. And if Texas and Pac-12 presidents like what they hear, the Longhorns could be members of the Pac-12 within two weeks, sources said.

Stay tuned.