The Longhorns and Sooners are headed to the SEC and I'm seeing a lot of anger and bitterness from other schools. Oklahoma State is upset that they're not being included. Schools like Kansas State, Baylor and West Virginia are scrambling to figure out where they fit. And the loudest, whiniest voice is definitely that of the Aggies.
The narrative now is that Texas and Oklahoma are destroying the old conference and A&M is being railroaded by the new one.
But I think some perspective is important here.
Sometime during the mid 2000’s the Big 12 Conference got together to vote on individual TV rights. The main deal is a conference deal – everyone gets paid on that one. But this conversation was for 3rd tier rights. A handful of football/basketball games that weren’t going to be on the big network and a slew of smaller sports. There was talk of a conference network like others have, but in the end, the league voted to allow schools to maintain their own individual rights to do with as they please. Again – a league vote. Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma and Nebraska led that charge – feeling they could do better for their schools by making their own deals. Just to reiterate: A&M and Nebraska voted to let each school do what they wanted.
In 2007, Texas Athletic Director DeLoss Dodds approached Texas A&M to see if they’d want to partner in a network. The Aggies weren’t interested – UNTIL…
Early 2010. A&M gets wind that the Longhorns are working on a deal with ESPN to form their own network and asks if they can get in on a little of that. Texas informs the Aggies that it’s already too far down the road and by June it’s leaked that a 20-year, $300M deal to launch the Longhorn Network is imminent.
Meanwhile, the Sooners have struck a nice little deal of their own with FOX for some of their TV – including a pay-per-view plan that still makes Oklahoma a nice chunk of change. The Aggies got a bit of regional money, but not what they had hoped. Most of the schools sold those rights to a company like Learfied or IMG College to make a few bucks.
The top Big 12 schools are being courted by the PAC 12 at this time, but Nebraska isn’t in those discussions.
The Huskers had wanted to create their own network, but AD Tom Osborne quickly realized that there wouldn’t be enough national interest and programming would be tough and was now convinced that a conference network was the way to go. Seeing that they missed the boat, and that the other conference big boys may be on the way out, Nebraska pulls the “eject” lever and announces they’re heading for the Big 10 to get a piece of that network. Colorado sees a Pac 12 life raft float by and jumps on it.
It’s June 11th 2010 and the Big 12 is suddenly now 10, in large part because Texas and Oklahoma were the only ones actually successful at doing what they all wanted to do. Again, these Tier 3 rights are only for the sporting events not in the main conference TV deals. Texas and Oklahoma haven’t taken any money out of anyone else’s pocket – just added more to their own. Anyone can do it. And they all did – just not as successfully.
So now the conference is in trouble. Texas and Oklahoma feel like they’re being blamed (ok, mostly Texas for starting a TV network).
At the time, as Texas was being raked over the coals, DeLoss Dodds said, “I’m very upset. We’ve talked about it for years. People got interested when they found out what the money is. Should we apologize for someone paying us for it? I say no.”
That’s the rub – it wasn’t that Texas was able to start their own network. It’s that they were paid so much to do it. This was jealousy. Pure and simple.
So Texas can take a hint. This isn’t going well. The writing is on the wall. It is announced the next day that Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and “another Texas school” are considering leaving to go to the Pac 12. The reason it was “another Texas school” is because the Aggies thought maybe they’d rather go to the SEC, which would have sent Texas Tech out West in their place. The Longhorns don’t want to lose their LHN deal, though, so negotiations are difficult. And it becomes clear that the PAC 12 only wants the Oklahoma schools if Texas is also coming. At this point A&M would love to get away from Texas, but they don’t have a firm offer from the SEC. So what now?
The Big 12 tries a Hail Mary. They get the remaining 10 schools together and say, “how do we fix this?”
Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State, and Baylor lobby HARD to keep the conference together, fearful of what will happen to them if it disbands. They’re making more money in a power 5 conference than they likely would elsewhere, so they’re happy enough just to keep the status quo, but it’s even better than that for them: ESPN and FOX say they’ll keep paying the same money for 10 teams that they were paying for 12. So everybody is going to get more money.
Texas just wants to continue to have their network and some assurances that the conference will stay together. Oklahoma wants to keep their FOX deal and keep a “top share” of the revenue (the money in the conference isn’t distributed equally – and all the schools agreed to that upfront.)
But the Aggies want more money. So the conference re-configures payouts to give A&M, Oklahoma and Texas $20M each and the other 7 teams split what’s left. So the Aggies have negotiated more money for themselves than they previously had. That was their only stipulation – more in their own pocket.
So on June 14th, 2010 the Big 12 announces that the 10 remaining schools have committed to a new deal (and to each other) and the conference will remain. In essence – Texas, Oklahoma and Texas A&M have banded together to “save” the conference and the smaller schools from irrelevance.
The Aggies then spend the next several months behind the scenes scheming to leave, which they do the very next year. Whoop!
So to recap:
The league voted to allow individual TV rights deals.
Texas asked A&M if they’d like to partner in a network.
“No thanks.”
Schools went out to see what the market would be for
their wares.
Oklahoma got a deal.
Texas got a better one.
Everyone else got pennies and freaked out.
Then when the Big 12 looked to be blown to bits, Texas,
Oklahoma and A&M agreed to work together to save the conference.
A&M immediately reneged and left.
Sure, Nebraska’s departure probably started the inevitable dissolving of the conference, but it was A&M and Missouri leaving for the SEC that really made it untenable.
Big 12 leadership may have had a chance to make it work if they could have been aggressive about bringing in some good schools to expand, but they sat on their hands for years.
So a decade after A&M and Missouri left, Texas and Oklahoma are doing the same.
But now it’s Texas and Oklahoma who are the bad guys?
“They’re destroying the Big 12.”
And the poor Aggies are the loudest, most disgusted voice in the room – “we’re getting screwed over.”
I get why they’re angry. They thought they had a commitment from their conference and its members. That’s how 8 Big 12 teams felt when you promised to stay then immediately went back on your word.
Sorry, A&M.
For a school who talks so much about tradition, you sure
easily forget your history.
No comments:
Post a Comment