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Texas A&M Bolting to the SEC Is Just a Matter of Time
By Clay Travis Senior NCAA Writer | Follow on Twitter: @ClayTravisBGIDText SizeAAAPrint this page|EmailShare on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on DiggShare on Lifestream
Last week, the Texas Longhorns announced a partnership with ESPN that will bring the school just north of $12 million a year for the next 15 years after partnership fees are shared. That money is in addition to the substantial sums of money Texas extorted from its Big 12 brethren during last year's conference realignment shakedown. Make no mistake about it, we've entered a new era of college athletics, where once conferences were king now individual schools, in some cases, don't give a damn about anyone but themselves. Especially when those schools retain the all important local multimedia rights packages, as members of the Big 12 and SEC presently do. The Big Ten and Pac-12 schools have given up those rights.
As a result of the new network deal, ESPN gains the right to create a Texas Longhorn-specific network, the first of its kind. The programming is far from must-see television -- eight men's basketball games and one football game will take up about 20 hours of content -- but it will broadcast 8.740 additional hours of programming a year -- 8,740! It was trendy to make fun of the Big Ten Network's schedule early on, but the Big Ten Network actually carries a ton of games that your average fan would care about.
It's possible the Texas Longhorn network won't turn down a single pitch idea. Meaning Texas is probably going to be the first school in history to be able to offer television shows to assistant coaches.
We can make lots of jokes about what shows will air on ESPN's Longhorn Network -- I'm partial to Boating with Cedric Benson, How to Grow Pot Anywhere in the World starring Ricky Williams, and Vince Young Cooks Shirtless at the VY Steakhouse while talking about the 2006 Rose Bowl -- but the immediate impact of the network is less serious than what it signals. Namely, the Big 12 is a dead conference walking. Until that happens, the Longhorns are going to be extracting a pound of flesh from their biggest rival Texas A&M engaging in provocative acts designed to infuriate its neighbors. As historical analogies go, the Longhorn Network is like Russia sending missiles to Cuba.
http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2011/01/27/texas-aandm-bolting-to-the-sec-is-just-a-matter-of-time/
By Clay Travis Senior NCAA Writer | Follow on Twitter: @ClayTravisBGIDText SizeAAAPrint this page|EmailShare on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on DiggShare on Lifestream
Last week, the Texas Longhorns announced a partnership with ESPN that will bring the school just north of $12 million a year for the next 15 years after partnership fees are shared. That money is in addition to the substantial sums of money Texas extorted from its Big 12 brethren during last year's conference realignment shakedown. Make no mistake about it, we've entered a new era of college athletics, where once conferences were king now individual schools, in some cases, don't give a damn about anyone but themselves. Especially when those schools retain the all important local multimedia rights packages, as members of the Big 12 and SEC presently do. The Big Ten and Pac-12 schools have given up those rights.
As a result of the new network deal, ESPN gains the right to create a Texas Longhorn-specific network, the first of its kind. The programming is far from must-see television -- eight men's basketball games and one football game will take up about 20 hours of content -- but it will broadcast 8.740 additional hours of programming a year -- 8,740! It was trendy to make fun of the Big Ten Network's schedule early on, but the Big Ten Network actually carries a ton of games that your average fan would care about.
It's possible the Texas Longhorn network won't turn down a single pitch idea. Meaning Texas is probably going to be the first school in history to be able to offer television shows to assistant coaches.
We can make lots of jokes about what shows will air on ESPN's Longhorn Network -- I'm partial to Boating with Cedric Benson, How to Grow Pot Anywhere in the World starring Ricky Williams, and Vince Young Cooks Shirtless at the VY Steakhouse while talking about the 2006 Rose Bowl -- but the immediate impact of the network is less serious than what it signals. Namely, the Big 12 is a dead conference walking. Until that happens, the Longhorns are going to be extracting a pound of flesh from their biggest rival Texas A&M engaging in provocative acts designed to infuriate its neighbors. As historical analogies go, the Longhorn Network is like Russia sending missiles to Cuba.
http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2011/01/27/texas-aandm-bolting-to-the-sec-is-just-a-matter-of-time/
