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Scheduling note
We'll finish up our Tennessee preview, now entering its third week, this week. Then we'll have Ole Miss and South Carolina next week, followed by the rest of the teams in a week each. This could not be avoided, and hopefully the fact that South Carolina will be one of the teams in the combined week will make it clear we're not playing favorites.
20(BIG)12: THE END OF THE END OF THE WORLD
Do any of these people know what they're doing?
You remember that super-great and super-secret deal that persuaded Texas to stay in the Big XII. Yeah, it turns out there aren't any actual "numbers" associated with it. Just estimates, because those always prove reliable. Dan Beebe:
No future television deal has been reached, but "we have extremely strong verification, based on analysis by consultants and media companies that we are in tremendous position to execute future agreements that will put our institutions on a par with any in the country."
So Texas considered moving into the Pac-10 and threw the entire college football world into crisis mode, only to be talked back from the brink with estimates? What kind of Keystone Kops conference are they running over there?
Not that it's all monopoly money
After all, Fox has promised a neighborhood range of how much they're willing to overpay shell out for the Big XII rights.
But sources say FSN has told Big 12 officials that it would increase its annual payout to as much as $130-$140M per year. It currently pays $19.5M per year for the cable TV rights, a deal that ends following the '11-12 season. As part of its proposed deal, FSN has asked to take control of the conference's third-tier rights that are currently controlled by rights holders IMG, ISP and Learfield, sources said. ... It is not known when these rights will be available.
As Brian points out (as always with mgoblog, mild language warning to get great content), this would be an increase of 600 percent -- for a conference that just lost two of its members. And in return, Fox gets some other rights, but has no idea when those rights would be available.
If it weren't for the added value of our CBS / ESPN deal, it's almost enough to wish that Slive would do business with Fox, just to see what he could take them for.
And here's the potential poison pill in the deal
It comes in the much-discussed portion of the deal under which Texas, A&M and Oklahoma could get a good chunk of the penalty money paid by Nebraska and Colorado for leaving the conference.
The money could be used to bring the Longhorns, Sooners and Aggies, who had interest from more than one other conference, to a distribution level comparable to what they would have received by jumping to another conference. The estimated payout to a member of an expanded Pac-10 was around $20 million.
The three Big 12 powerbrokers would use this fund to reach that amount, but according to a source close to the Big 12, the revenue projections from future media rights could make the fund unnecessary.
Missouri chancellor Brady Deaton and athletic director Mike Alden said they don’t believe that any school would fall short of revenue projections. But if that happened, they maintain that any payment from the penalty fund to the three or any other school would require a vote of the Big 12 board of directors.
And if the board decides not to grant that money, or to try to grant it on more favorable terms to the other seven teams? Boom, I'm guessing.
"The Big 12 has served [three of] its members well," said men’s athletic director DeLoss Dodds. "We move forward with the confidence of 10 Big 12 universities [ -- seven of which don't really matter -- ] to ensure the very best academic and athletic opportunities of the [Texas, A&M and Oklahoma] student-athletes
we[the entire conference now] support[s]."
There. Much better.
The difference between the Big XII and the SEC
This is how one of the smartest Texas fans sees the relationship between Texas and its league:
But that’s not the interest Texas is protecting. The Big XII is a means to an end, and its existence is incidental up to and to the extent that it is the chosen structure through which Texas serves that end. That is, the status quo is not the Big XII as it exists today, but rather Texas’ extremely advantageous position, generally, which the Big XII as it exists today merely enables. [Emphasis C&F's]
I don't think you can really blame Texas for looking out for its own self-interests; that's what pretty much everyone did in the CONFERENCE EXPANSIONPALOOZA THAT NEVER WAS. But it's sad that (a) Texas sees nothing wrong with the deal that originally gave it these overly favorable terms; and (b) the Big XII schools couldn't be bothered to stand up for themselves as long as Iowa State stayed in a conference with an AQ status it will never need. Like Year2, the more I learn the more I'm glad we didn't get Texas and probably never will.
Oklahoma wants its own TV network
And Oklahoma State isn't even ruling it out. How long before we hear about plans for "Cyclone TV"?
20(PAC)12: THE END OF THE NONSENSE
Utah to the Pac-11?
We all know this is going to happen eventually ... but how exactly would the Bay Area Comcast affiliate find out about Utah going to the Pac-11. Label me skeptical. (HT: SBNation)
In part because Larry Scott says it isn't true
And whatever you want to say about Scott in recent weeks, he hasn't been found to be a liar. And the Utes say there is "nothing new to report." Comcast: It's ChipBrowntastic.
Mountain West Connection: There are land mines for Utah to Pac-10
But don't expect them to deep-six the deal.
Boise will still be better off in the Mountain West
That's the analysis from One Bronco Nation Under God. Though I wouldn't be quite so sanguine about the odds for a MWC champion to get into the BCS, unless you're assuming they're going to be undefeated every year.
OTHER NEWS
Les Miles says 'Hotty Toddy'
He does realize he's on the hot seat, right?
I'm speechless. (HT: Dr. Saturday)
Georgia gets Jarvis Jones from Southern Cal
Lane Kiffin complaint about "cheating to get him" commencing in 3... 2... 1...
Prepare the fatted calf for slaughter
The monument to the wise visage of Nick Saban will be finished soon. You must get it just right, you see, or Saban will order your immediate exile to the salt mines.