Kirk Bohls raises an interesting point.
It’s hard to blame Texas for having the wherewithal and desire to start its own network and reap $15 million a year off it for the next 20 years. It’s not the Longhorns’ fault they’ve won four national championships in football and two Heisman trophies, and are one of the most recognizable brands from Rome, Italy to Paris, Texas.
And Texas isn’t alone in this. Kansas State just announced it’s starting its own digital network. Oklahoma wants to. Magnus said Missouri’s looking into it.
So is Notre Dame, which is interesting since that could facilitate it joining the Big 12, no matter what A&M does, because the Big Ten Network supposedly would preclude it from taking Notre Dame with a Notre Dame network. The Big 12 could accept the Irish.
Texas A&M should start its own network, too. Lots of Aggies out there.
“The opportunities are just huge for each (Big 12) institution,” Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds said. “I think as time goes by, we’ll all learn how to better those opportunities and get past somebody having a network. I think in 30 years, the Big 12 will look smart for doing it this way.”
I think that’s probably right. I also think that if, say, LSU or Alabama or Florida gets an offer from ESPN to start their own network, they’ll jump on it with both feet. What will A&M do if that happens? Better to look for opportunities than whine about threats. Go for it, Aggies.
“I also think that if, say, LSU or Alabama or Florida gets an offer from ESPN to start their own network, they’ll jump on it with both feet.”
Charles, I love your blog but the Pac-12, Big 10, SEC do not allow individual schools to have their own TV network. Everyone in the SEC (from Florida to Vanderbilt) shares TV renevue equally. An individual school in any normal league is not allowed to monetize their popularity by extracting themselves from the rest of the conference.
A&M probably will have a tough time competing in the SEC, but they will be guaranteed an equal payout, something the Big 12 can’t offer.
I’m not really a huge A&M or UT fan, but I think having A&M in the SEC would be kind of fun. A whole bunch of great football teams would be playing just a couple of hours from Houston. And I don’t think that A&M could not necessarily compete – I think over time they would be a perennial contender in the SEC.
I don’t really think it is a threat to UT – I think A&M is doing what is in the best interests of A&M.
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@johnathan So Florida shares the 10m they get from sunsports? No they don’t. They sold their 3rd tier rights. Which is exactly what Texas did. It’s just that ESPN chose to use those rights to start a network. Sun Sports doesn’t use the Gators sports properties in the same way. But make no mistake the SEC schools dont share revenue equally. The conference splits TV revenue equally among all member schools, but when a member school sells their 3rd tier rights they don’t have to split it with anyone else.