Big 12 Members Agree To Six Year TV Revenue Sharing Plan

Big 12 presidents and chancellors have agreed “to share the Tier 1 and Tier 2 football and men's basketball broadcast revenues equally for the next six years,” according to Bohls & Haurwitz of the AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN. The Univ. of Texas also “agreed not to show high school sports clips on its Longhorn Network.” UT “does retain its rights to show a second and third football game on its Longhorn Network, but would have to pay $200,000 to the league's equal revenue-sharing pot.” UT President William Powers Jr., said it was "unlikely" that a third game would be shown on the LHN (AUSTIN AMERICAN STATESMAN, 10/7). In San Antonio, Tim Griffin writes LHN “will need approval from the opposing school and both ESPN/ABC and Fox if it wants to show more than one football game per season.” Pooling the television revenues “will be a departure from before, when the Big 12 schools that played the most games on television got the most money.” UT is “not required to share LHN revenue, which is considered Tier III.” ESPN officials said that “they are willing to comply with the stronger programming constraints required by the Big 12 for the Longhorn Network” (SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS NEWS, 10/7).

INCENTIVE TO STAY: In Ft. Worth, Jimmy Burch noted by signing over ESPN/ABC and Fox Sports television rights to the Big 12 for six years, “any school that leaves for another conference during that stretch would be unavailable for telecasts in its new league.” The measure, “combined with Monday’s approval of equal revenue-sharing from ESPN/ABC and Fox Sports TV contracts, represents enhanced stability.” Univ. of Oklahoma President David Boren said it is “a win for the entire conference.” Boren: “I was especially pleased that the conference will have its own bylaws to make sure that institutional-branded networks will be prohibited from showing high school athletes in game or highlight format in a way that could give any conference member a recruiting advantage” (STAR-TELEGRAM.com, 10/6). The Univ. of Missouri, which is rumored to be headed to the SEC, "didn't participate in the votes" on either the revenue sharing or the TV appearances (K.C. STAR, 10/7).

ANOTHER NETWORK: OU AD Joe Castiglione said that “his school hopes to launch its network as early as next fall.” Castiglione “called it ‘very likely’ its unnamed network would be up and running by then and has already shown up to 30-plus softball and baseball games on Cox cable in cities like Oklahoma City and Tulsa” (STATESMAN.com, 10/6).