Big 12 Realignment: TV Revenue Fueling the Race To Expand

The uncertainty surrounding the changing face of College Football has created a firestorm of speculation and a plethora of conflicting reports. 

Rivalries, geography, and sheer common sense have become irrelevant in the pursuit of billion-dollar television contracts.  With the Big Ten and SEC already set to make over $3 billion from current deals, the race is on for the rest of the power conferences to catch up.

Texas was all but out the door until embattled Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe pulled out all the stops. 

Beebe has reportedly secured a new television deal that would provide $17 million annually to each Big 12 institution through revenue sharing. 

More importantly, the new agreement would allow all Big 12 members to pursue individual television networks. 

Texas has expressed interest in creating a television network for several years now and would be free to do so if it stays put, but not if it decides to bolt to the Pac-10.

The Big Ten has created a profitable blueprint for other conferences to follow. 

The Big Ten Network already provides over $2 million in revenue annually for each member institution.  That number will likely increase with the addition of Nebraska, opening up the Kansas City market, and could explode with the addition of Notre Dame, Rutgers, or Maryland. 

The Big Network has achieved profitability by essentially forcing its hand on cable companies throughout the Midwest.  

Combining money from the lucrative contracts with satellite and cable providers with ad revenue has created a financial goldmine.  Low production costs create a huge profit margin that is the envy of conferences nationwide.

The Pac-10 plans to launch a television network in 2012.  The addition of the Texas and Oklahoma would provide a broad market for the network and big money for what would likely be a 16-member conference.

In all likelihood, all major conferences will seek to create networks in the next few years.  With several Big 12 schools poised to do the same, a made-for-TV mess appears inevitable.

Among the multitude of reports documenting the Big 12’s television deal, none are detailing how it would work or what major networks it is with. 

It seems unlikely such a deal would afford the Longhorn Network exclusive rights to televise the Red River Shootout every other year. 

What would be televised where and when is an intriguing question that simply cannot be answered.

Welcome to the biggest mess in the history of College Sports.