Texas A&M Aggie Fans To Bevo TV: Don't Dump Here

The brainiacs at the University of Texas/Austin decided in June that the Horns would give fellow Big 12 schools—save for Texas A&M fans who had already formulated which rotating combination of SEC opponents would make the best home schedules—the pleasure of their company for implied perpetuity.

UT big wigs and interfering Texas politicians who should be more concerned with the state's low rankings in education and high rankings in child poverty have unwittingly tied Texas to Baylor and Texas Tech in an everlasting bond.

Texas Tech could join A&M in finding a better deal if given a chance.

Now no conference will ever get just Texas. No, the Horns only join in a package deal with tagalongs from Waco and rebellious Aggies and Red Raiders.

A casual college football fan might have feelings of gratitude to the Longhorns for their ostensible altruistic gesture. Lean over, stare down and see the ugly monster greed, a scary creature with a mouth open wide as a king mackeral with jagged teeth ready to pounce.

Like giddy school girls, Dennis Dodds and Jim Powers could hardly restrain their exuberance as they planned to force Bevo TV on all the cable-viewing citizens of the state. With the inflated confidence akin to Alan Keyes' presidential run, Dodds and Powers could only see dollar signs.

Perhaps they should have done more studies. Perhaps they should consider Texas is not the old Soviet Union with one state program, beloved by some, tolerated by others, and forced on all.

Aggies along with Cougars, Red Raiders, Mustangs, Horned Frogs, and Miners will blast away at Time Warner, Comcast, Direct TV, the Dish Network, and the other seven cable providers in the state if they are not given an opt out option.

North Texas is probably too consumed right now with trying to field a winning team to care. Baylor is still puckered up from kissing Bevo's butt in June.

Rice is just glad to have the Horns visit Houston every three years to bring a big paycheck. Rice is the eccentric millionaire in the bunch. You know the type - millions in the bank but no cash to pay their share of the check.

If the Longhorns do their homework they would see the inevitability of conflicts over promotion and pricing of their get-rich-quick ponzi scheme.

UT is one of ten major universities playing FBS level football in the state. How do they plan to promote their network? The Horns don't plan to broadcast anything but their own wares. Other than Rice, they rarely engage the non-Big 12 schools in the state.

The so-called most brilliant man in college football, Jim Delany, wrestled with pricing the Big Ten network. Holding out for basic or expanded tier coverage rather than an elite sports tier, and finally winning most but not all the battles, Delany has been able to infuse the Big Ten with cash.

Delany also knows about the two holdouts in Pennsylvania and Ohio who refuse to carry the Big Ten Network on the basic or expanded tier. Customers of Armstrong Cable in Ohio and PA and Blue Ridge Cable in central and eastern PA will not be tuning into the Penn State-Youngstown State game this weekend nor any BTN programming. 

Jeff Ross, President of Armstrong Cable, commented to a reporter from Linebacker-U.com on the difficulty of providing the BTN at the compensation level Delany is willing to provide:

"This appears to be a legitimate concern, and for smaller cable providers without the resources of companies like Comcast and Time Warner, it can be the toughest hurdle to jump in order to bring the Big Ten Network into the homes of cable customers..."

Seven of the nine cable providers in Texas are less well-known companies. They may face the same roadblock.

At this time negotiations between the UT athletic department and cable providers are in a nascent stage. Emerging conflicts are certain to be reported in detail throughout the state.

Texas has taken a huge gamble by staying in the Big 12 and pinning the continuation of Bevo empire building on its own TV network.

Frank the Tank who writes exhaustively about expansion in college football takes a dim view of Bevo TV's potential success:

"...UT has banked its entire future on its own TV network and has even started making non-conference scheduling decisions based upon it...Texas better be damn sure that this TV network is going to work..In a few years, when everyone figures out that the TV revenue...won’t ever materialize, Texas may not have any choice other than the Big IIX because no other conference is going to turn over the requisite TV rights that would make Bevo TV viable" (frankthetank.wordpress.com).

The biggest obstacle to Bevo TV's success will not be formulating a fiduciary agreement between UT and cable providers. No, the biggest obstacle will be enraged Texas college football fans who are not Powers, Dodds, or McWilliams' sycophants seeing charges for Bevo TV on their cable bills for the first time. Led by the Aggies, these fans will raise a shitstorm to tell UT and its Bevo TV: Don't dump here.