What's More Important to Texas Longhorns, TV Network or a Power Conference?

Just a year after being saved from annihilation at the 11th hour, it looks like the Big 12 Conference is once again back on life support.

Oklahoma, one of the conference’s most powerful programs, is actively and publicly looking for a new home, as the Sooners don’t seem to trust the long-term stability of the Big 12, and all indications are that they will be making the move to the Pac-12 and taking Oklahoma State with them.

If the two Oklahoma schools did leave, it’s almost unfathomable to think that the Big 12 would be able to survive with just eight teams, and it will likely prompt a feeding frenzy on the remaining free agent schools.

The most interesting team in this whole big game of conference realignment dominoes is Texas.

The Longhorns have been rumored to be interested in moving out west with Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech, and in doing so, turning the Pac-12 into the Pac-16 and making it college football’s first true super conference.

There is a snag, however, and it involves the school’s new 300-million dollar baby, the Longhorn Network.

The provisions of the Pac-12’s television contract, the richest in all of college sports, wouldn’t allow one school to bypass the conference’s revenue sharing plan.

So, that could leave Texas in a precarious position.

If Oklahoma and Oklahoma State do leave the Big 12, which from the way it sounds almost seems like a certainty at this point, what would the Longhorns do?

They could try to save the Big 12 and keep the other seven teams together and throw invitations out to a few other schools.

They could leave for a conference like the ACC, which has a television deal with ESPN that would allow them to hold onto the LHN.

Or they could possibly even go the independent route as a last resort.

The top priority for Texas in all of this is to obviously hold onto the Longhorn Network.

That’s their cash cow and there’s no way the school wants to part ways with it or divvy up the revenue.

Is that selfish?

Sure.

Will it ultimately come back to bite them?

Maybe.

The Longhorns have made their top priorities known, and at this point, those priorities may line up with only one option.

Go independent.

Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds has made it clear that he is firmly against going independent because of the stress it would put on the rest of the Longhorns athletic teams, but it’s still very much an option because the school is so serious about keeping the LHN.

Why would that be a bad move?

Well, for starters, in this new era of college football, the idea of super conferences are looking more and more like a future reality, and even the big schools don’t want to be left out in the cold.

Finding a stable home for the future should be every school’s top priority right now, and that’s why you’re seeing Oklahoma trying to flee to the Pac-12, because the Sooners don’t see a future in the Big 12 and they’re trying to be forward-thinking in these chaotic times of shifting and realignment.

Texas could ultimately regret choosing to hold onto the Longhorn Network, instead of joining a budding financial monster like the Pac-12 conference.

This is an unprecedented predicament the Longhorns find themselves in, and it’s one they better figure out sooner rather than later.

The Big 12 looks like it’s crumbling before our very eyes and the one team that will be most affected by the disbandment appears to be the one that lacks a clear-cut solution.

When Texas signed the deal with ESPN to create the Longhorn Network, everyone celebrated it as a huge victory for the school, but as it looks now, it might actually turn out to be more trouble than it’s worth.