As quickly as the rumors started, they stopped.
With the stroke of a virtual pen and a late-night press release, the seemingly inexorable move toward megaconferences came to a screeching halt late last night when the Pac 12 released a statement asserting its desire to remain at 12 members, eliminating the hope for OU and OSU to move from the beleaguered Big 12.
Now, all the dominoes that had started to align yesterday are back in their boxes.
Conference realignment will now stop with Syracuse, Pitt moving to the ACC, and Texas A&M moving to the SEC. Beyond that, a handful of leftovers will likely move to an again-rebuilt Big 12. Leading candidates making the Twitterverse rumormill are BYU, Louisville, and West Virginia. Missouri's prospective move to the SEC is almost certainly by the boards, as the Tigers' move was predicated upon the implosion of the Big 12.
Oklahoma released a statement late Tuesday asserting that it would look to strengthen the Big 12 by remaining as one of its members. Sources indicated that OU and Texas would meet this week to hammer out an arrangement that would keep both schools in the Big 12 for at least five years. BYU reportedly indicated their interest in joining the now-stabilized conference.
Who are the winners and losers in the Pac 12 decision? Clearly, Oklahoma president David Boren was left holding the empty bag of a gentleman's agreement with Pac 12's Larry Scott, losing the immense leverage he held to reform the Big 12 with the presumptive invitation to go west in hand. Now, it is hard to see Boren as anything but an unwitting pawn in a Pac 12 effort to gain Texas membership, but then discarded when it became clear Texas' terms were intolerable - most particularly, its revenue and LHN requirements. The other loser is Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe, who has reportedly been informed his services in that capacity are no longer desired. The clear winner is Texas, which now seems destined to keep its Longhorn Network and corresponding revenues virtually untouched, with only token concessions to allow OU some measure of face-saving.
As quickly as this story broke, now it ends, and now it looks once and for all we can get back to talking football. Actual football. And that should be a relief to everyone.
Showing posts with label LHN. Show all posts
Showing posts with label LHN. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Monday, September 19, 2011
Realignment: The Week Ahead
Update 9/19 @ 8:16 PM:
A few nuggets:
Oklahoma Board of Regents have formally authorized president David Boren to pursue any action necessary regarding conference alignment. Nothing surprising there.
Big East will apparently hold Pitt (and presumably Syracuse) to its contract, meaning a June 2014 exit date (earliest). No word on whether Pitt could buy its way out to an earlier date.
Mountain West and Conference-USA are discussing a merger.
Remnants of Big East likely to merge with remnants of Big 12. Both likely can't survive.
Posturing: Info from a few sources reiterates that the Pac 12 will not budge in its insistence that all third-tier revenues from networks be shared among all teams in the conference. OU insists that equal revenue sharing is the only way it would consider staying in Big 12. Not a great deal new there, but it does make one wonder....
Musing: If Texas has presumably been checkmated into an equal revenue sharing agreement no matter where they go, why would they not consider telling OU "okay, equal sharing, we stay if you stay," making OU and UT the kingpins of a dead-on-the-vine conference - a true "AL East" as postulated by Mark Cuban. Reality suggests that members of the presumably enlarged Pac 16 stand to earn as much as $35 million (nearly double) in an expanded conference, which would seemingly make that choice a near no-brainer.
Right now, I still think it's the Gang of Four heading west after some saber-rattling, but we'll see.
Clarification 9/19 @ 1:53PM Oklahoma's Board of Regents meeting now. Alignment (way) down the agenda.
One item I wanted to clarify in the midst of the updates is the issue of OU's "invitation" (or lack thereof) to the Pac 12. I stand behind (several) local media member reports over the last two wweeks (and tweets) that stated quite plainly that Oklahoma has a standing, informal, "unofficial" agreement with the Pac 12 to join their conference with Oklahoma State regardless of Texas' action. I have read nothing to contradict that issue, not even spin from Orangebloods.com.
This agreement, as best I can understand it, was worked out between OU Athletics Director Joe Castiglione and Pac 12 commissioner Larry Scott close to two weeks ago. When the agreement was reached, a local reporter said that "(Castiglione) looked the most relieved he'd been in weeks."
Right now, Texas is the team with no leverage. None. No conference wants the Longhorn Network as it sits. Public posturing indicates Texas is trying to play a measure of hardball with LHN in its Pac 12 negotiations, when in reality playing that kind of poker with a handful of blank cards and no chips gives you very little room to raise the stakes. With no alternatives, Texas either goes independent, or accedes to Pac 12 rules. There's really no middle ground. While Oklahoma is patient and wants to create at least the appearance of unity with Texas, don't think for a second David Boren won't press forward independently in a heartbeat should he decide it is in OU's best interests to do so .
This week stands to be the biggest yet in the shifting tides of conference realignment.
Texas and Oklahoma's respective Boards of Regents will be meeting to empower their presidents to make a deal with whatever conference they deem appropriate. The current speculation is that both are headed to the Pac-12, but hurdles - perhaps significant - remain, chief among them the Longhorn Network and Texas' willingness to shrink it to Pac-12 rules. Another hurdle is whether conference presidents are willing to admit schools with supposedly secondary academic status, although it would seem commissioner Larry Scott should be able to overcome them.
The Pac-12 is showing no signs of budging on its network rules, with the WilmerReport suggesting that Missouri could be on the conference's radar should Texas not come to terms. That would implicitly imperil Tech's move as well.
The SEC is reported quietly looking to jump to 16 teams, reportedly likely to accept West Virginia's upcoming application. The ACC apparently also believes that they are also about to lose Florida State to the SEC as well, meaning a currently unknown 16th team is likely brewing in the SEC's radar.
Acrimony in the Big East came to a head with the sudden departure of Syracuse and Pitt, and now suggestions are that the conference may not survive. Remants of the Big 12 and the Big East may merge to form a new regional conference.
This week should prove to be most interesting. Stay tuned.
A few nuggets:
Oklahoma Board of Regents have formally authorized president David Boren to pursue any action necessary regarding conference alignment. Nothing surprising there.
Big East will apparently hold Pitt (and presumably Syracuse) to its contract, meaning a June 2014 exit date (earliest). No word on whether Pitt could buy its way out to an earlier date.
Mountain West and Conference-USA are discussing a merger.
Remnants of Big East likely to merge with remnants of Big 12. Both likely can't survive.
Posturing: Info from a few sources reiterates that the Pac 12 will not budge in its insistence that all third-tier revenues from networks be shared among all teams in the conference. OU insists that equal revenue sharing is the only way it would consider staying in Big 12. Not a great deal new there, but it does make one wonder....
Musing: If Texas has presumably been checkmated into an equal revenue sharing agreement no matter where they go, why would they not consider telling OU "okay, equal sharing, we stay if you stay," making OU and UT the kingpins of a dead-on-the-vine conference - a true "AL East" as postulated by Mark Cuban. Reality suggests that members of the presumably enlarged Pac 16 stand to earn as much as $35 million (nearly double) in an expanded conference, which would seemingly make that choice a near no-brainer.
Right now, I still think it's the Gang of Four heading west after some saber-rattling, but we'll see.
Clarification 9/19 @ 1:53PM Oklahoma's Board of Regents meeting now. Alignment (way) down the agenda.
One item I wanted to clarify in the midst of the updates is the issue of OU's "invitation" (or lack thereof) to the Pac 12. I stand behind (several) local media member reports over the last two wweeks (and tweets) that stated quite plainly that Oklahoma has a standing, informal, "unofficial" agreement with the Pac 12 to join their conference with Oklahoma State regardless of Texas' action. I have read nothing to contradict that issue, not even spin from Orangebloods.com.
This agreement, as best I can understand it, was worked out between OU Athletics Director Joe Castiglione and Pac 12 commissioner Larry Scott close to two weeks ago. When the agreement was reached, a local reporter said that "(Castiglione) looked the most relieved he'd been in weeks."
Right now, Texas is the team with no leverage. None. No conference wants the Longhorn Network as it sits. Public posturing indicates Texas is trying to play a measure of hardball with LHN in its Pac 12 negotiations, when in reality playing that kind of poker with a handful of blank cards and no chips gives you very little room to raise the stakes. With no alternatives, Texas either goes independent, or accedes to Pac 12 rules. There's really no middle ground. While Oklahoma is patient and wants to create at least the appearance of unity with Texas, don't think for a second David Boren won't press forward independently in a heartbeat should he decide it is in OU's best interests to do so .
This week stands to be the biggest yet in the shifting tides of conference realignment.
Texas and Oklahoma's respective Boards of Regents will be meeting to empower their presidents to make a deal with whatever conference they deem appropriate. The current speculation is that both are headed to the Pac-12, but hurdles - perhaps significant - remain, chief among them the Longhorn Network and Texas' willingness to shrink it to Pac-12 rules. Another hurdle is whether conference presidents are willing to admit schools with supposedly secondary academic status, although it would seem commissioner Larry Scott should be able to overcome them.
The Pac-12 is showing no signs of budging on its network rules, with the WilmerReport suggesting that Missouri could be on the conference's radar should Texas not come to terms. That would implicitly imperil Tech's move as well.
The SEC is reported quietly looking to jump to 16 teams, reportedly likely to accept West Virginia's upcoming application. The ACC apparently also believes that they are also about to lose Florida State to the SEC as well, meaning a currently unknown 16th team is likely brewing in the SEC's radar.
Acrimony in the Big East came to a head with the sudden departure of Syracuse and Pitt, and now suggestions are that the conference may not survive. Remants of the Big 12 and the Big East may merge to form a new regional conference.
This week should prove to be most interesting. Stay tuned.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
NCAA versus The Colleges: An OU-Georgia Legal Redux?
Most college football fans older than, say, 40, have at least a fleeting memory of the time when the NCAA controlled college football rights, and limited just about everyone to no more than two national TV appearances annually.
That's right, two.
Not quite thirty years ago, the universities of Oklahoma and Georgia grew tired of the NCAA's control, having started to realize the untapped value in the commercial sale of TV broadcast rights. Eventually, attorneys for one (or both) schools made a revelation - that the NCAA's control over broadcast rights was never part of NCAA membership, and that control was a violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. The schools sued to get those rights back.
After some legal wrangling, the Supreme Court agreed, handing OU and Georgia a landmark victory in a case that quite literally reshaped the way college football is broadcast. The BCS itself, arguably, owes its very existence to the OU-Georgia lawsuit of not quite a generation ago.
Now, I can't help but wonder if a similar donnybrook is ahead, over what is arguably the purest expression of rights ownership - a university sports network.
This week, Texas launched its (in)famous Longhorn Sports Network, after a summer of arguing and fighting over the propriety of LHN carrying Texas high school football games. Members of the Big 12 screamed foul, pointing out a multitude of lesser promotional actions (such as showing a recruit on a scoreboard display) that have been nixed by the NCAA, meaning surely a television network can be held to no lower a standard.
For now, the Big 12 put its foot down (and, yes, I tried to say that without laughing), and told Texas, "no." And then the NCAA confirmed that ruling...and then, it didn't.
Almost without notice, the NCAA backtracked on that ruling, saying that ESPN could run "selected" high school highlights within its own content as partner for LHN. And I can't help but wonder what led to the NCAA's change of heart.
Methinks a flashback to OU-Georgia is part of their thinking.
If OU and Georgia successfully argued three decades ago that schools own their own broadcast rights, it doesn't take a great leap to say that no governing entity such as the Big 12 nor the NCAA can prevent Texas from exercising what it would argue were its First Amendment free speech rights - to broadcast on its own network anything it pleases.
It would start with Texas versus its own conference.
It would end with Texas versus the NCAA.
I'm no attorney, but my trick knee tells me that Texas would have a darned good chance to win that kind of fight. And if they did, there would be a free-for-all to follow regarding every other impingement of free speech that has capped certain recruiting activities for years - all gone at the drop of a gavel, along with any significant pretense on the part of any other school that the NCAA had any real enforcement powers over, well, anything.
I think the NCAA's about-face on an absolute prohibition of high school football on LHN is a tip of the hat to a more fundamental fear; that as rapidly as college football is growing, with newer and more creative ways found by the most powerful schools to slide craftily around the rules amid those who simply disregard them, that the NCAA is becoming an anachronism, a tip-of-the-hat to a bygone era when college football really was college football.
If the shadows of conference realignment cast by Texas A&M show anything, they demonstrate how quickly college football could reorganize itself and gravitate into a sport where the schools representing the top, oh, 50 elite programs simply consolidate, bid the NCAA and its byzantine rules farewell, and play ball with their own playbook.
Don't laugh. Surely, the NCAA isn't.
That's right, two.
Not quite thirty years ago, the universities of Oklahoma and Georgia grew tired of the NCAA's control, having started to realize the untapped value in the commercial sale of TV broadcast rights. Eventually, attorneys for one (or both) schools made a revelation - that the NCAA's control over broadcast rights was never part of NCAA membership, and that control was a violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. The schools sued to get those rights back.
After some legal wrangling, the Supreme Court agreed, handing OU and Georgia a landmark victory in a case that quite literally reshaped the way college football is broadcast. The BCS itself, arguably, owes its very existence to the OU-Georgia lawsuit of not quite a generation ago.
Now, I can't help but wonder if a similar donnybrook is ahead, over what is arguably the purest expression of rights ownership - a university sports network.
This week, Texas launched its (in)famous Longhorn Sports Network, after a summer of arguing and fighting over the propriety of LHN carrying Texas high school football games. Members of the Big 12 screamed foul, pointing out a multitude of lesser promotional actions (such as showing a recruit on a scoreboard display) that have been nixed by the NCAA, meaning surely a television network can be held to no lower a standard.
For now, the Big 12 put its foot down (and, yes, I tried to say that without laughing), and told Texas, "no." And then the NCAA confirmed that ruling...and then, it didn't.
Almost without notice, the NCAA backtracked on that ruling, saying that ESPN could run "selected" high school highlights within its own content as partner for LHN. And I can't help but wonder what led to the NCAA's change of heart.
Methinks a flashback to OU-Georgia is part of their thinking.
If OU and Georgia successfully argued three decades ago that schools own their own broadcast rights, it doesn't take a great leap to say that no governing entity such as the Big 12 nor the NCAA can prevent Texas from exercising what it would argue were its First Amendment free speech rights - to broadcast on its own network anything it pleases.
It would start with Texas versus its own conference.
It would end with Texas versus the NCAA.
I'm no attorney, but my trick knee tells me that Texas would have a darned good chance to win that kind of fight. And if they did, there would be a free-for-all to follow regarding every other impingement of free speech that has capped certain recruiting activities for years - all gone at the drop of a gavel, along with any significant pretense on the part of any other school that the NCAA had any real enforcement powers over, well, anything.
I think the NCAA's about-face on an absolute prohibition of high school football on LHN is a tip of the hat to a more fundamental fear; that as rapidly as college football is growing, with newer and more creative ways found by the most powerful schools to slide craftily around the rules amid those who simply disregard them, that the NCAA is becoming an anachronism, a tip-of-the-hat to a bygone era when college football really was college football.
If the shadows of conference realignment cast by Texas A&M show anything, they demonstrate how quickly college football could reorganize itself and gravitate into a sport where the schools representing the top, oh, 50 elite programs simply consolidate, bid the NCAA and its byzantine rules farewell, and play ball with their own playbook.
Don't laugh. Surely, the NCAA isn't.
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