LocalVulture Posted January 20, 2011 Share Posted January 20, 2011 By JIM VERTUNO, AP Sports WriterAUSTIN, Texas (AP)?The University of Texas, which already has one of the wealthiest athletic programs in the country, is lining up for even more money.Texas and ESPN announced a 20-year, $300 million deal Wednesday for a 24-hour television network that will broadcast Longhorns sports, including at least one football game and eight basketball games per season, and other sports and academic content.?We want to define what it means to be ?the? public university,? Texas President William Powers said. ?The challenge is to create new sources of revenue to support our mission.?The deal includes Texas? licensing and marketing partner IMG College, with more than 80 percent of revenue set to go to the university. It will not replace existing television deals between the Big 12 and both ESPN-ABC and Fox.ESPN will handle distribution of the still unnamed network via cable or satellite in Texas and other states, and already has had preliminary conversations with Time Warner Cable and Comcast Corp.The network is scheduled to launch in September and will broadcast at least 200 Texas sporting events per year. Football will include at least one live broadcast and multiple replays from other networks, the annual spring football scrimmage and pregame and postgame coverage.?We?re going to cover (Texas) football like it?s never been covered before,? said Burke Magnus, senior vice president of college sports programming for ESPN, the sports media giant based in Bristol, Conn.Basketball will include a minimum of eight live games and replays of games broadcast on other networks. Women?s basketball, baseball, volleyball, soccer and other sports, coaches shows, biographies and highlights also would be broadcast.Programming will also include some academic and cultural shows. The contract will send least $25 million to academics over the next five years, Powers said. The network will build studio space at Royal-Memorial Stadium and will employ up to 100 people.George Bodenheimer, president of ESPN Inc. and ABC Sports, called the network ?a testament to the school?s remarkable, tradition-rich success and widespread, devoted fan base.?The ability to launch its own network was a major reason why Texas rejected offers to leave the Big 12 to join the Big Ten and the Pac-10 last summer. Those leagues would not have allowed Texas the independence to strike their own deal outside of the conference television contracts.The size of the contract raises questions whether other schools in the Big 12 will be jealous of Texas? money and whether it could impact the next round of network negotiations between the conference and ESPN and Fox.?I personally am not convinced that it?s the best thing for their conference,? said Steve Solomon, a former ABC and NHL executive who now works as a media consultant. ?They can?t forget that without those other teams, they could not exist. Give them credit that they have that kind of market power.?The contact also raises the question of whether Texas would consider going independent if the network proves successful. The Big 12 will drop to 10 members in July when it loses Colorado (Pac 12) and Nebraska (Big Ten).Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds said Texas is not going independent.?Absolutely no. There?s no thought of moving, no thought of being and independent,? Dodds said. ?We love our conference.?Powers said league officials knew Texas was pursuing a network deal even conference realignment threatened to pull apart the Big 12 last summer. Texas started researching a network deal in 2007.Longhorns football coach Mack Brown was excited about the ?unbelievable exposure? for Texas sports.?It will allow fans of college athletics across the country to have access to our sporting events and stories on this campus 24 hours a day. That?s something everyone here can be really proud of,? Brown said.AP Sports Writer Rachel Cohen in New York contributed to this report.So when does Longhorn football go indy? 2012, 2013? IF LIFE THROWS YOU A LEMON.............KICK IT'S :censored:ING ASS! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rainmaker17 Posted January 20, 2011 Share Posted January 20, 2011 I guess it was inevitable. It still sickens me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeFrank Posted January 20, 2011 Share Posted January 20, 2011 guh... my dad is annoyed about this... hes an aggie concepts: washington football (2017) ... nfl (2013) ... yikes potd 10/20/12 origin story Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rams80 Posted January 20, 2011 Share Posted January 20, 2011 OK, maybe Big Ten expansion/looting will come earlier than I thought. The Big XII just officially went Sauve qui peut./Is Texas alone really worth that much? On 8/1/2010 at 4:01 PM, winters in buffalo said: You manage to balance agitation with just enough salient points to keep things interesting. Kind of a low-rent DG_Now. On 1/2/2011 at 9:07 PM, Sodboy13 said: Today, we are all otaku. "The city of Peoria was once the site of the largest distillery in the world and later became the site for mass production of penicillin. So it is safe to assume that present-day Peorians are descended from syphilitic boozehounds."-Stephen Colbert POTD: February 15, 2010, June 20, 2010 The Glorious Bloom State Penguins (NCFAF) 2014: 2-9, 2015: 7-5 (L Pineapple Bowl), 2016: 1-0 (NCFAB) 2014-15: 10-8, 2015-16: 14-5 (SMC Champs, L 1st Round February Frenzy) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dfwabel Posted January 20, 2011 Share Posted January 20, 2011 Since they have their TV deal, there really is not much of a reason to now go independent because this deal basically confirms that they already are. Before the announcement, they were top 3 in total revenue, they just got an additional $12M. Stay in the Big XII as longs as the league lasts so that you don't have to try and build full schedules for every sport.Now they have to get this network into homes, and that will be easier in-state than nationally.As for the current Big XII contracts, they are with ESPN/ABC (national over the air) through 2015 and the Fox Sports (cable) runs through this season. Last year, Dan Beebe was adament after the ten schools stayed together that a new TV deal was made...nothing has been made public yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oddball Posted January 20, 2011 Share Posted January 20, 2011 Basically, this is ESPN 4 under a different name. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dfwabel Posted January 20, 2011 Share Posted January 20, 2011 Basically, this is ESPN 4 under a different name.Only with less (much less) content. Just one live FB game and eight MBB games is not enough for this to gain national attention.For FB, they could get water down the coverage so that the can talk about the opponent (Friday), gameday coverage (Saturday), re-air the game (Sunday), Mack Brown press conference (Monday). Then what? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mania Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 They own the UIL so they can fill the rest of the time with Texas High School sports. Off The Top Rope: A Pro Wrestling Podcast Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dfwabel Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 They own the UIL so they can fill the rest of the time with Texas High School sports.However you cannot draw many viewers or advertisers with a broadcast of Midland Lee vs. Katy. Live or replay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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