Conference Re-Alignment Thread Part Who Knows

[rocker78]

Re: A&M to the SEC starting to blow up again on Twitter

Incidentally, Texas A&M had a chance to go in on this and decided that it couldn't work. Then they run off crying when they see that Texas got the $300M.

So there would have been a texas/texas a& m network???

[choadler]

Re: A&M to the SEC starting to blow up again on Twitter

So there would have been a texas/texas a& m network???

Yes, a Lonestar Network as it were. Bill Byrne supposedly balked at the idea and said it couldn't work.

[cdawg44]

Re: A&M to the SEC starting to blow up again on Twitter

So there would have been a texas/texas a& m network???

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/_/id/6918208/texas-aggies-had-chance-partner-longhorn-network-deloss-dodds-says

Wow, I never knew that. So A&M had a chance to hop on. Damn, did they blow the money or what. This really makes A&M look really petty IMO.

Or they didn't want to tick off the rest of their Big 12 friends that were already mad at Texas for doing this and that's why they didnt pursue this. Either way, they had a shot and lost it.

[doom41]

Re: A&M to the SEC starting to blow up again on Twitter

Yes, a Lonestar Network as it were. Bill Byrne supposedly balked at the idea and said it couldn't work.

Wrong, Dodds tried to get Byrne to go in on a school owned and operated network, 3-4 yrs ago. All costs would have been incurred by the two schools, and Byrne decided the numbers didn't work. He must have been right, because Dodds didn't do anything until ESPN came in. However, A&M was never offered a piece of the ESPN deal. The network that was offered to A&M was nothing like the network that Texas has today.

[coogrfan]

Re: A&M to the SEC starting to blow up again on Twitter

Television negotiations always go like this. NFL Network anyone? Eventually, the LHN will be picked up. ESPN is not going to let $300M go down the drain because carriers are balking at it. Surely there is going ot be alot of anxiety over the fact that no one has picked it up, but that is how negotiations go. All it will take is for one national carrier to cave and then it is on like donkey kong.

Uh-huh. I would point out the NFL Network has been around for five years, and Time Warner still hasn't "caved".

The plain fact is ESPN and UT have grossly overestimated the national level of interest in UT athletics. Mark it down--the LHN will devolve into a regional network or disappear entirely within 2-3 years.

Incidentally, Texas A&M had a chance to go in on this and decided that it couldn't work. Then they run off crying when they see that Texas got the $300M.

Given the complete lack of interest most national carriers have shown, I'd say the Ags were closer to the mark than Dodds was.

[choadler]

Re: A&M to the SEC starting to blow up again on Twitter

Wrong, Dodds tried to get Byrne to go in on a school owned and operated network, 3-4 yrs ago. All costs would have been incurred by the two schools, and Byrne decided the numbers didn't work. He must have been right, because Dodds didn't do anything until ESPN came in. However, A&M was never offered a piece of the ESPN deal. The network that was offered to A&M was nothing like the network that Texas has today.

Byrne decided the numbers didn't work because A&M didn't have the money. They are having to borrow money to fund their athletic department. A&M tried to get back involved around a year ago and the process was too far along at that point. So you are correct. Fact of the matter is the Aggies were short sighted.

[Aggies67]

Re: A&M to the SEC starting to blow up again on Twitter

Incidentally, Texas A&M had a chance to go in on this and decided that it couldn't work. Then they run off crying when they see that Texas got the $300M.

A&M brass has said all along that they were against the LHN partly because the entire big 12 isn't receiving equal revenue from it.

If they did turn down a chance at a "Lone Star Network", it fits in with their convictions perfectly.

[coogrfan]

Re: A&M to the SEC starting to blow up again on Twitter

Byrne decided the numbers didn't work because A&M didn't have the money. They are having to borrow money to fund their athletic department. A&M tried to get back involved around a year ago and the process was too far along at that point. So you are correct. Fact of the matter is the Aggies were short sighted.

TAMU appears to be headed to the best conference in cfb; the Horns have a network no one wants and a conference that appears to be teetering on the brink of dissolution.

Someone is looking short-sighted here, but it ain't the Ags.

[choadler]

Re: A&M to the SEC starting to blow up again on Twitter

Uh-huh. I would point out the NFL Network has been around for five years, and Time Warner still hasn't "caved".

The plain fact is ESPN and UT have grossly overestimated the national level of interest in UT athletics. Mark it down--the LHN will devolve into a regional network or disappear entirely within 2-3 years.




Given the complete lack of interest most national carriers have shown, I'd say the Ags were closer to the mark than Dodds was.

Who cares if Time Warner caves. They are a garbage provider. You only need Dish or Direct to cave and people will switch. For the most part, the LHN is going to be a regional network in the first place. Shockingly, it appears that people with Verizon Fios in DC are getting the Longhorn Network.

I think you underestimate ESPN. ESPN is not going to take a bath on $300M. Texas gets paid no matter what there is no risk of loss on their end.
Don't be delusional, BYU has it's own network right now that broadcasts basically nothing.

[choadler]

Re: A&M to the SEC starting to blow up again on Twitter

A&M brass has said all along that they were against the LHN partly because the entire big 12 isn't receiving equal revenue from it.

If they did turn down a chance at a "Lone Star Network", it fits in with their convictions perfectly.

A&M was never a proponent of equal revenue sharing, so let's get that idea out of our head right away. Nebraska, Texas, Oklahoma, Texas A&M all agreed at the formation of the Big 12 that revenue was based on television appearances.

Nebraska left for two reasons:

1. $20m compared to $9M
2. Partial Qualifiers - when they limited partial qualifiers it ended Nebraska's reign of dominance. They hated Texas and the others for voting the limitation of partial qualifiers.


No one gave a crap about the LHN until they heard about the amount of money Texas was getting. Which probably shocked Texas as well.

[choadler]

Re: A&M to the SEC starting to blow up again on Twitter

TAMU appears to be headed to the best conference in cfb; the Horns have a network no one wants and a conference that appears to be teetering on the brink of dissolution.

Someone is looking short-sighted here, but it ain't the Ags.

How did that work out for Arkie? When was the last time they were battling for a national championship. Kentucky, Vanderbilt, Miss St., Ole Miss? Yeah, that's what I thought. Let them all chant SEC SEC, while the teams with built in advantages such as Florida, Alabama, and LSU continue to dominate the conference.


Don't you doubt that at the end of all of this Texas will be in as good a place or better than A&M. I have no doubts about that, even if the Network dissolved. Anyone would jump on Texas to join their conference in an instant (SEC, B1G, PAC 12).

[coogrfan]

Re: A&M to the SEC starting to blow up again on Twitter

How did that work out for Arkie? When was the last time they were battling for a national championship. Kentucky, Vanderbilt, Miss St., Ole Miss? Yeah, that's what I thought. Let them all chant SEC SEC, while the teams with built in advantages such as Florida, Alabama, and LSU continue to dominate the conference.

I'm fairly certain the Hogs have no regrets about joining the SEC; at the very least their future looks a heck of a lot more certain than any school in the Big XII not named UT or OU.

Don't you doubt that at the end of all of this Texas will be in as good a place or better than A&M. I have no doubts about that, even if the Network dissolved. Anyone would jump on Texas to join their conference in an instant (SEC, B1G, PAC 12).

Not if the Horns continue to insist on the "most favored nation" status they always enjoyed in the SWC and Big XII. Up till now that's worked quite well for the Horns, because both sides knew that those conferences needed UT to survive. There's no doubt the SEC, Pac 12 and B1G Ten would all love to have UT...but none of those conferences need UT; they're doing just fine as it is.

[doom41]

Re: A&M to the SEC starting to blow up again on Twitter

Byrne decided the numbers didn't work because A&M didn't have the money. They are having to borrow money to fund their athletic department. A&M tried to get back involved around a year ago and the process was too far along at that point. So you are correct. Fact of the matter is the Aggies were short sighted.

Once again, we're not talking about the same networks here. Longhorns keep saying A&M can't be mad because they were offered a piece of the network, but they weren't. They were offered a piece of a network that was not backed by ESPN's $300 Million. To say A&M was shortsighted for not seeing that ESPN would offer UT $300 Million in order to keep UT from going to the PAC, is beyond stupid.

[doom41]

Re: A&M to the SEC starting to blow up again on Twitter

Who cares if Time Warner caves. They are a garbage provider. You only need Dish or Direct to cave and people will switch. For the most part, the LHN is going to be a regional network in the first place. Shockingly, it appears that people with Verizon Fios in DC are getting the Longhorn Network.

I think you underestimate ESPN. ESPN is not going to take a bath on $300M. Texas gets paid no matter what there is no risk of loss on their end.
Don't be delusional, BYU has it's own network right now that broadcasts basically nothing.

Time warner is the number 4 provider in the country, behind comcast, direct & dish (none of whom carry the LHN) so I guarantee you ESPN cares about them.

You can not compare the LHN to the NFL network. No matter how important UT thinks they are, they are no where near the level of the NFL. While every football fan in america would love to have the NFL picked up by their provider, only UT fans want the LHN. Many other college fans (not just Aggies) have told their providers that they will not pay extra for the LHN and if it was added they would switch providers. UT is big and has a lot f money, but they do not outnumber all other college fans combined. As much as UT fans love their school, and would pay extra to get the network and support their team, fans of other schools don't even want to think that their money is going to support another school (rival or not).

Don't think that ESPN is so powerful that they can just force providers to carry it. If that were the case they would already have the carriers. The week before the LHN launched with no major carriers, all the longhorns were saying that "this is how negotiations go" and "carriers will all come on right before the launch", but only one major provider came on but not for the launch. Now two days before the first big game all the longhorns are saying "this is how negotiations go" and "carriers will come on right before the game". I guess we'll see.

I don't doubt that eventually other major providers will pick it up, but I'll bet you it's not on the basic packages, and that is not what ESPN wants. They don't want people to have to choose to pay extra for the LHN, they want them to unknowingly pay for the LHN as part of the basic channel package.

While we're on the subject of ESPN's strength. Do you think that ESPN is just going to let UT do what it wants in terms of conference realignment? ESPN will have a huge say in where UT ends up, and what is best for ESPN is going to come before what is best for UT. The two may go hand in hand, or they may not, but as you said ESPN isn't just going to take a bath on $300 million. UT won't just have to deal with what the other conferences will allow in regards to the LHN, they will have to deal with what ESPN will allow.
Will UT be happy if they could have gone to the B1G, but ESPN decided that making the network a regional PAC network shared with either Tech or OU was best for ESPN. I doubt it.

[TDenverFan]

Re: A&M to the SEC starting to blow up again on Twitter

How did that work out for Arkie? When was the last time they were battling for a national championship. Kentucky, Vanderbilt, Miss St., Ole Miss? Yeah, that's what I thought. Let them all chant SEC SEC, while the teams with built in advantages such as Florida, Alabama, and LSU continue to dominate the conference.


Don't you doubt that at the end of all of this Texas will be in as good a place or better than A&M. I have no doubts about that, even if the Network dissolved. Anyone would jump on Texas to join their conference in an instant (SEC, B1G, PAC 12).

Are you saying the SEC isn't the strongest conference? Which one is then? They all have Football cupcakes (Indiana, Minnesota, Illinois, Purdue, Duke, Wake Forest, UVA, Baylor, Iowa State, UCLA, Wazzou, etc.)