Big XII Is Dead -- Time to Cut Ties and Move On

This has shaped up to be an interesting week around College Football with Media Days all over the country rolling on and we are only a week away from two-a-day camps opening up around the country.

Besides from the North Carolina Tar Heels oddly deciding to let coach Butch Davis go a week before the season starts, the news of the day came from New York City as Larry Scott and the forward-thinking PAC12 continue to send shock-waves around college football that could change the way you view the game.  Literally.

In New York on Wednesday, Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott announced the creation of a new Pac-12 network by creating one national network and six regional channels.

The regional six regional networks to be launched in 2012 will be dedicated to Washington, serving Washington State and Washington; Oregon for Oregon and Oregon State; Northern California, for Cal and Stanford; Southern California for USC and UCLA; and the Mountain States for Colorado and Utah.

According to Scott, the regional networks will be carried locally on basic and digital cable, and the national network will be on sports tiers that require an extra fee.

The regional networks will be carried locally, within their geographically proscribed areas, on basic and digital cable, and the national network will be shown on sports tiers that require an extra fee.

So far the Pac-12 has signed cable operators Time Warner Cable, Comcast, Cox and BrightHouse to carry the networks. Scott said there was no immediate plan to be, for example, on DirecTV, but that could happen someday.

Scott said that 350 sporting events will appear on the national Pac-12 channel and another 500 "will populate the regional feeds," he said. The conference will keep ownership of the channels, Scott said.
The announcement was made in New York right before the Pac-12 football coaches were to conduct an East Coast media day.

Scott called the arrangement "cutting edge."

Cutting edge indeed. So revolutionary that every conference commissioner and every school president is taking notice. 

During last year's realignment saga, PAC12 President Larry Scott was ahead of everybody on the "super conference realignment scenario" pushing an agenda to acquire 5 teams from the Big XII Conference, including Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech and Texas A&M that would have greatly expanded his conference's footprint in media markets making the conference extremely marketable and attractive.  When the plan fell through, Scott instead took Utah and Colorado, natural fits for the western conference, and still created a new 12 team league that could host a conference championship football game and increase revenue through new TV contracts.  Now, Scott has created a conference network that will be accessible to every single person in the country and smaller regional networks that will please fans and alumni of every conference school. 

Larry Scott and the PAC12 are winning while overcoming obstacles, keeping in focus the big picture.   

Meanwhile in Dallas during the "new look" Big XII conference media days, the Big XII is so dysfunctional many viewers and fans had trouble accessing and watching a live video feed through the conference's website.  Pathetic.  This isn't 1999 anymore.  And for those in attendance, it seemed like the Big XII should have employed referees and body guards to make sure conference members didn't go 12 rounds with cameras present.  While an upcoming football season featuring as many as five Top 25 Preseason teams should have been the focus of the event, it instead turned into a circus surrounding the "Longhorn Network" and just how committed member institutions are.

Every single coach and some players in attendance to the event were asked their thoughts on the Longhorn Network and the recruiting advantages that could be gained from it.

Then there was Missouri coach Gary Pinkel, who while on the podium called the concept "a lack of common sense" but elaborated more strongly later to a few reporters.

"What are we doing here?" said Pinkel, later saying that the reformatted league needs every member to act in the conference's best interests. "If you don't want to do that, then become an independent. Go do what you've got to do."

Asked if he felt a sense of cohesion in the conference, he said, "Yeah — until what happened last week happened."

I'm guessing Gary Pinkel isn't a fan.

Entering his 14th season as the Longhorns' coach, he dismissed the recruiting-advantage concerns. "Those games would be games that might be on ESPN anyway," he said. "... We're going to sign 20-25 players a year, more 20 than 25, and those players will probably be committed to us before June in their junior year. So I don't think that part will have any effect on recruiting at all."

"The Big 12 is full of Texas high school football players," he said. "So if you think about it, there would be a lot more prospects from the other teams in the Big 12 on the network than the ones from Texas."

Brown argued that disallowing the game coverage actually would do a disservice to many prep programs and players.

"I think the people that would be hurt if you don't show high school games will be the high school coach, the ... 99% (of players) will not even play college football," he said. "Those would be the ones, the communities in Texas that couldn't showcase their program."

Sure Mack, whatever you say.  

At least we finally know the NCAA will officially look into the matter on August 22nd with a "Summit" being held in Indianapolis and several key conferences and schools present.  But we aren't holding our breathes for the right decision to be made.

The NCAA is convening an educational summit to further explore the changing landscape of network broadcasting arrangements on programming that may include youth sports or educational activities.


The NCAA has sent invitations to conferences and schools with which it has had communication on this topic, including the Big Ten Conference, the Mountain West Conference, the Pac-12 Conference, and the University of Texas at Austin.

The National Federation of State High School Associations and broadcasting experts have been invited as well, and other invitations may be extended to attend the one-day summit Aug. 22 in Indianapolis.

"This event is a continuation of the ongoing dialogue and review we have been engaged in with our members as they have created conference- and institutional-branded networks," said Kevin Lennon, NCAA vice president of academic and membership affairs.

Let us be quick to point out that all of those listed conferences and schools that are invited to Indianapolis are organizations that have expressed interest and are willing to televise live high school content.  It sounds like the decision has already been made, but the parameters and the can/can'ts still have to be sorted out.  And once the NCAA rules in the Longhorn Network's favor does anyone here expect Big XII Conference Commissioner Dan Beebe to remain steadfast in his statement that no member's network would be allowed to televise high school content and conference games?

We didn't think so.   

Oh Dan Beebe.  How we love your progressive thinking and your drive to move the conference forward.

While at Big XII Media Days, "The Natural" wasn't talking about the future and announcing cutting edge ideas like his friend Larry Scott, but instead trying to mask the situation and crisis his conference is facing and pretend everything is fine.  In this video from our friends at TexAgs.com, Beebe tries to tell a group of reporters that "the Big 12 will not get the benefit of the doubt" and everyone is "wrong to assume that rhetoric from others is a crack in the system."  Furthermore, Beebe goes on to say that Texas A&M president R. Bowen Loftin's "uncertainty" he spoke of to reporters about the conference was instead of the Longhorn Network and that Texas A&M Athletic Director Bill Byrne has spoken strongly on Monday about his commitment to the conference.

I wonder if President Loftin and Athletic Director Bill Byrne appreciate the words that Dan Beebe is stuffing down their throats and force-feeding the media with. 

The simple point is this.  While Dan Beebe is having to play PR machine to the media at his conference's media days and Big XII conference athletic directors are preparing to meet this coming Monday about the Longhorn Network and other topics that might arise, other commissioners like Larry Scott and Mike Slive are passing him by.  Okay, he has already been passed by and they have been lapping circles around him.

The members of the Big XII conference need to realize this too.  Tomorrow.  While the PAC12 is revolutionizing how fans and alumni receive and view content about the conference and the SEC is leading the charge when it comes to reform in college football, the Big XII conference is applying duck tape and super glue to their broken structure.  They are wasting valuable time.  There is no single member that benefits from any of this, not even Baylor or Iowa State.  It is better to realize now what the conference and future is and align yourself with a Conference USA or Mountain West if you have to.  Even the Big East is more modern and appealing than the Big XII now, and willing to enhance itself with a TCU.  I'm sure Kansas and Kansas State could be the next additions to push their borders.  Maybe the only member that is benefiting right now in the Big XII is Texas, as they can keep a BCS caliber schedule but still pretend that they are an independent.

If Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and Missouri have any common sense at all or even care about their future, they should ditch the sinking ship now and find a new conference that is willing to enter into the new age of media like the PAC12 and be a part of record breaking contracts for the content.  Let's face it, the Big XII is already years behind, and are too worried about the "stability" of the conference or the "fairness" to all members to begin to even get a leg in the race.  The conference is on a ventilator and it is better to pull the plug now than stand by and watch it lifeless.  Forget about each other; go out and get yours while you still can.

Yes Dan Beebe, their are vultures in the air.  But they aren't looking to pick away your conference members right now; no, they are looking to clean out all the money your conference could have had.  Soon enough, member institutions will be looking to collect the scraps that fall off the table of Washington State if they aren't careful.  Yes, the new age of college football and how we view it is approaching that fast, and institutions in the Big XII are going to be left licking the dust off their lips if they aren't careful.  Stop pretending what we aren't; the time to act as long past.