(08-07-2011 10:09 PM)bttrcool Wrote: How viable is a Big 12 Network though? The Big Ten and Pac 12 both held back 30+ football games to get their networks off the ground; the Big 12 only has nine, and the most valuable player isn't around to be a part of it.
They do not hold back nearly that many football. For Example, the Big Ten only has 48 conference games to air, and ESPN airs 4 Big Ten games per week. Once conference season starts, they only get to air 1 or 2 games per week (and that is starting this year with 12 teams). Last year, it was even less.
(08-07-2011 10:46 PM)Wedge Wrote: But it would be amusing if the Big 12 started its own network, transferred some football inventory to the new network, and then put most of UT's football games on the Big 12 network.
That was something I actually suggested, since the would presumably partner with Fox, and since Fox would own the Big XI Network, could use second tier rights to make that happen. However, according to that article, the ESPN contract prohibits that. Now, how they can enforce that, with rights they do not own, I have no idea.
(08-08-2011 06:08 AM)goodknightfl Wrote: Only way to make it work is go back to 12 schools, You then can give UT another game and add more content for a B12 network.
You don't
need 12 schools to make a conference network work: The Big Ten was doing it with 11. The thing about conference networks, is that while everyone harps on football driving the bus, basketball games are what build these networks. Even the Big Ten found that since the Big schools (OSU, Michigan, PSU, etc) only have one or two games on the network, and at least one will be vs. a 1AA school, when half of the twon is actually at the game, it is hard to get distrubution showing games that few people care about. The big gams will still go national. Even rabid fan bases can live with missing one game. What made it tick was basketball, because if you did not have th enetwork, you were now missing 10-15 games per year, sometimes more depending on your school. That was what got it moving and sped up disctrubution.
Now, having 12 teams does help, but if those teams don't expand the value of your national TV contract on a per team basis, and make it more valueabel above and beyond that (as in if Fox/ESPN are paying them $15 million a year, each new team needs to bring in at least $22.5 million a year in new money to pay for thesmevles plus add a 20% return to the original teams). Especially when adding those teams means existing teams no longer get to play annual football games against Texas, Oklahoma, and Texas A&M, the leagues biggest draws, and they can no longer all play home and home round robin basketball games against each other.