SoonerMom2
9/22/2011, 12:49 PM
If this has been discussed before, please pull the thread but this is the first time I have seen this info and have never seen it mentioned with the details of the LHN agreement with ESPN.
An A&M person was able to get a lot from the LHN with a Freedom of Info request but what was redacted is what I would like to know. We already knew UT and ESPN were not team players but had no idea how bad it was. Every university in the Country should be willing to sue ESPN and its stooge UT for their unfair advantage with the LHN.
Would love to be a fly on the wall of the conference call today! Was Beebe was right there with UT which would explain the Beebe ouster being the #1 issue along with the content on the LHN which I have excerpted but you need to read the info at the link. It will make you furious. We may be starting to see what this was all about and other conferences were involved. ESPN needs stopped and UT needs put it its place. This may also explain Bob Stoops earlier anger at the LHN and its content.
Keep seeing comments to reconstitute the Big 8 which is our right -- think after reading this, it would be a good idea. This is all about UT going indy with the help of ESPN in the future the way it looks as that is mentioned.
http://themidnightyell.blogspot.com/2011/08/documents-reveal-intention-behind.html
Note: This post is the work of our friend Spadilly and full credit for what you read here should be given to him. We have simply offered up our blog space to him to be able to share with everyone what he had found in an Open Records Request sent to the University of Texas. This work is his, and we were very happy to work with him in this. He has taken all the right steps here, even contacting the Office of the President at Texas A&M last week. We suggest you follow Spadilly on twitter because he is a great guy; that is unless you dislike good music, better food, and showing you how to live the good life.
Excerpts:
So where does the network and ESPN stop at? Four live Texas Longhorn football games? The entire home schedule? And if the network does in fact air that many live football games, how does this affect the overall value of the 1st and 2nd tier media rights of the conference as a whole? Less money for the entire conference on the table when 1st tier rights become available in 2015-2016? I guess this also makes void Chip Brown and the Longhorn's spin that "Texas had no idea what ESPN was doing, it was their fault". It's not ESPN alone when there is a "mutual desire" is it?
“This was ESPN acting on its own,” one high-ranking administrator in the Big 12 said. “I don’t think Texas even knew where ESPN was in the process of trying to get this conference game secured. DeLoss Dodds has been very open and forthcoming with all the schools in the Big 12.
Right.
If that isn't unsettling, ESPN and the University of Texas is also in an agreement to get live sporting events when the Longhorns play AWAY from home and say in Norman or Stillwater.
*****
One of the major topics that has been brought up not only on fan message boards but in the national media as well has been the airing of Texas high school content. Would it be surprising to anyone that UT Athletics and IMG would put forth their "best effort" to help ESPN secure the rights to airing all state UIL Championships? Fox Sports owns those rights until 2017, but anything after is fair game when the contract expires.
*****
What happens if this unfair advantage drives the breakup of the Big XII one way or the other? Well, this agreement between the University of Texas and ESPN would live on no matter what conference Texas is in, or if it is an Independent. They have already prepared for that.
And if If University of Texas does in fact become an Independent in the near future for whatever reason, ESPN would have an already written in "Right of First Refusal" for Texas' media rights that are now currently held by the Big XII conference, which is basically their 1st and 2nd tier rights. ESPN would have a 60 day window of negotiations to become the only carrier of University of Texas content, and then 48 hours to match any kind of offer from a competitor. In the long run, that may be worth $300 million to ESPN alone.
*****
One thing that could keep Texas from becoming an independent is the stability of the Big XII. It is no secret that the Big XII conference and it's other members would love to have their own conference network, similar to the Big 10 and Mountain West Conferences. However, the University of Texas and IMG has agreed that no content featuring Texas would be made available to that conference network and would violate the agreement with ESPN. The other nine conference members would have to put together a network without Texas and it's content.
An A&M person was able to get a lot from the LHN with a Freedom of Info request but what was redacted is what I would like to know. We already knew UT and ESPN were not team players but had no idea how bad it was. Every university in the Country should be willing to sue ESPN and its stooge UT for their unfair advantage with the LHN.
Would love to be a fly on the wall of the conference call today! Was Beebe was right there with UT which would explain the Beebe ouster being the #1 issue along with the content on the LHN which I have excerpted but you need to read the info at the link. It will make you furious. We may be starting to see what this was all about and other conferences were involved. ESPN needs stopped and UT needs put it its place. This may also explain Bob Stoops earlier anger at the LHN and its content.
Keep seeing comments to reconstitute the Big 8 which is our right -- think after reading this, it would be a good idea. This is all about UT going indy with the help of ESPN in the future the way it looks as that is mentioned.
http://themidnightyell.blogspot.com/2011/08/documents-reveal-intention-behind.html
Note: This post is the work of our friend Spadilly and full credit for what you read here should be given to him. We have simply offered up our blog space to him to be able to share with everyone what he had found in an Open Records Request sent to the University of Texas. This work is his, and we were very happy to work with him in this. He has taken all the right steps here, even contacting the Office of the President at Texas A&M last week. We suggest you follow Spadilly on twitter because he is a great guy; that is unless you dislike good music, better food, and showing you how to live the good life.
Excerpts:
So where does the network and ESPN stop at? Four live Texas Longhorn football games? The entire home schedule? And if the network does in fact air that many live football games, how does this affect the overall value of the 1st and 2nd tier media rights of the conference as a whole? Less money for the entire conference on the table when 1st tier rights become available in 2015-2016? I guess this also makes void Chip Brown and the Longhorn's spin that "Texas had no idea what ESPN was doing, it was their fault". It's not ESPN alone when there is a "mutual desire" is it?
“This was ESPN acting on its own,” one high-ranking administrator in the Big 12 said. “I don’t think Texas even knew where ESPN was in the process of trying to get this conference game secured. DeLoss Dodds has been very open and forthcoming with all the schools in the Big 12.
Right.
If that isn't unsettling, ESPN and the University of Texas is also in an agreement to get live sporting events when the Longhorns play AWAY from home and say in Norman or Stillwater.
*****
One of the major topics that has been brought up not only on fan message boards but in the national media as well has been the airing of Texas high school content. Would it be surprising to anyone that UT Athletics and IMG would put forth their "best effort" to help ESPN secure the rights to airing all state UIL Championships? Fox Sports owns those rights until 2017, but anything after is fair game when the contract expires.
*****
What happens if this unfair advantage drives the breakup of the Big XII one way or the other? Well, this agreement between the University of Texas and ESPN would live on no matter what conference Texas is in, or if it is an Independent. They have already prepared for that.
And if If University of Texas does in fact become an Independent in the near future for whatever reason, ESPN would have an already written in "Right of First Refusal" for Texas' media rights that are now currently held by the Big XII conference, which is basically their 1st and 2nd tier rights. ESPN would have a 60 day window of negotiations to become the only carrier of University of Texas content, and then 48 hours to match any kind of offer from a competitor. In the long run, that may be worth $300 million to ESPN alone.
*****
One thing that could keep Texas from becoming an independent is the stability of the Big XII. It is no secret that the Big XII conference and it's other members would love to have their own conference network, similar to the Big 10 and Mountain West Conferences. However, the University of Texas and IMG has agreed that no content featuring Texas would be made available to that conference network and would violate the agreement with ESPN. The other nine conference members would have to put together a network without Texas and it's content.