Awful Announcing
It looks like people won't have to buy Oklahoma Sooners football games on pay-per-view any longer, with that content instead moving to OTT monthly subscription service ESPN+.
Navigate's projections suggest the SEC and Big Ten will still be far ahead of the ACC, Big 12 and Pac-12 even after the next round of TV deals.
Haxton delivered a nice, subtle recognition of the suspension of his colleagues.
"The comments by the Red Raider Radio Network booth announcers were contrary to expected levels of respect and professionalism. Questioning the integrity of Conference officials and specifically calling out members of the officiating crew is well beyond appropriate and permissible behavior."
"It is... GOOD! IT IS GOOD! IT IS GOOD! JONATHAN GARIBAY HAS WON THE GAME WITH A 62-YARD FIELD GOAL! OH MY GOD, CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT?! WOOOOOOOOO! YEAH, BABY! OH MY! WOW! OH! WOW!"
Is this enough to offset the loss of Oklahoma and Texas? Well, probably not, but it's probably the best they could have done.
"I would not assume that this is just happening, that one day the Texas and Oklahoma guys woke up, I would guess that it’s a logical sequence of events that ESPN now has all of the SEC, now they bring Texas and Oklahoma in."
"I am aware that ESPN has also been actively involved in discussions with at least one other conference regarding that conference inducing additional Members of the Big 12 Conference to leave the Big 12 Conference."
"Let’s set the record straight: OU’s move to the SEC is what’s best for Oklahoma."
As per a CBS report from Dennis Dodd, Big 12 officials are considering offering Oklahoma and Texas an even larger percentage of conference revenues. But it's unclear if that will actually become a proposal, and if it would actually be enough to retain them.
At first glance, the idea of the AAC adding Big 12 teams makes no sense from a financial standpoint, unless those teams are completely out of options or unless ESPN decides those additions somehow make the AAC worth a whole lot more. But ESPN could possibly decide that as part of an overall campaign to claim more college football rights from Fox.
Projections from May have the SEC paying its schools $66.9 million annually from 2024-25 on. To stay at that level after adding Texas and Oklahoma, it would need at least $134 million more in central revenue. But there's quite a good chance it can get that, likely mostly from ESPN.
Three Week Two games involving Big 12 teams (TCU, Baylor, and Oklahoma State) have been postponed or cancelled within the last week, and a couple of other Week Two games have also seen postponements.
