Awful Announcing
"That remark was a reflection of the fact that I've been spending four weeks trying to defend against grenades lobbed in from every corner of the Big 12, trying to destabilize our remaining conference."
The pursuit of growing, yet limited TV revenue has left much of college football in an uncertain place where winning guarantees nothing.
"Because the Big 12 media rights can't be negotiated until 2024, Pac-12 schools have no motivation to join the Big 12."
"They really don’t like to be known as deciding who is in what league, but don’t think there aren’t conversations of, ‘If we take this property, how much value are they going to bring?’ We’re not picking random schools. … They just don’t want the optics of them deciding, but the money is coming from them. They have to tell the league or someone (the TV value of schools)."
Conference USA reportedly already has some replacements in mind, but will they actually join?
Many have long pushed for a nine-game SEC conference schedule, and the conference adding Texas and Oklahoma might lead to that.
"We've mis-set fans' expectations that it's going to move on a very fast timeline."
"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.
