There's a lot of speculation about OU leaving for the SEC or taking KU with them to the B1G. If that happened, most people think the Big XII would probably not survive.

There's another scenario that could happen though: I think Texas could go independent for football only but keep the Big XII together for other sports.

Texas could get an "ND type" deal without having to play lots of ACC teams or stop playing its traditional rivals in all other sports. I could see Texas agreeing to play 5 games against Big XII teams, but requiring that they play one or two of Tech, Baylor or TCU each year, that 3 of the 5 be home games for Texas AND that the LHN gets the broadcast rights to the other two road games.

The rest of Texas schedule might look like this:

Game 6 - RRR with Oklahoma - both schools will want to continue it.
Game 7 - Notre Dame - of course
Game 8 - restarting the A&M rivalry, or maybe rotating A&M, Arky and LSU
Games 9 & 10 - home and home series against 2 PAC 12 teams - they would love to play in Texas for the recruiting exposure
Games 11 & 12 - take your pick of middling to lower P5 teams from the ACC, B1G or patsy teams that will give Texas a home game.

That's not a bad outcome for Texas. It creates more meaningful and exciting match-ups for Texas fans. Texas can continue to play other Texas teams, while also increasing its strength of schedule and if Texas plays well, like ND they would still have a path to the national championships.

Texas would get to keep the LHN and add some high quality football games. Texas and ESPN might be able to take the LHN one step further by negotiating with the other Texas teams to buy content. They could essentially regionalize the LHN by becoming the 'Raycom' network for Baylor, TCU and Tech (imagine "Baylor football - brought to you by the Longhorn Network"). The LHN with its statewide coverage could probably bid more than local networks for that content, giving the other 3 Texas teams tier 2 and 3 revenue that they probably don't get enough of today.

The Big XII would survive but as a lesser conference for football. The other Big XII teams won't like that, and maybe the PAC or SEC picks one or two off (I doubt it), but at least they get to stay together and don't have to go begging the Mountain West or another conference for a spot. The teams left in the Big XII could reload by adding two teams (take your pick of the candidates already mentioned) or three if West Virginia also left. In fact, if Texas and ESPN can regionalize the LHN then Houston would be a prime target to add to the conference.

All in all not a bad outcome, given the other possibilities, for all involved.

Texas leaves or they don't, NO halfsies!

Texas should be independent, the way they act. They never want to be in a conference situation without the revenue game rigged in their favor in some way.

That's why they'll never join the SEC, Big 10 or Pac 12 (i.e. real conferences) whose members share everything equally.

TX joins ACC with same deal that Notre Dame has.

If OU and KU joined the big 10 I could see Texas, Texas Tech, TCU and Houston go west to the pac 16...maybe Ok state gets a spot instead of TCU.

Pac 16

North- Wash, WSU, Oreg, OSU
West- USC, UCLA, CAL, Stanford
South- Ariz, ASU, Utah, Colorado
East- Texas, Texas Tech, TCU, Houston

the remaining big 12 school's would probably merge with the AAC + maybe bring in some MWC school's.

Texas would loose a ton of money. B12 Revenue without Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas would drop dramatically. Lets say 50%. All Texas home games would now belong to LHN. The normal 80/20 split now becomes something like 90/10, possibly 95/5. Texas revenue from the B12 would drop to roughly $1 million. Texas looses shared bowl revenue, bowl opportunities, and shared NCAAT revenue.

On the plus side they would get to keep all of their bowl/NCAAT money (I still think it is a loss). ESPN MIGHT give UT a bump since they now have access to more UT home games. ESPN is prbably losing money on the LHN so a bump is not likely.

I'm not sure how the RRR works. It is possible on the year that OU is the host the money would go to what ever conference OU is in. It is possible it becomes a 50/50 split.

(03-06-2016 10:54 AM)Wolfman Wrote:  Texas would loose a ton of money. B12 Revenue without Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas would drop dramatically. Lets say 50%. All Texas home games would now belong to LHN. The normal 80/20 split now becomes something like 90/10, possibly 95/5. Texas revenue from the B12 would drop to roughly $1 million. Texas looses shared bowl revenue, bowl opportunities, and shared NCAAT revenue.

On the plus side they would get to keep all of their bowl/NCAAT money (I still think it is a loss). ESPN MIGHT give UT a bump since they now have access to more UT home games. ESPN is prbably losing money on the LHN so a bump is not likely.

I'm not sure how the RRR works. It is possible on the year that OU is the host the money would go to what ever conference OU is in. It is possible it becomes a 50/50 split.

How about this Texas and Notre Dame same deal with ACC. Then Kansas and Oklahoma as full ACC members. That is 16 in football and 18 in all other sports.

Notre Dame
Texas

Northern Division
Kansas
Oklahoma
Louisville
Boston College
Syracuse
Pitt
Virginia Tech
Miami

Southern Division
Virginia
North Carolina
North Carolina State
Duke
Wake Forest
Clemson
Georgia Tech
FSU

(03-06-2016 10:42 AM)Wilkie01 Wrote:  TX joins ACC with same deal that Notre Dame has.

That's about the only way to make the longhorn network profitable.

Kick texas out and bring in nebraska

If Texas goes to the ACC, they will not get a deal like ND. For all the problems that people think the ACC has, it is set up to bring ND football in at some point. So, why give another program that type of leveage? They won't because the only real option would be for Texas would to go full independence, ND is not even fully independent any longer. TX won't go to SEC, turned down PAC a few times, and I'm not sure if they are interested in the BIG 10 (ESPN would have a say in that option). That leaves ESPN backed ACC as the only conference to easily deal with and why would they give TX that option?

By the way, if expansion does happens, I think its easier for the ACC to go 20 vs 16, especially with the Texas option.

Also, I have question. Remember this question is coming from a northern college football fan.
Why is Texas held in such high esteem? Is it just because of the money? I say this because the only time I really remember TX being a good to great football team was during the Vince Young/Mack Brown era. Other than that, I think of them as maybe a good regional team. Don't really see the big fuss over TX (other than being flagship school in one of the biggest states in the Union) when I think OU is really the flag bearer of that conference.

(03-06-2016 01:39 PM)Mr. Derfman Wrote:  If Texas goes to the ACC, they will not get a deal like ND. For all the problems that people think the ACC has, it is set up to bring ND football in at some point. So, why give another program that type of leveage? They won't because the only real option would be for Texas would to go full independence, ND is not even fully independent any longer. TX won't go to SEC, turned down PAC a few times, and I'm not sure if they are interested in the BIG 10 (ESPN would have a say in that option). That leaves ESPN backed ACC as the only conference to easily deal with and why would they give TX that option?

By the way, if expansion does happens, I think its easier for the ACC to go 20 vs 16, especially with the Texas option.

Also, I have question. Remember this question is coming from a northern college football fan.
Why is Texas held in such high esteem? Is it just because of the money? I say this because the only time I really remember TX being a good to great football team was during the Vince Young/Mack Brown era. Other than that, I think of them as maybe a good regional team. Don't really see the big fuss over TX (other than being flagship school in one of the biggest states in the Union) when I think OU is really the flag bearer of that conference.

28,240,245 TV sets

(03-06-2016 01:39 PM)Mr. Derfman Wrote:  If Texas goes to the ACC, they will not get a deal like ND. For all the problems that people think the ACC has, it is set up to bring ND football in at some point. So, why give another program that type of leveage? They won't because the only real option would be for Texas would to go full independence, ND is not even fully independent any longer. TX won't go to SEC, turned down PAC a few times, and I'm not sure if they are interested in the BIG 10 (ESPN would have a say in that option). That leaves ESPN backed ACC as the only conference to easily deal with and why would they give TX that option?

By the way, if expansion does happens, I think its easier for the ACC to go 20 vs 16, especially with the Texas option.

Also, I have question. Remember this question is coming from a northern college football fan.
Why is Texas held in such high esteem? Is it just because of the money? I say this because the only time I really remember TX being a good to great football team was during the Vince Young/Mack Brown era. Other than that, I think of them as maybe a good regional team. Don't really see the big fuss over TX (other than being flagship school in one of the biggest states in the Union) when I think OU is really the flag bearer of that conference.

while OU is one of the top brands in the big 12 they are not the flag bearer. UT has the most power and that is evident in when OU threaten to leave without Texas but was told no without Texas. I think it is good OU is standing up to Texas and more schools should, but so far everytime they raise their voice Texas wins out.

(03-06-2016 10:42 AM)Wilkie01 Wrote:  TX joins ACC with same deal that Notre Dame has.

Texas fans couldn't care less about playing ACC teams, other than FSU or Clemson, maybe.

(03-06-2016 10:54 AM)Wolfman Wrote:  Texas would loose a ton of money. B12 Revenue without Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas would drop dramatically. Lets say 50%. All Texas home games would now belong to LHN. The normal 80/20 split now becomes something like 90/10, possibly 95/5. Texas revenue from the B12 would drop to roughly $1 million. Texas looses shared bowl revenue, bowl opportunities, and shared NCAAT revenue.

On the plus side they would get to keep all of their bowl/NCAAT money (I still think it is a loss). ESPN MIGHT give UT a bump since they now have access to more UT home games. ESPN is prbably losing money on the LHN so a bump is not likely.

I'm not sure how the RRR works. It is possible on the year that OU is the host the money would go to what ever conference OU is in. It is possible it becomes a 50/50 split.

If OU and KU go, Texas faces the same problem no matter what.

If the Big 12 survives, ESPN and Fox will cut the payment to the Big XII after KU and OU leave, even if Texas stays. If Texas goes independent for football, there will still be a Big XII contract and Texas will get some of it for Bball, but Texas could get it's own football contract, like ND has with NBC, to replace most of that loss.

If the Big XII does not survive, Texas faces the same financial problem trying to join the ACC and go "independent". The only way the make up for the revenue loss is by joining another conference.

Texas and Norte dame would be forced to join as full members. Not sure Tobacco Road wants Texas as 16. Cincinnati has a better chance

there is no reason for Texas to go to the ACC

The Big 12 pays out more money than the ACC does so why would Texas leave the Big 12 to make less money from the ACC

and the ACC has more teams that no one cares about playing than the Big 12 so why go there

the sensible thing to do is have the Big 12 play fewer conference games and more OOC games and have a CCG and get paid for it as well while staying at 10 teams

it would be better for all the teams in the Big 12 and the Big 12 as a whole

Texas is a huge recruiting ground as well as Oklahoma. Home grown talent staying close to Home is the Only reason the Big 12 does good. The rosters thin out once They have to go outside the natural recruiting base.

Let me be perfectly clear on this, because people just don't seem to understand: TEXAS WILL NOT GET A NOTRE DAME TYPE OF DEAL ANYWHERE. PERIOD. It won't happen because the Longhorn Network is losing money in the damned state of TEXAS for Christ's sake! If they can't draw the appeal necessary to keep a network deal going in their own damned state, why in pluperfect HELL would any network (like NBC to Notre Dame) give them one nationally!? Jesus H. Christ people, I really wish you'd start using your heads around here! Notre Dame's appeal as an independent is dwindling fast, and yet for some reason people are really gungho about thinking someone with such limited national appeal like Texas could pull it off....