Steven M. Sipple: Big 12 falls behind in TV race
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My e-mail bin tells me the future site of the Big 12 football championship game is on fans’ minds. More on that in a minute.
Make no mistake, the most critical issue facing Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe is finding ways to compete with the mega-television contracts in the Southeastern and Big Ten conferences.
Let’s focus on the SEC. It says here no conference plays better football than the SEC, although Big 12 fans can make a strong case for their mega-point-producing league (I’ll always lean toward strong defense).
That said, nobody can argue which conference has the better television package. The SEC recently finalized the richest TV contract in college football history: 15-year deals with ESPN and CBS for roughly $3 billion.
If the Big 12 falls too far behind in the television-revenue race, there’ll soon be no debate whatsoever about which conference plays better football. It’ll be the conference with programs that can afford to build the best facilities, pay the highest salaries for the best coaches, and attract the lion’s share of the best players.
The SEC just might be positioned to pull away in this race.
Consider that each SEC school now figures to take home $17 million annually in network TV money, the equivalent of a BCS bowl payout and a little less than double the average that Big 12 teams received this past school year.
“It’s not just the SEC,” Beebe said during Big 12 Media Days last week. “It’s also the Big Ten. The Big Ten kind of set the stage by forming its own network. I think that provided a great opportunity for the SEC to be paid a lot of money and given a lot of exposure not to form a network.
“It remains to be seen whether we’re going to be able to achieve that level or near that level of revenue and exposure when it’s our turn to negotiate a new contract.”
The Big 12’s eight-year, $480 million contract with ABC/ESPN runs through 2015-16. The league also has a four-year, $78 million deal with Fox Sports Net through 2011-12.
The Big 12 was formed in the mid-1990s to create a more valuable spot in the TV marketplace for schools in the old Big Eight and four members of the defunct Southwest Conference, “and that’s obviously been achieved, not just in television but in competition,” Beebe said. “We need all the platforms we can get to expose the very quality play that all of our student-athletes provide.”
I’m not qualified to be a conference commissioner, but I can play one in the newspaper. To that end, I can’t help but think that on-line content from high-profile sports (football, basketball) can become a much bigger piece of the Big 12’s revenue in years to come. After all, TV is becoming passe to many Internet-oriented teens and pre-teens.
“It’s certainly another element, particularly in a lot of the sports that aren’t exposed by typical distribution methods, out to fans and others,” Beebe said. “It’s in our calculation of what we’re going to try to do in the future.”
* I received 36 e-mails in response to a column last week in which I opposed making the new Cowboys Stadium the permanent home for the Big 12 title game. A total of 28 were slanted toward my view, five clearly were for keeping the game in Dallas for good (it will be held there this year and next), while three e-mails were best classified as neutral.
At any rate, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the football game eventually wind up in Dallas for good, with the basketball tournament stationed in Kansas City, Mo., with perhaps an occasional rotation. Just a guess.
* “Walk-ons: Huskers’ Edge,” a documentary about the Nebraska walk-on program, will air at 7 p.m. today on NET1. Reaction was very favorable at a premiere last week in Omaha, producer Joel Geyer said Monday, aside from a few boos when Steve Pederson appeared on screen doing an interview from 1985 — back when he was a rising star in Big Red country. Will boos for Pederson ever subside?
I think I know the answer.
Reach Steven M. Sipple at 473-7440 or ssipple@journalstar.com.
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