NCAA Realignment Culprit

Hello everyone. It has been way too long since my last post which is my fault for letting school come first before discussing my real passion of sports. Today's topic is NCAA Realignment.

Whose fault is it that the NCAA is about to change to four conferences consisting of 16 teams. Certainly it must be UT's for the creation of the Longhorn Network right? The creation of the Longhorn Network put many schools in a tizzy and is portrayed as the cause of realignment. UT is not the cause behind realignment. The fact is the other Big 12 schools, including Texas A@M, knew that not only was the Longhorn Network being created at last year's realignment talk, but also the programming that would appear on it. The fact is A@M's board of regents were "butt hurt" by the fact that UT was given this opportunity and they weren't. In fact, UT approached the Aggies five years ago with the idea of creating the "Lonestar Network" which would be a shared regional network between the Longhorns and the Aggies. Texas A@M declined because they didn't believe it would create enough revenue compared to its start up costs. When A@M realized the network was worth the investment, it was too late because the Longhorns realized they could do it on their own by partnering with ESPN so A@M should be kicking themselves rather than putting the blame on the Longhorns. Lastly, it doesn't matter if the network was for Texas, Oklahoma, USC, Baylor, or Michigan, the fact is, every college in America would have jumped all over ESPN's $300 million offer to create their own network. The fact is there are only five teams that had the ability to create their own network (Texas,USC,Alabama,Florida, Michigan) and Texas generates the most athletic revenue every year hence why ESPN went to the Longhorns first. If the Longhorns had denied, they would have gone after someone else.

This means it must be the Aggies fault since the shift started happening when they decided to take it upon themselves to get out of Texas' shadow by applying to the SEC right? Wrong again. While what the Aggies did was extremely radical, who's to say Michigan State wouldn't have done the same thing if Michigan were offered the network instead of UT. The Aggies were tired of being second fiddle and wanted to start fresh in a new conference that they knew UT wouldn't join because of the high academic standards UT has compared to the SEC schools. The reason why the Aggies leaving is radical is because by leaving the Big 12, they will make less TV revenue in the SEC than they currently make in Big 12. The Aggies also have to pay an exit fee in the area of $15 to $20 million just to join the SEC. Contrary to popular belief, the exit fee is not being provided by the SEC so the Aggies are taking a huge financial hit, as well as joining a more difficult conference.

No, the real culprit behind college realignment is Big 12 Commissioner Dan Beebe. Why you ask? Two reasons. First, when Nebraska and Colorado left, the Big 12 was reactive rather than proactive. Instead of trying to replace those TV markets, Beebe believed that the remaining Big 12 teams would stay because they would make more in TV revenue, since there were two fewer teams. What he didn't think through is if one of the remaining teams left, the entire conference would fall apart.

There were very attractive options available to the Big 12 at the time to fill in for the departing teams. BYU was leaving the Mountain West Conference because they were being shafted by the conference with their team network. By snatching BYU, this could have provided two things for the Big 12. First and foremost it could've replaced the Denver market that was lost with Colorado's departure. Salt Lake City is the #33 television market compared to Denver which is #18. BYU not only has a strong fan base, but they are also strong in other non football sports like basketball. Secondly this might have helped other teams in the Big 12 get used to a team having their own network. While BYU's network is non profit based, it has all the other features that the Longhorn Network currently has. TCU was also available and was also leaving the Mountain West Conference to pursue Big East membership. With the acquisition of both of these schools, the Big 12 could've not only protected itself from realignment, but also the rest of the NCAA.

The second mistake Beebe made was with the television contracts. The Big 12 has constantly been near the bottom when it comes to TV revenue. This isn't because of the teams in the conference, but because of Beebe's lack of ability to brand the Big 12 as a viable and attractive conference. The SEC has been branded as the best football conference. The Big East has been branded as the best Basketball conference. Beebe's lack of ability to brand his own conference caused Regional Sports Networks to short change the Big 12 and pay them less compared to other conferences. Beebe could've branded the conference as the "Rivalry Conference" with historic rivalries like Texas- Oklahoma, Texas- Texas A@M, Oklahoma- Oklahoma State etc. Lastly, the Big 12 was the only major conference to not have equal revenue sharing. This created tension among all the schools, which could've been prevented by Beebe if he had included equal revenue sharing in the new Big 12 TV deal that he signed this past April.

While many are pointing the finger at each other, the finger should be pointed at the top. You live with good leadership and die with bad leadership. The Big 12 is living proof that bad leadership can only take you so far.