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The Big 12 is now the Big Ten. The Big Ten is now the Big 12. What’s yet to be decided is the big TV winner.
As ESPN’s Andy Katz notes, Texas’ decision on Monday to stay in the Big 12 was a combination of comfort and revenue. The Big Ten was just a little bit ahead of the game in realizing that nowadays, revenue is the key element in achieving comfort.
When the Big Ten unveiled its own network in August 2007, it was in many ways a financial move. Though the network proved popular to fans, the real impetus was lining the pocketbooks of the league’s member schools.
“I think fans will look back years from now and wonder how they ever followed their teams without the Big Ten Network,” president Mark Silverman vowed.
More than 300 providers now carry the network, enough to help boost the total Big 10 revenues to $22 million, per school, per year, according to a breakdown by the Chicago Tribune.
With numbers like that, it’s easy to flip Silverman’s statement to something like: “I think teams will look back years from now and wonder how they ever promoted their programs.”
Can the Big 12 see similar benefits? The New York Times reports that Fox plans an influx of money into the league, which will be enough to keep it afloat with its ten teams. Though there’s been no formal announcement of a Big 12 network, the Fox arrangement is a Big-Ten influenced move. Fox currently holds a 49-percent minority-interest stake in the Big Ten Network.
For the Big 12, fans get to focus on quality rivalries on Saturday — none of these forced Pac-10 pairings. Washington followers — stop the Google maps searches for Seattle to College Station, Texas. Texas fanatics — save up the work bonus for that one important trip to L.A. instead of three (Rose Bowl, anyone?). And Nebraska faithful, your road travels just got a little smoother with several more straight drives on Interstate 80.
And if all else fails, sit on the couch at home and watch the game on television. It’s the vision of a Big 12 network that saved the conference from the start.