Big 12 expansion concerns networks

Bottom line: each existing Big 12 member would receive a financial windfall for each new member added, with potential per-school bumps of as much as $6 million to $8 million per school for the 2017-18 school year, depending on the candidates added.

Having earlier this year decided against launching its own TV network, expansion is really the only way the Big 12 can significantly increase its revenue.

Fellow American Athletic Conference schools Cincinnati, Houston, Memphis, UCF, UConn and Tulane also are in the discussion of candidates if the 10-team Big 12 expands.

ESPN and Fox are strongly discouraging the Big 12 to expand, as the networks believe the move would dilute the quality of the conference and make it less valuable, according to SportsBusiness Journal’s John Ourand and Michael Smith.

The Big 12 Conference is apparently moving in the direction of expanding by two to four teams.

Why pay more for a watered down product?

And BYU officials have continually said their relationship with ESPN has been strong since a contract was worked out between the school and network when BYU announced in 2010 that it was breaking away from the Mountain West Conference in football and becoming independent.

The networks, though, won’t part with that money easily.

What I do know, however, is that while this could be a big time gain for the Big 12 in the short term, it could wind up being a nightmare in the long term. That deal runs through the 2024-25 season and already has the conference trailing the other Power Five conferences in revenue. (And the current 10 schools would initially reap more of that rights fee bounty than the new members.) But that’s not as appealing to the conference’s TV partners. And given the existence of the Longhorn Network, the Big 12 isn’t going to be adding its own network anytime soon. An extra $40 million to $80 million obviously sounds wonderful to the Big 12. While it’s understandable the two networks would be reluctant to shill out significant cash to the Big 12 right now, there may also be another factor at play as well.

Since Texas is one of the schools already on record as being lukewarm about adding more schools just to add more schools and possibly eyeing a post-Big 12 future after the current grant of rights expires, if the conference does renegotiate its current television contracts, the ‘Horns likely wouldn’t support that extension.