ESPN reports the Big 12 will announce the long-awaited negotiated TV rights deal with ABC/ESPN and FOX that Dan Bebe initiated as part of the 2011 conference salvage process. The terms are...
- 13-year media rights worth $2.6 billion running through 2024-2025.
- Average of $200 million per year.
- $20 million per conference member institution.
- Includes grant of rights for the entire term by each institution (including juggernaut bell cow Texas). This means the revenue belongs to the conference and not the individual member institutions.
This deal puts the death nail into the hopefully now long-forgotten thought the Big 12 was all but dead. With only 10 members, and no football conference championship, it was thought the Big 12 would become an also ran. Through the hard work of the member athletic directors, their respective school Presidents, as well as the guidance of interim commissioner Chuck Neinas, the Big 12 is on a roll.
The football programs play a round robin schedule to determine a "pure" champion over the rigors of a 9 game schedule. No other major conference can now boast of that type of system, opting instead for a big payout championship game at the end of the season.
Nothing wrong with that, but a 10-member league distributing similar-type payouts to a split conference system with more team participants points to the strength of the conference. And not just the strength today, but the forward looking view point of some very heady folks in the broadcasting business.
This certainly is a celebration-worthy development.