Thursday, June 21, 2012

Texas Tech threatens to cancel game rather than appear on Longhorn Network

((ht: redraidersports.com))

Wow! Just when you thought the hubub over the University of Texas's Longhorn Network had subsided, there is this.

A report on RedRaiderSports.com today says that Texas Tech is threatening to cancel their game with Texas State because they are under the impression ESPN is going to broadcast the game on the Longhorn Network.

The cancellation would give the Red Raiders 11 games instead of the 12 that most teams play. And they can do that if they choose.

Read the RedRaiderSports.com story RIGHT HERE

This...is...well, pretty funny.

We kind of get the point Texas Tech is trying to make here. We can't criticize it. But they also need to remember that ESPN, the creators of the "Longhorn Network" now controls pretty much all of college football. And especially the Big 12 (Who are only 10)

The guess is that others will follow in Tech's footsteps and it begs a few questions. The biggest being where the 4-Letter (ESPN) is going to put all of their programming?

They paid millions...and in some cases billions to get the rights to pretty much all the BCS Conferences, but there are only ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Classic and ESPN News to put them on right now. Somebody is going to get shuffled out. The Big 12 is competing with the SEC, ACC and Big 10 for TV space.

The Big 10 at least has their own network for overflow games and ESPN has subcontracted the SEC Games and ACC games to Fox Sports South.  ESPN went into partnership with Raycom for regional ACC games.

But they aren't on any school's network. And no competing school in their right mind wants to be on another competitors network. We totally get that.

So what will happen here? Either option A--ESPN finds another home for the broadcast or B---Tech follows through. In the crowded landscape that is college football, we don't know if a lot of people will notice. And right now, we couldn't tell you at this point which way this will go....


2 comments:

  1. Sour Grapes by Texas Tech. If Tech wants to be on TV somewhere else, see if it can go to Fox Sports Net and forefeit the TV money for that game.

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  2. Oh no. I get their point, not wanting to help out a perceived rival. Imagine if you are say Georgia and playing a nobody team and ESPN says, we'll broadcast your game, but on the Florida Gators TV Network. Pretty sure that would never fly.

    The point is the Longhorn Network shouldn't exist. And if it does, it should be running Texas programming only, not other teams.

    Also just shows how dysfunctional Big 12 is.

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