We have yet another twist in the ongoing Conference Expansionpocalypse: Texas is now committed to remaining in the Big 12, which will become a 10-team conference after the loss of Colorado and Nebraska, according to Chip Brown.
Report: Texas Not Going To Pac-10, Will Remain In Revamped 10-Team Big 12 Conference
The report says that Texas was convinced of this plan over the weekend by Big 12 commish Dan Beebe, and the school could announce its intentions to stay put as early as Monday.
The full Beebe plan:
—Beebe has secured information that enough money could be inked in its next TV negotiation (in 2011) that revenues per school would jump from between $7 million and $10 million in the Big 12 currently to $17 million beginning in 2012, which is what the SEC pays out.
—The 10 remaining Big 12 schools would divide up the more than $20 million in buyout penalties that will have to be paid by Colorado and Nebraska for leaving the league early.
—Individal institutions would be allowed to pursue their own networks, which has been a goal of Texas. If the Longhorns went to the Pac-10, they would have to forgo their own distribution platforms, including a network, because the Pac-16 would seek to have a conference network in which all inventory is shared.
(Consultants have put Texas’ ability to generate revenue from its own network at between $3 million and $5 million after a start-up window of about three years.)
—The Big 12 would proceed with 10 teams. Everyone would play everyone in football, providing a nine-game conference schedule.
—The conference championship game would be dumped in the short-term (because the NCAA mandates 12 schools for a football title game).
—The loss of Nebraska and Colorado should have been a loss of about 16 percent to the league’s revenue generating capacity. But because Colorado was an underperformer, the league lost only about 8.6 percent of its value with the loss of Nebraska, according to sources with knowledge of the Beebe Plan.
This plan hinges on the other remaining Big 12 schools also agreeing to stay in the conference, most specifically Texas A&M, which is rumored to be close to joining the SEC.
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