So the implosion over the summer of the Big 12, which will now continue as a 10-team league (don’t ask), has left ESPN with something of a hole in its college-football ratings machine. Namely, the Big 12 Championship Game, which must now end because 10-team conferences can’t hold those events under NCAA rules.
Texas-Texas A&M Could Be Rescheduled; An Early December Tradition?
ESPN has solved the problem in the way it usually solves such problems -- by getting rid of a 110-year-old tradition. In this case, the tradition is the Texas-Texas A&M game, played on Thanksgiving or the following weekend since 1901.
The Big 12 is considering shifting that game -- and also possibly the Oklahoma-Oklahoma State game -- to the first weekend of December if it needs a big matchup that day to replace the missing conference championship game on ESPN.
Now, far be it for us to question ESPN’s business acumen when it comes to televising college football games. But consider that Texas-Texas A&M and Oklahoma-Oklahoma State would in some form join ESPN/ABC’s airing of the ACC Championship Game. That lineup would be pitted against CBS’ SEC Championship Game, Fox’s Big Ten Championship Game and/or Fox’s Pac-12 Championship Game.
You don’t have to be aware of the dismal ratings for the ACC Championship Game to realize that this might not be a strategy for success. But at least if it goes wrong, all we’ve lost is a century of tradition.
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