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In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, here’s a way for Nebraskans to secure the future of Husker athletics and the Big 12:
Start having babies. And buy TV sets.
(I know, it sounds like a Nebraska Furniture Mart promotion; a TV set for every new kid. No interest until the little guy is in kindergarten!)
There’s panic in the heartland. Speculation is rampant in college sports land again about expansion and the dominoes that would topple. Missouri might go to the Big Ten, Colorado to the Pac-10. People talking about Boise State or TCU in the Big 12. People yelling at Big 12 Commissioner Dan Beebe to do something. Now.
What exactly would you like the Big 12 to do? Open a counterfeiting plant in Waco?
This is plain and simple. If and when the Big Ten offers a spot to Mizzou, there’s not a thing the Big 12 can do to keep the black and old gold. You can offer MU an equal 12-way-split revenue-sharing plan in the Big 12, but that would still be $10 million per school less than what each Big Ten school takes home per year. Same with Colorado. The Pac-10 doesn’t have the Big Ten’s TV deal, but CU feels a certain kinship with the left coast folks, who show up at college football games only when they aren’t hugging trees or surfboards. If the Pac-10 offers, the Buffs jump, or gallop really fast.
Cross your fingers that the two don’t leave. Potential replacements look like B movie actors. Forget Arkansas; the Hogs make $17 million a year (about $10 million more than any Big 12 school) off the Southeastern Conference TV deal. Boise. BYU. TCU. They may be hot now, but if they lose their football coach and make the wrong hire, one day you’ll be looking up and saying, “How did they get in the league?’’ Suddenly, the Big 12 is closer to the Mountain West than the SEC.
And while TCU seems to fit the Big 12 profile, another Texas school makes the Big 12 look like the Texas-Oklahoma league, with those four guests up north.
Meanwhile, there’s not a lot Beebe can do right now. According to NU Athletic Director Tom Osborne, the Big 12’s TV deal with ABC isn’t up for four years. And even if you could get a new deal now, what could the Big 12 get? You’re not going to get SEC or Big Ten money out of ESPN/ABC. CBS (SEC) and NBC (Notre Dame) are taken. Fox just got out of the Bowl Championship Series. New revenue streams to keep MU and CU are not exactly growing on trees.
The time for drastic action has passed. That ship has sailed. The Big 12 should have been expanding and working giant TV deals the past several years. That was under the leadership of former Commissioner Kevin Weiberg, who, ironically, is now trying to help the Pac-10 step up.
What’s interesting about this Missouri and Colorado talk is that the Big 12 is a good place to be; it was the second-best conference in college football this year and is tops in college hoops. But conference expansion and membership is about TV and money, certainly not academics or who can bring the largest library with them.
Where’s the loyalty? The Big 12 never developed it. This was a shotgun marriage in 1996 between two passive conferences who reluctantly joined forces to save their bacon. And still, 14 years later, there is not the kind of trust or camaraderie you get in other leagues. It’s every school for itself. There’s a greater chance for a Longhorn TV Network than a Big 12 TV Network.
If Beebe should concentrate on anything, it’s finding a way to create some love. Get rid of the devisive North vs. South divisions. Add one or two more conference football games, so fans get to know the other schools more. Maybe strike a deal with the Pac-10, which is not going to strike TV gold with Colorado and Utah. Start a Big 12/Pac-10 alliance that works a TV deal bigger than what the two leagues could get on their own. Add the revenue stream, then tweak the way schools share it.
And, yes, try to keep Texas, Oklahoma and Nebraska in the league. You can survive losing Missouri. But not any of those three. I don’t think that Texas is looking to leave. The Horns make as much as most SEC or Big Ten schools already; they get what they want out of the Big 12. I believe that the Hook ’ems would rather play Baylor and Texas Tech than Indiana or Wisconsin.
Just as Nebraska fans would miss playing Missouri and Colorado every year — whether they want to admit it. Well, they would admit it as soon as that first trip to Boise or Provo.
Despite its lack of population and TV sets — two of the things that expanding conferences consider — the situation is not totally helpless for Nebraska. Pick up the phone and call the Big Ten. Osborne said the league hasn’t called and NU likes the Big 12. Fine. But in these fluid and insecure times, you have to look out for No. 1. Nebraska may not have as many TVs, but the Huskers would bring more TV ratings to the Big Ten than Mizzou, Pitt or Rutgers.
Other than that, there aren’t a lot of options for Nebraskans, except to watch and cross your fingers. Or you can ... ’er, well, it is Valentine’s Day you know.
Contact the writer:
444-1025, tom.shatel@owh.com
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