Every Big 12 football fan is familiar with the Longhorn Network today, but what if the University of Texas had partnered with a historic in-state rival to form a joint network dedicated to those two programs? The wheels were once in motion for that to happen, according to former longtime Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds.
Recently, Dodds recalled how discussions were once had between him and then-Texas A&M athletic director Bill Byrne about two schools joining forces to launch a network dedicated to coverage of Longhorn and Aggie athletics. But while two different networks were on board for the concept, the offer was ultimately turned down by A&M, according to Dodds.
"That started in one of our staff meetings about how we needed to get some exposure for sports other than football and basketball," Dodds said during a recent appearance on
The Austin American Statesman's "On Second Thought" podcast with Kirk Bohls and Cedric Golden. "We talked about how we could do that with television, and we talked about a network. We figured that it would cost us a lot of money to do it. I talked to Bill about the possibility of putting the two universities together and forming a statewide network ... then we talked to FOX about it, and they offered us $3 million a year plus all the expenses. That was huge. Then ESPN comes in and offers an average of $15 million per year for 20 years."But Bill had turned us down on it. Bill didn't want to do that. I don't know if it worked out -- if it would have been a good deal or a bad deal. But we did make the offer, and (Texas A&M) did refuse it."
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