Lonhorn Network: Pandora's Box?

Discussion in 'On The Field' started by Zona Horn, Aug 14, 2011.

  1. Zona Horn

    Zona Horn 500+ Posts

    The following is a quote from the lead article linked on the Hornfans football page about the new realignment sweepstakes triggered by aTm's hissy fit:

    "Texas seems to have opened Pandora’s box with the starting of the Texas Longhorn Network. The other teams in the Big 12 don’t feel like equal partners with Texas, and three have left in a span of a year: Colorado, Nebraska, and Texas A&M."

    So, a question: are the financial benefits of a fledgling network of uncertain prospects and ill-defined footprint worth the following downsides:

    1. Destruction of the Big 12, which drove away the two premier programs in the northern division, and now is going to destroy a 100 year rivalry with our only in-state rival.

    2. The consolidating conventional wisdom nationally and locally that UT is a greedy, arrogant bully that insists on uneven revenue sharing (something most conferences don't allow) and grasps for every advantage it can get, even if it means driving away its fellow member institutions, sullying its reputaton and earning the enmity over everyone else in the conference.

    3. A very uncertain future, which ranges from having to go Indy if OU gets fed up enough and bails also, to replacing the departed with second tier mid-majors, reducing UT to being one of two big fish in a very small pond that has no respect nationally and boasts a schedule about as compelling as Conference USA reruns from 1997. Note: I did not include entry into a Pac 16 or the BIG as an option here because those conferences will require equal revenue sharing and will not allow the LHN to compete with their fledgling networks, which are served by different partners that are competitors of ESPN.

    4. Allowing the utterly corrupt recruiting culture of the SEC into Texas, which will make the old SWC days of free Trans Ams look like child's play. Get ready to lose recruits for suitcases of cash and parties in Miami. Cam Newton, your runner is on line 3.

    For my part, the answer is no. I'd much rather be a part of a strong, unified and EQUAL conference where the members all respect and like each other (except for a few hours on gameday) and where I don't feel guilty about becoming a college football version of the NY Yankees, where any championship comes with an "*" affixed to it because it was bought and paid for on a very uneven playing field.

    We already have enough advantages as it is -- great school, great state, great program, huge fan base, tremendous facilities and funding, wonderful tradtion and brand, etc. We don't need to pile on with the LHN and uneven revenue sharing, especially if it means becoming hated and driving away all of our partners.

    And to do all of that for a network that will be buried somewhere between "Food Netork: Soups!" and "History of Canada" channels? And will mostly show clarinet recitals and the 1986 women's swimming conference championships?

    Pigs get fat and hogs get slaughtered. If DeLoss's grand plan was to end up in a conference with UH, Air Force and BYU (which appears the most likely result if aTm bolts), I'd say we are firmly in "hog" territory.
     
  2. Golden Steer

    Golden Steer 250+ Posts

    The LHN is the natural progression of the Texas atheltic department, which above all, wants money.

    Hey, you have to have that as a driver - things don't get build, or good people hired, on nice wishes. But in the short time since I graduated, there's been a slow slumping down to anything for a buck.

    The home game experience now feels like being a cow in a slaughter house. People with MBA's have sat down and studied every step I make, from leaving my car to getting back, and tried to figure out how to make a buck on it. From ads everwhere, so overpiced tickets, to selling names of practice fields, to stupid product tie-ins, to the horrid Ad-on tron, that whores products every five seconds at 30 more decidbes than the band.

    The LHN is just the logical extension of that. It's saying "How can we make some more money from these suckers, I mean our fans, when they're not availible at the stadium".

    Thing in, so far, the LHN is a total bust. It's availible exactly where? I hope all the money promised for it is guarteeed, at least as much as anything is, because I just don't see it making that much money. There's a market for 24/7 school specific TV - the Gators have one too - but it's a limited market, and after awhile of watching school golf games, and behind the scences shows of teens in UT gear lifting weights, the interest is going to fade.

    Money is the driver here. If we end up with a dead conference, with borning games, no national significantce besides the UT-OU game, dreadful home opponents and pitiful away venues (Ames, Lubbock, Little Apple, Waco, Topekam, etc), it still won't matter. Only when the cash flow decreases would something be changed. So in some ways, you have to hope the TV money that's been promised won't all show up, otherwise we're stuck in the plains version of the Big East.
     
  3. Hornithologist

    Hornithologist 100+ Posts

    I posted these same sentiments on another board recently and couldn't agree more. If we have to have huge financial advantages in order to win then something's really wrong. Besides, do we really want to send the message that it's all about the money? The NFL's got that covered.
     
  4. Zona Horn

    Zona Horn 500+ Posts

    Agree 100% Golden Steer. One thing that I used to like about college sports -- especially football -- was that the non-sports break-time entertainment was supplied by the band, the cheerleaders, BEVO, the canon and drum, etc. Basically just the whole pageantry of college football.

    Now, its devolved into an NBA game, with obnoxious commercials blasted so loud your ears bleed, hip-hop music that makes the old folks blush and want to go home, commercialism on every square inch of space, etc. It will only be a few more years before the "TEXAS" on the uniforms is replaced by "VERIZON" or "MILLER LITE", the way uniforms in europe are.

    Change is not always for the better. Right now the LHN has produced a lot of change, and so far all of it is for the worse.
     
  5. Golden Steer

    Golden Steer 250+ Posts

    SHHH. Don't give them any ideas. Not only could Texas be rep;aced with Coke, but you could get rid of the player's number in place of a product logo. Plus the helment - all that wasted space when it coluld have Nike swishes, Red McCombs car ads, and Joe Jamila ambulance chasing phone numbers on it?

    Sad thing is, if that happended, 1/2 this board would be strutting around about it, bragging about how much money it's bringing in.
     
  6. ronthebassman

    ronthebassman 25+ Posts

    Newsflash: The Big XII sucks. It deserves to die. If the LHN contributes to that in any way, I'll be a lifetime subscriber. Oh, and the Big XII sucked even WITH Nebraska and Colorado.

    You want respect and compelling games? Let's go independent, and schedule whoever the hell we want.

    Don't accept any of the blame for Aggy having delusions of grandeur and wanting to leave, it's not because of the LHN. It's because no one gives a **** about Aggy football, and they need something to generate some sort of interest. If anything, blame the Big XII for sucking so bad that Aggy is wanting to leave.
     
  7. Satchel

    Satchel 2,500+ Posts

    I hope it won''t be too late before Deloss figures out that all money is not good money.
     
  8. dusthorn

    dusthorn 25+ Posts


     
  9. Satchel

    Satchel 2,500+ Posts

    Through the 2005-2008 seasons, it appeared the conference was well positioned to challenge the SEC. It's a shame that what appeared so stable then has become something that only the desperate want to be part of.
     
  10. Hu_Fan

    Hu_Fan Guest

    Good thread. I have not been enthralled by the LHN.
     
  11. Burnt Orange Bevo

    Burnt Orange Bevo 1,000+ Posts

    DeLoss Dodds is probably the most powerful university AD in America. He has contemplated, exploited and monetized advantages available to The University of Texas athletic department in a spectacular way through The Longhorn Network. DeLoss seems to be a big believer in the golden rule... he who has the gold, makes the rules. Which is also ironic given that the UT endowment fund fortuitously put a large portion of its holdings into gold (2?) years ago. I tend to think that the great (robber?) barons of old like Carnegie and Rockefeller would be nodding their heads in approval were they alive in the present.

    In the investment world, there is always a hand-in-hand relationship between risk and reward, and DeLoss has shown a Texas-style penchant for going for the home run. It's clear that the LHN deal has been a stunning win for Texas athletics (at least in the monetary sense), but the flip side has been behind-the-scenes and now public disaffection of other schools who know that they can't match UT's success. So it's goodbye to A&M.

    DeLoss has basically forsaken the chummy collegiate mindset where while everyone and their ideas/feelings are valued equally in favor of a "seize the monetary high ground now while it's available" mentality. While I'm not entirely comfortable with the consequences of the LHN, it's exactly what Dodds has indicated he would do for the past several years. So the LHN should have come as no surprise to anyone (except apparently the Aggies).
     
  12. Oakhill Horn

    Oakhill Horn 250+ Posts


     
  13. agssuk

    agssuk 1,000+ Posts

    I agree. We have plenty of money and built in advantages. I dont want easy wins against garbage competition. I want to have the very best...Period. So, what we should do is, once aggy is officially gone, UT, OU, OSU, and TT go to the PAC-16, rewrite the LN contract, totally agree to equal sharing, while at the same time getting rid of the retarded half-step-cousin and the dead weight. Best of all worlds.
     
  14. dukesteer

    dukesteer 5,000+ Posts

    Folks, you cannot stop the inevitable. And, if you don't embrace change, the world will pass you by.

    Are we to apologize for having an enormously valuable brand? I don't think so.

    When the dust settles I predict that we will all be very pleased.
     
  15. johnnyg88

    johnnyg88 500+ Posts

    If you notice, K State will be televising one of their games online...and this is something you will be seeing from all schools as they figure it out. Deloss is just ahead of the curve...other schools will be doing the same thing...as long as others can and do, what's wrong with that?
     
  16. Whiterock Horn

    Whiterock Horn 1,000+ Posts

    Me hopes you are right. Meanwhile, though, there is a lot of uncertainty. I hope there is a solid plan of which we aren't currently aware.
     
  17. No le hace

    No le hace 500+ Posts


     
  18. Esmack

    Esmack 250+ Posts

    Tech, KU, and others should be worried...Deloss isn't because we are Texas...ANY league would take us...the ball is in our court-always...independent is sounding better and better to me...eff these jealous idiots
     
  19. Zona Horn

    Zona Horn 500+ Posts


     
  20. addicted to Horn

    addicted to Horn 1,000+ Posts

    Many say the LHN is an unfair advantage. So to is having a larger alumni base, larger stadium, etc. College football has never been about equality for all. The haves make money and the have nots fight to break even. There is nothing inherently unethical about the LHN. If it is unfair, then the NCAA should make a rule that no university can develop their own network. But if they do that, then they should also install a rule that says no conference should make more money in their tv deals than any other, as that creates an unfair advantage.
     
  21. Lake_Travis_Horn

    Lake_Travis_Horn 500+ Posts

    I agree with most of the sentiment on this thread. The unequal revenue sharing is short-term gain at the expense of long-term pain. Yeah, we want to win the conference, but we also want that to mean something. For that to happen, the rest of the conference has to have the capability to at least be competitive.

    The biggest problem in the corporate world is its short-term focus. (Having joined a privately-owned company after many years in large corporations, the difference is starkly clear.) Dodds seems to be taking the corporate approach - maximize the short-term at the expense of the long. People are already getting disenchanted at the crap described above and ultimately it may manifest itself as reduced interest and support.
     
  22. Horn_in_Toronto

    Horn_in_Toronto 250+ Posts

    I don't understand the line of thinking that is being expressed here. You guys feel that Texas was wrong in going for the LHN and the associated money. By that logic Texas should never avail any new revenue opportunities unless other Big-12 schools benefit from it too.

    Maybe you would like Texas to split the money it earns from sales of University related items and merchandise, with other schools in the conference? That would be fair thing to do and show that money is not important to the university, and that we are determine to keep the Big-12 fair for all. How about splitting the PUF equally with other schools in the state of Texas, that would be the fair thing to do.

    With the LHN Texas did exactly the right thing. The Texas brand can support a network, ESPN saw that and made a bold, game changing move to set it up. Texas did not break any contracts or agreements, neither did it hurt any other program in the Big-12. It's not like aggy or anyone else stands to lose money because ESPN will take it away from them and give to Texas.

    Oh and by the way the LHN was set up AFTER Nebraska and CU bolted. And the BIg-12 did not lay any requirement that any university could not have its own network, it just so happens that Texas was the only one that had the brand appeal to support its own network.

    The LHN is how the future will be. Expect to see more universities to set up their own networks. Can you imagine the Pac-12 really standing in the USC's way if ESPN wanted to give USC a huge deal for a Trojan network? Despite all the rhetoric of not allowing individual school networks, the Pac-12 would probably cave to ESPN/USC.

    You either lead the way or you get left behind in the dust. Texas is leading the way, and as galling as it might be for aggy and other schools, Texas is leading the way that other schools would gladly and happily follow, if given their own opportunity. That my friends is capitalism in operation.

    BTW on the only school in the Big-12 that is raising the stink about the LHN is aggy, all the others seem to be OK with it. Aggy will never be happy about the LHN no matter how many restrictions the NCAA places on it.

    I think the LHN is a great idea and I hope it succeeds. Texas has nothing to apologize for in creating this groundbreaking, game changing partnership with ESPN.
     
  23. Satchel

    Satchel 2,500+ Posts

    A&M is the only school not afraid to express its disapproval of the LHN. The others are too afraid to say anything.
     
  24. Tri-Stone

    Tri-Stone 25+ Posts

    That sounds like something you'd read on Texags. What exactly are the other schools afraid of? It UT going to get violent or something?
     
  25. Rex Kramer

    Rex Kramer 1,000+ Posts


     
  26. Rex Kramer

    Rex Kramer 1,000+ Posts


     
  27. Rex Kramer

    Rex Kramer 1,000+ Posts


     
  28. Horn_in_Toronto

    Horn_in_Toronto 250+ Posts

    What Rex said!
     
  29. Bronco

    Bronco 500+ Posts

    I see both sides of this argument. Right now I fall on the side that the LHN is a bad idea.

    It is the law of unintended consequences. Sure Texas made a bold move with the LHN and stands to make some seriuos money (I really dont know if it is guaranteed or not. I thought Texas got a percentage of profits over a certain level and the numbers being thrown around were projections not guarantees. I could certainly be wrong). But, it absolutely handcuffs Texas' options going forward.

    If the Big 12 folds, where does Texas go? PAC 10 says no with the LHN. Big 10 says no with the LHN. SEC says no with the LHN. Whats left? ACC or Big East? Those make no snese at all and they might say no as well.

    Independent? What BCS conference team is going to travel to Austin in early November right in the meat of their conference schedule? They dont need the money as their conferences all pay them well. On top of that, it is impossible to predict the backlash of Texas appearing greedy in this situation and other teams being pissed and refusing to schedule. People like to say ND can schedule as an independent but they have 7 or so games built in every year that they have been playing for decades.

    Surely the OU game will survive, but even that may be difficult.

    IMO, Texas should have done a Big 12 network and asked for a higher percentage of the pie based on subscriptions or some other formula.
     
  30. Zona Horn

    Zona Horn 500+ Posts


     

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