Meeting yesterday in Dallas to settle the Big 12’s latest squabbles, the league’s athletic directors agreed unanimously on a minimum one-year moratorium on any broadcast of high school content on a member’s media outlet.
The new ESPN-owned Longhorn Network had planned to televise 18 high school games this fall, but some coaches and school officials from other Big 12 members believe the broadcasts would give Texas unfair recruiting advantages. The most outspoken dissent has come from historic UT rival Texas A&M.
The athletic directors recommended the Big 12 board of directors request the NCAA explore the topic further and establish a one-year national moratorium on broadcasting high school games. The Big 12 will extend its moratorium until the NCAA makes a formal decision on whether it’s permissible for schools to broadcast high school games on their networks.
“The ADs recognize that this issue is complex,” the Big 12’s statement read, “and involves a detailed analysis of the recruiting model in many areas, including existing NCAA legislation related to the publicity of prospective student-athletes and the rapidly evolving world of technology. This process will take an extended period of analysis.”
The NCAA will host a one-day summit with officials from various schools and conferences Aug. 22 in Indianapolis to discuss media arrangements involving high school broadcasts.
The Longhorn Network’s other divisive proposal is still on the table, with some caveats. The athletic directors discovered there might be contractual opportunities to allow for more than one football game to be televised on a school’s network, including a conference game.
The Longhorn Network initially planned to televise only one Texas football game this year — the Longhorns’ season opener against Rice — but ESPN later acquired Fox’s cable rights to one of Texas’ conference games and plans to televise it this season. For that to happen, the athletic directors decided both schools and the conference office must agree to the televised matchup. Plus, the other members of the conference would be rewarded financially.
ESPN will pay Texas $300 million over 20 years for the network, which launches Aug. 26. In June, an ESPN executive incited an uproar over the LHN’s plans when he said the network would target games involving specific players whom Texas is recruiting. During an interview on Austin radio station KZNX-FM, Dave Brown, the LHN’s vice president of programming, mentioned unsigned UT commitments Johnathan Gray and Connor Brewer as players whose teams LHN would like to feature.
ESPN released a statement yesterday saying, “As we’ve said, we recognize the need for ongoing discussion to properly address the questions raised by the conference. The Longhorn Network will televise unprecedented coverage of more than 200 UT athletics events annually plus a variety of dynamic, relevant programming.”
Had the LHN been cleared to broadcast high school games, it might have become the tipping point for Texas A&M’s departure from the Big 12. Aggies beat writer Brent Zwerneman wrote yesterday that he expected A&M to switch conferences if its demands weren’t met regarding the LHN.
“The Aggies are opposed to the LHN airing a Big 12 football game, and they’re especially opposed to the LHN airing high school games,” wrote Zwerneman, who covers the Aggies for the San Antonio Express-News and the Houston Chronicle. “Should the ESPN-owned LHN press forward with plans to do both — and right now the Big 12 has put those plans on hold — I expect the Aggies to announce they’re bolting the Big 12 for the Southeastern Conference.”
At last week’s Big 12 media days in Dallas, Missouri Coach Gary Pinkel was the most outspoken critic of the LHN’s plans to televise high school games.
“You’re going to sit there and show high school games? You’re going to advertise your school on there, where you list all the great recruits you have on there?” he said. “You can do anything you want on there. There’s just no common sense there. That can’t happen. Are you kidding me? … What are we doing here?”
