It was just a matter of time before this came up but it has finally reared its ugly head. The Big 12's fat television contract is about to get even fatter and the Iowa State Cyclones want a bigger piece of the pie.
Under the current agreement half of the $50 million dollars from the conference's television contract is split evenly among the twelve schools and the other half is place in a pool to be awarded to schools based on their number of television appearances.
Big 12 allocation (2005-06):
- Texas: $9.68 million
- Oklahoma: $9.09 million
- Texas A&M: $8.23 million
- Nebraska: $7.81 million
- Colorado: $7.64 million
- Iowa State: $7.34 million
- Kansas: $7.28 million
- Texas Tech: $6.79 million
- Baylor: $6.63 million
- Okla. State: $6.62 million
- Missouri: $6.53 million
- Kansas State: $6.47 million
The only reason the Big 12 is about to get the new contract is because Oklahoma, Texas and Nebraska have earned it for the conference on the football field with Texas, Kansas and arguably Texas A&M earning it on the basketball court.
There is nothing wrong with the system and there shouldn't be a change. There is an easy solution though for the Cyclones, get better! It's pretty simple. The more you are on TV the more money you get. The better your team is the more you get on TV. Before anyone rebuttals with the, "We can't get better without money!" argument let me remind you that Kansas State was in the Fiesta Bowl just a few seasons ago and look where they finished in the money ranking.
Instead of trying to steal money out of the pockets of the schools who are the cash cows for the Big 12 why not thank them for sharing their BCS bowl and NCAA Tournament revenue and for scoring a fat television contract so that your school can already pocket money they didn't earn.
The definition of a parasite is something that feeds off its host. Please, Iowa State don't go down that road.