I hate to take any attention away from our big win last night, especially with more realignment talk, but the Austin American Statesman is reporting this morning that the Pac 12 is finalizing a deal to bring OU, OSU, UT and Texas Tech to the conference. According to their report, nothing as been accepted or approved, but it is believed that the parameters of the deal in place would allow for the Longhorn Network to continue to exist (though the AAS says UT would have to add Pac 12, or 16, programming to their content).
The Longhorns would be able to keep all of their revenue from the network if that amount is greater than one-sixteenth of what the entire Pac-12 receives for its third-tier rights. However, if one-sixteenth of the money the Pac-12 receives from third-tier rights ends up being a larger amount, the schools would divide the revenue evenly and everybody would receive the same amount, the source said.
"Nothing has been definitively confirmed. But that’s in the zip code," a source very familiar with the realignment discussions said Sunday. "This is not yet a done deal. It appears that (Pac-12 commissioner) Larry Scott is going to be able to work some magic and help Texas keep the Longhorn Network and their revenue stream."
As of right now, the conference is discussing an alignment where teams would play nine conference games. Teams would play every other team in their pod along with two teams from each of the other three pods.
If the Longhorns were in Pod A, they would play the other Pod A teams (Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech) every year. They would also play two teams from Pod B, Pod C and Pod D, bringing the total to nine conference games every year.
It is believed the championship game would be decided by overall conference record, meaning any two teams could play in the championship game on a given year.
According to a high ranking school administrator at one of the four Big 12 schools, the Pac-12 has said it will limit the extra-long trips to one per year for every team.
With the news over the weekend of Pitt and Syracuse joining the ACC, and now news that UConn is actively looking to join them, coupled with the regents meeting on Monday of both OU and UT officials it would seem the framework of CFB as we know it is about to implode. I would expect both school's regents to vote tomorrow to give the university presidents the authority needed to make the move west and then it's just a matter of time.
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