Will the addition of the new members to the conference next season cost us money?
The Big 12 media contracts no longer have a clause to increase payouts if new members are added. These clauses were removed after the Big 12 originally decided (in conjunction with our media partners and UT/OU) not to expand and instead add a conference championship game. Without these clauses or an amended contract, I don't see how the media companies are obligated to pay the conference more money to pay for our additional members. Here is a SI article from 2016 discussing the original contracts. the additional member clause and our partner's issues with expansion. Here is an article of the Conference getting what it wanted in Championship Game Negotiation from 2016. Another recent article mentioning that the pro-rata clause was negotiated out of the contract.
The conference's relationship with ESPN was strained during the last round of expansion and escalated to the point of the conference issuing a Cease and Desist Order. In a recent article there was discussion with BYU about bringing their existing contract with ESPN into the Big 12 deal, but those talks with ESPN had not occurred. Unlike most conference expansions it does not appear that we are working hand-in-hand with our media partners in this process (that is for good reason, they wanted to kill us). We know that the media companies did not want to pay for the conference to expand with these members in 2016 because they didn't want to pay them a Big 12 contract rate, but in desperate times we acted anyway. I am skeptical that the media companies are going to pay us more for inventory they didn't push for (or want) in a conference that they wanted to kill without any contractual obligations to do so.
I went cruising the new addition press releases and sites and couldn't find much discussion of actual dollars. It sounds like the new members will have a phase in process that will not have them receiving the full member share until 2025. However all details as far as actual dollars they are likely to receive next year and into the future remain fuzzy.
Houston: Pezman also said that UH will be a fully vested Big 12 member, receiving the full payout from the conference, beginning in year three. Pezman declined to reveal what the payout will look like during the University’s first two years in the Big 12.
Cinci: "When the new television contract is completed in 2025, we will be a full member at that time... I won't talk specific numbers on what that might be..." - Cinci AD John Cunningham
A frequent poster on the Cinci site was saying that it would be a 50% share for the 4 new additions paid out of the held money from UT/OU's exit fees... but I am not sure if he knew what he was talking about.
Maybe, this all gets worked out smoothly. Maybe we reach a deal with ESPN/FOX. I don't know, but it seems to be an issue worth monitoring. Maybe somebody at media days can bring it up and see if we can get a response.
The Big 12 media contracts no longer have a clause to increase payouts if new members are added. These clauses were removed after the Big 12 originally decided (in conjunction with our media partners and UT/OU) not to expand and instead add a conference championship game. Without these clauses or an amended contract, I don't see how the media companies are obligated to pay the conference more money to pay for our additional members. Here is a SI article from 2016 discussing the original contracts. the additional member clause and our partner's issues with expansion. Here is an article of the Conference getting what it wanted in Championship Game Negotiation from 2016. Another recent article mentioning that the pro-rata clause was negotiated out of the contract.
The conference's relationship with ESPN was strained during the last round of expansion and escalated to the point of the conference issuing a Cease and Desist Order. In a recent article there was discussion with BYU about bringing their existing contract with ESPN into the Big 12 deal, but those talks with ESPN had not occurred. Unlike most conference expansions it does not appear that we are working hand-in-hand with our media partners in this process (that is for good reason, they wanted to kill us). We know that the media companies did not want to pay for the conference to expand with these members in 2016 because they didn't want to pay them a Big 12 contract rate, but in desperate times we acted anyway. I am skeptical that the media companies are going to pay us more for inventory they didn't push for (or want) in a conference that they wanted to kill without any contractual obligations to do so.
I went cruising the new addition press releases and sites and couldn't find much discussion of actual dollars. It sounds like the new members will have a phase in process that will not have them receiving the full member share until 2025. However all details as far as actual dollars they are likely to receive next year and into the future remain fuzzy.
Houston: Pezman also said that UH will be a fully vested Big 12 member, receiving the full payout from the conference, beginning in year three. Pezman declined to reveal what the payout will look like during the University’s first two years in the Big 12.
Cinci: "When the new television contract is completed in 2025, we will be a full member at that time... I won't talk specific numbers on what that might be..." - Cinci AD John Cunningham
A frequent poster on the Cinci site was saying that it would be a 50% share for the 4 new additions paid out of the held money from UT/OU's exit fees... but I am not sure if he knew what he was talking about.
Maybe, this all gets worked out smoothly. Maybe we reach a deal with ESPN/FOX. I don't know, but it seems to be an issue worth monitoring. Maybe somebody at media days can bring it up and see if we can get a response.
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