"Conference realignment: An ESPN conference?"

From ksl.com

Review by Chad Byers in KIN 332 (Section 1)

The uncertainty in college football has caused a giant conference realignment and has showed what college football has become—a giant cash-cow where every party has a substantial amount of greed.

This greed stems primarily off of multi-million dollar tv contracts which is split throughout the conference. The foreseeable end of the Big 12 shows the obvious problem with uneven revenue shares in a conference. The creation of the Longhorn Network angered so many of its members that the conference will most likely split in the near future.

But the Longhorn Network has opened up doors to ESPN that few have realized. This ESPN affiliate network has essentially taken out the middle man (conferences) and now there is a direct revenue line between ESPN and Texas. If this tool was used correctly it could mean an increased profit stream for both parties to gain from. The article Conference realignment: An ESPN conference? tells of the behind the scenes conversations that are going on with ESPN and universities that have the capabilities of sustaining their own private network. This network would enable the universities to get more national recognition through coverage on ESPN networks. Also would generate more revenue because they would not have to split TV contracts throughout a 12-team conference.

Furthermore this would generate a higher profit line for ESPN because they would lose a substantial part of overhead costs by essentially outsourcing their network to each universities own network. There are 5 premiere BCS schools that already have a network or capabilities to operate on on campus. Texas of course has already created one. Oklahoma just spent 5 million dollars creating an HD soonervision facility, with HD and fiber optic cords. Penn State, Notre Damn, and BYU all have small satellite networks that could easily be adapted into an ESPN affiliate. Many schools have these small in house networks; Liberty University even has one at the FCS level.

The combination of ESPN and independent schools united together could eventually be the end of the BCS. It would destroy the formula of the BCS—since the formula of the BCS is primarily predicated off of conference structures. The strength of conference is very important, notice that an SEC team has been in the national championship for the last 5 years.

Just as every other scenario trying to predict what is going on this is just a scenario but a very realistic scenario that no one is thinking about. The reason that this theory is not more prevalent is simple—why would ESPN (the only source of sporting information) talk about this possibility until it actually comes to fruition.