Seems like a leverage play to me, but this could help with ESPN's east coast bias:
(first four are dumb)Chip Brown
Orangebloods.com Columnist
Talk about it in Inside the 40 Acres
Sources told Orangebloods.com on Tuesday that Texas is looking more and more to the east and the Atlantic Coast Conference as a potential home if the Big 12 falls apart with Oklahoma and Oklahoma State staring down the Pac-12 and Texas A&M counting down the days until it can join the Southeastern Conference.
Here are 5 reasons why the ACC could make more sense for Texas than the Pac-12:
5. The Longhorn Network
This could easily be No. 1 on the list. It's that important for Texas to hold together LHN.
It will be a bit of a sales job and will require the help of ESPN, but in all likelihood Texas can keep the Longhorn Network and its revenue ($15 million per year for 20 years) by going to the ACC, something the Pac-12 would be unwilling to consider.
The ACC is in the first year of a new, 12-year deal with ESPN, which controls the Tier 1, 2 and 3 TV rights in the ACC. And with no Big 12 left to spend money on (in all likelihood), ESPN can probably help make the Longhorn Network palatable to the ACC by giving the ACC a break-the-bank television deal with Texas on board that will blow the ACC members away.
Consider it a reward to the ACC for accepting Texas' unique revenue stream. But there would be incentive for the ACC to take Texas. The Southeastern Conference and Big Ten stand to poach schools out of the ACC if it appears the college arms race is leading to 16-team super conferences.
The ACC could help fortify its walls by adding Texas and a school like Kansas.
FINAL ANALYSIS: While everyone is asking why Texas wouldn't simply head to the Pac-12 with Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech like they were about to do last summer until the 11th hour, a lot has changed that must be considered.
Texas now has the Longhorn Network, which UT's administration and regents are enamored with for a number of reasons, including a $5 million contribution to academics for the first five years of UT's 20-year deal with ESPN.
And the Pac-12 now has a series of regional networks that are not compatible with LHN. The Pac-12 also has the most restrictive "all rights in" agreement of any conference in the BCS. The Pac-12 even has the rights to its members' web sites.
Texas has been monetizing its own web site for years. So with LHN in pulling in $15 million in revenue on its own annually, for Texas to strip down LHN and share revenue with another school and the Pac-12, it would be like going from a free-market economy to socialism.
And no one at UT is looking to take a pay cut in a new conference home. If Texas is making between $30 million and $33 million per year right now in the Big 12, the Longhorns will be looking to make that same money elsewhere.
Texas is trying to convince Oklahoma and Oklahoma State to look east (ACC) - not west (Pac-12). Right now, OU is not thinking that way. Don't rule out Kansas as a possible ACC target.
It's time for Texas fans and faithful to start getting their heads around a possible move to the ACC. It's by no means a done deal. But it's looking more and more like Option No. 1 for the Longhorns if the Big 12 falls apart.
Stay tuned.