And Scott and Weiberg made one critical mistake in the courtship of the Big 12. Other than its somewhat foggy math that a 16-team Pac-10 could readily get to $20 million in TV revenue per school, they wanted to substitute Kansas for Oklahoma State late in the process, according to multiple sources in the Big 12.
Texas was really starting to feel queasy now, sources said. UT officials knew deep down Texas A&M wasn't coming to the Pac-10, despite Bill Byrne's assurances, according to sources. And now Scott and Weiberg were looking to dump Oklahoma State in favor of Kansas. If A&M was a no-show, the Pac-10 would add Utah. Scott was looking to add new TV markets, not stick to the deal that was agreed upon a few days earlier.
According to sources who talked to me Tuesday (two days after the fact), Dodds and Plonsky couldn't stop thinking about all the negatives. And now they were dealing with a wheeler-dealer Pac-10 commissioner who wanted to sub out Boone Pickens' Cowboys for the chance to grab the 8 million households in the state of Missouri.
Look, we all have our biases. Ours are mired in a pro-CU stance, but I'd still argue as a fan base we've managed a little more objectivity than this guy who is obviously closer to the source. As we've all noted, he's a mouthpiece of the UT AD. The Texas fanbase appear to be pissed at this deal, based on a sampling of fan chit sites, and the UT leadership are anxious to paint the Pac 10 negotiators as the bad guys, and themselves as the ones who saved the day.
What's the truth? Who knows, but this looks like an obvious attempt to counter earlier reports that the Pac 10 backed out because Texas made a power/money grab in the "11th hour".
He can say CU fans' efforts to spin our result are pointless, we're clearly losers. But if I'm not mistaken, we'll make more money than we would have had we stayed in the status quo. We're in a conference for which we're more culturally and academically suited.
Here's my big question for you guys who are smart on this. Chippy keeps referencing our 15 million dollar payout. Is that really a payout, or revenues lost by not being in the Big XII to collect TV revenue? If we give away our Big XII revenue, fine, we should be collecting in another conference (starting 2012, at least--perhaps sooner).
College football leadership should remember that all of this revenue is dependent on a good product. Folks won't pay for a bad one. So this notion that Chip can laugh at the desperate members of the conference for giving up their share of revenue to UT, aTm, and OU is great, except it widens the gap of capabilities within the conference. How can this not water down the product on the field? It's a money grab which deteriorates the game, which ultimately has to affect revenue, right?
To me this looks like Chip's attempt to stop the bleeding. The fans are angry and he's anxious to paint CU and nebraska as the bad guys, not Texas.
But really, CU and nebraska only wanted to escape to a conference where their teams shared an equal voice, and they had an opportunity to build a team and compete on equal footing. Furthermore-- depending on whom you believe--Texas had a chance to better the world of college football, but just wasn't willing to play fair (and what's fair, if they bring more fans to the tube, do they deserve more...I don't know) with its new conference mates.
So tell me how Colorado and nebraska are the villains again?
Shame on you Chip. The fans know the truth.