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Estimated read time: 6-7 minutes<\/p>\n
PROVO – When BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe and university president Kevin Worthen walked into the boardrooms at the Big 12 Conference’s annual spring meetings in Dallas, Texas, he took a seat at a table with fellow college athletic directors in a Power Five conference for the first time in the Cougars’ athletic department history.<\/p>\n
It may have been the longest walk of his life, too.<\/p>\n
But finally, after a decade of wandering in the wilderness of football independence, and after roaming the college athletic hinterlands of the Mountain West, Western Athletic and even Skyline conferences (to name just a few), the Cougars finally had something they’ve been looking for: a seat at the table.<\/p>\n
Holmoe didn’t vote in any proceedings during the two days’ worth of meetings of his cohorts as they charted the future of the league, for both next year and beyond, in those rooms. But he did have a voice, similar to fellow newcomers Cincinnati, Houston and UCF, and had the ability to argue on BYU’s behalf of one of the top-five conferences in North American college sports.<\/p>\n
“This is everything BYU has tried to get,” BYUtv analyst Dave McCann said earlier this week. “All this time, it’s been, ‘How do we get in the room?’ They went independent as a means to put them in the best position to some day get invited into the room. “<\/p>\n
So what happened in Dallas that is so important? There was no final decision made on the lingering question surrounding a return to divisions, either in football or in other sports, and some topics involved discussion among all 14 members, the new Big 12 allotment, after Texas and Oklahoma depart for the Southeastern Conference no latter than 2025.<\/p>\n
\nSchovanec says expectation is to have new Big 12 commissioner announced at football media days July 13-14. Everything tracks that direction, he said.<\/p>\n
– Guerin Emig (@GuerinEmig) June 3, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n
New faces in the league<\/h2>\n
BYU is scheduled to join the Big 12 on July 1, 2023; and while it’s been assumed that the three current members of the American Athletic Conference would join them, that’s been doubted somewhat lately as the three schools work through a buyout process with the league that would otherwise keep them locked into a grant-of-rights until July 1, 2024.<\/p>\n
Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby used the word “aspirationally” when referring to the three AAC schools, and Texas Tech president Lawrence Schovanec added that an early departure of OU and Texas is “premature,” at best.<\/p>\n
“It would be premature to even speculate how that might play out,” Schovanec said, for Tulsa World columnist Guerin Emig<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Speaking of Bowlsby, the long-time college athletics administrator is retiring before BYU joins the league next summer, and Schovanec said the conference is trending to finalize his replacement by the time they meet again for football media days in July. The long-time athletic administrator even estimated he has between 30-90 days on the job.<\/p>\n
“Everything tracks that direction,” Schovanec said.<\/p>\n
\n\nBig 12 announces an average distribution of $ 42.6 million per member for the 2021-22 fiscal year. That’s about a 20% increase over the COVID-impacted 2020-21 year.<\/p>\n
– Chuck Carlton (@ChuckCarltonDMN) June 3, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n
New TV deal<\/h2>\n
Of course, that also tracks with the timeline for the Big 12 to begin negotiating a new television and media rights deal with ESPN, or whichever broadcaster makes the best pitch to the league (be it FOX, CBS, Amazon, Google, et al) .<\/p>\n
The league’s current deal with ESPN runs through June 30, 2025; and while official negotiations on a new deal won’t begin until early 2024, there are preliminary conversations to be held before then, and the new commission will be the face of those conversations.<\/p>\n
“That is crucial to the conference,” Schovanec told the Dallas Morning News. “We all recognize the marketplace is evolving and there are shifting places in the media landscape. As we begin to develop a media strategy, the new leadership needs to have a voice in that, they need to bring leadership to that conversation.”<\/p>\n
Of course, how much the new league is worth without Texas and Oklahoma is also up for debate. The Big 12 announced that average distribution<\/a> to each member school for the 2021-22 fiscal year at $ 42.6 million, which represents a 20% increase from the COVID-affected 2020-21 year.<\/p>\n
That’s more than all but two other conferences from the same period, according to USA Today’s Steve Berkowitz<\/a>: the SEC made $ 105 million last year, and the ACC $ 82 million. The Big 12 lost around $ 53 million after operating costs, per Berkowitz, while the Big Ten lost $ 89 million and the Pac-12 $ 190 million.<\/p>\n
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