Connect with us

Football

Fox Speaks Out Against Big 12 Expansion, Monday Could Be Dramatic

Published

on

I think this might be the first time we have an executive from either FOX or ESPN — the two companies the Big 12 currently has TV contracts with — speaking out against Big 12 expansion. Of course the Big 12 is seemingly about to follow that up by, you know, expanding because the Big 12 will always Big 12 so hard.

Anyway, here’s Eric Shanks, president of FOX Sports.

“We don’t think expansion in the Big 12 is a good idea for the conference,” Shanks told Sports Business Daily. “We think it will be dilutive to the product in the short term. In the long term, it’s probably harmful to the future of the conference. Who knows where expansion is going to go. Reading the smoke signals, [expansion talk has] cooled off. I don’t know why. We’re still in discussions with them. We still have a long way to go in the deal. We’ll work through it the best way that we can.”

Now the Big 12 will hold a press conference on Monday afternoon to announce … something. BYU tweeted about it which implies pretty hard that BYU will be prominently involved.

But according to various sources, this is far from a done deal (even now with today’s announcement at 5 p.m.). Here’s my man Dennis Dodd at CBS Sports on the situation.

Officials at the highest level of the Big 12 have indicated to CBS Sports over the past few weeks that they have no idea which way things are headed. One person with intimate knowledge of the process said there was a “fairly good” chance expansion may be tabled, then quickly added, “I have no idea what’s going to happen.”

I still think the Big 12 could be playing chicken with FOX and ESPN. There is a sense that not only are those networks not excited about programming with BYU or Cincinnati, but they might be willing to pay more money to the Big 12 for it to not happen.

How crazy would that be? The Big 12 could presumably pad its revenue by $1 billion over the next 10 years because of clauses in its contracts with ESPN and FOX which is of course enticing. But you would also be pissing off two partners who you will have to eventually re-negotiate with.

Maybe that ship has already sailed. Maybe Shanks and his colleagues at ESPN are already so angry that none of this even matters. Monday’s announcement (of lack thereof) will be really intriguing, and either way, it looks like the Big 12 will increase its revenue flow in the short term. I just wonder if it will even be around in the long term to realize the benefit.

Most Read

Copyright © 2011- 2023 White Maple Media