COLLEGE STATION – The Longhorn Network, more than a month before its scheduled start, already has at least one rapt audience: rival Texas A&M.
A&M has added a closed-door session concerning the Longhorn Network to its regents’ regularly-scheduled meeting on Thursday and Friday, a person with knowledge of the situation said Monday. The agenda item is dubbed “Big 12 Conference.”
The execution session will be informational only, including concerning UT’s plans to air a Big 12 football game on the ESPN-owned network, and to potentially air high school games, the insider said. No action will be taken, the person added, the regents will simply be informed of the latest by lawyers concerning the deep-pocketed network.
The insider said A&M is committed, for now, to making a 10-team Big 12 work, and that the threat of a potential move to the Southeastern Conference is not in the immediate future. The Aggies nearly bolted the Big 12 for the SEC last summer, after Nebraska left for the Big Ten and Colorado for the Pac-12, before last-hour financial pledges for the remaining members by Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe kept the league intact.
The A&M insider added, however, that UT’s network, funded by ESPN, might put the league’s other nine schools at disadvantages on multiple fronts, and A&M is leading the way in checking every possibility – and also leaving its long-term options open should the league appear to have one dominating member thanks primarily to the unprecedented network. The Longhorn Network is a 20-year, $300 million partnership between ESPN, UT and IMG College.
The network is scheduled to crank up on Aug. 26 with a two-hour show from the UT campus, followed by the Longhorns’ volleyball season opener against Pepperdine in Austin. The network is scheduled to air two UT football games: the season opener against Rice on Sept. 3, and the to-be-determined Big 12 game.
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