big 12 to get their own network?

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It's all Big 12, all the time

If Big Ten Channel proves a success, then why not this region?

11:02 PM CDT on Thursday, August 10, 2006

As Big 12 football teams gear up for the coming season, there's an even bigger game plan being formulated in the league's headquarters.

Contract negotiations with ABC and ESPN will begin next spring. Much has changed in the TV game since the current contract was signed.

Last month, the Big Ten announced a new TV deal with ABC and ESPN. But the big news was a deal with Fox called the Big Ten Channel.

Starting in August 2007, anyone with DirecTV will be able to get 24 hours a day of Big Ten programming on mini-satellite dish. There will also be a big push to get the Big Ten Channel on most cable systems.

The only football and basketball games shown on the Big Ten Channel will be the matchups passed over by the big networks. The rest of the time, it will show nonrevenue sports and probably a lot of filler.

Still, the plans are to show at least 35 football and 105 men's basketball games a year on the Big Ten Channel. That's enough to get thousands of Big Ten sports fanatics salivating – and calling their cable companies begging for the channel.

The Big Ten's coaching staffs must be drooling, as well. Coaches can pitch to recruits that the Big Ten has its own channel. Get Grandma a satellite dish, and she can watch your games back home in Florida.

It's not just the Big Ten getting into the satellite-cable business. The Mountain West Conference will unveil its own regional sports network this fall.

If those conferences can do it, why not the Big 12?

Imagine 24/7, 365 days a year of nothing but Big 12 programming. Forget the Today Show – rise and shine with the Red Raiders. Get your Longhorns fix at lunchtime, your Aggies in the afternoon and the Bears at bedtime.

New fathers would more willing to handle those 3 a.m. feedings if they can hold the bottle while watching a replay of Saturday's Iowa State-Kansas game.

Even better: No more pay-per-view. If a game isn't picked up by the networks, it will be on the Big 12 Channel.

The Big Ten is a natural for its own channel, because it encompasses so many large markets and its fans are unceasingly devoted. The Big 12 doesn't have the population base of the Big Ten, but it does have substantial satellite penetration because of so many rural areas.

"We do have a region that can support something like that," Big 12 commissioner Kevin Weiberg said. "We have passionate fans, and we do have a lot of the attributes to support that structure."

It remains to be seen whether the Big Ten Channel will be a success. It's a matter of costs versus exposure. But at the same time, the Big 12 doesn't want to be left without a channel if that's the trend.

There's another option for the Big 12 to increase its exposure. Fox is now the network of the BCS, but it doesn't have regular season college football.

Could the Big 12 become Fox's showcase conference, the way the Southeastern Conference is on CBS? (The Big 12 already has a cable deal with Fox Sports Net that runs through 2011-12.)

With a network all to itself, there would be no more split national football telecasts as there are with ABC. Every national game would truly be national. That's one of the things the Big Ten just negotiated with ABC – any split national Big Ten games would be shown on ESPN or ESPN2 in markets that aren't carrying its games over the air.

The risk of going with Fox means losing ties with ABC and ESPN, networks college sports fans have been conditioned to turn to. It also might mean losing Big Monday basketball games on ESPN. Would the increased exposure of football on Fox be worth losing Big Monday for the Big 12?

Weiberg said Fox has expressed an interest, but there haven't been any talks, because ABC and ESPN have an exclusive negotiating window. However, a good game-planner always anticipates adjustments.

"We'll do our due diligence in terms of what our options will be," Weiberg said.

Those options keep changing as fast as technology does. It's not just television anymore that can maximize revenue and exposure. There's the Internet, satellite radio, iPods. The day is coming when you can watch games on your cellphone.

Traditional TV is still the biggest piece of the pie. Last year, the Big 12 made $50 million from television, or about half its total revenue.

"We would never envision a day when we would not have national broadcast exposure for our major sports," Weiberg said. "It is a changing environment. It requires you to think about it differently."

With television negotiations looming, the Big 12 has a lot to think about.

E-mail kwhitmire@dallasnews.com