![]() If Kansas beats Kansas State on the night of Nov. Kansas must beat the Kansas State Wildcats in a rivalry game at Bill Snyder Family Stadium in Manhattan, KS, on Nov. If Texas can beat Baylor, that will put the onus on Kansas on Nov. There are two things that must come to fruition in the next couple of days to get Texas into the Big 12 title game.įirst, the Longhorns must take care of business at home on Nov. 3? Texas football’s path to the Big 12 Championship Game 4 ranked and undefeated TCU Horned Frogs in Arlington, TX, on Dec. So, what is the path for the Longhorns to get a spot in the Big 12 Championship Game to face the No. Yet, despite losing three games in Big 12 play already this season, the Longhorns are still eligible for a spot in the conference title game next weekend heading into this Black Friday matchup against Baylor. Meanwhile, Baylor comes into Week 13 eliminated from the race for a spot in the Big 12 Championship Game. Bijan led the Longhorns to a 55-14 decimation of Kansas. Texas is coming off a dominating win over the Kansas Jayhawks on the road in Lawrence in Week 12, behind the efforts of star junior running back Bijan Robinson who had a career day. 25 regular season finale at home at DKR in Austin with a record of 7-4 (5-3 Big 12). Sark and the Longhorns head into this Nov. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium on Black Friday (Nov. 23 ranked Texas hosts the unranked Baylor Bears and head coach Dave Aranda at home at Darrell K. That allows them to be aggressive in chasing even lower-tier rights like the Big 12 ones here, and in signing deals like this one that might not have worked in a linear TV-only world.Texas football and head coach Steve Sarkisian are looking to end the regular season on a high note by building a two-game winning streak coming out of this holiday week. And it’s worth considering the flexibility that ESPN+ provides ESPN overall they have no channel limits on what they can put there, and anything that will drive even a few subscribers is probably worth putting there. The SBJ piece mentions that streaming was never discussed in the initial negotiations here over a year ago, but that the launch of ESPN+ last April presented a possible solution for both sides. All in all, this looks like a creative way to bridge this gap, giving ESPN useful content for ESPN+ while giving the Big 12 more money than the championship games alone would have brought in after Fox’s exit from that bidding process.Īnd this deal is a good reminder that networks and conferences both tend to have the ability to make deals on other fronts if one set of negotiations stalls. And it gave ESPN significant football and basketball content they can now put on ESPN+ to drive subscriptions there. ![]() This deal also gave the Big 12 what’s essentially a conference network, just one on ESPN+ rather than as a linear channel. The SBJ article has Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby calling this “the last beachfront property,” or the last significant rights available for a while, and that seems about right consider DAZN executive chairman John Skipper’s recent comments on how much is locked up for the next few years. But they include over 50 exclusive events per year from the remaining schools (with Baylor, Kansas, Kansas State, and Oklahoma State starting next year, and the remaining schools starting the following year), including a home football game each.Īnd that’s definitely a way for ESPN to gain here, as this represents the biggest NCAA rights that they’ve been able to put behind the ESPN+ paywall so far, and the biggest move they can make there for some time. Over time, however, after the April 2018 launch of ESPN+, it became apparent that the streaming service could provide a solution to bridge the gap on price.Īs previously noted, these extra streaming games don’t include home games for Texas or Oklahoma, which are already sold through their deals with ESPN’s Longhorn Network and with Fox’s “ Sooner Sports Network” (a combination of various regional networks, some national coverage, and even some pay-per-view broadcasts) respectively. In those early talks more than a year ago, the idea of ESPN picking up streaming rights never was broached. It was particularly interested in college sports, believing that schools’ rabid fans are more likely to buy a $5 monthly subscription to the streaming service. ESPN had embarked on a strategy of buying as many rights as it could for ESPN+. ![]() That’s where streaming rights came into play. It became clear pretty quickly that they couldn’t come to terms on money, so they had to get more creative. The Big 12 wanted around $20 million for each game. It should have been an easy deal, but the two sides could not get close on price. ESPN already owned rights to the games in 2020, 20. The Big 12 was trying to sell the rights to three college football games - its championship games in 2019, 20 - and ESPN was one of the few media companies that wanted to buy them.
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