Thursday, January 20, 2011

Texas Longhorns Get Their Own Network

They say everything is bigger in Texas and that holds true for Texas Longhorn athletics.

According to reports, Texas and ESPN will join forces to offer a 24-hour Longhorn network later this year.

Now you know why the Longhorns didn’t jump to the Big Ten conference or any other conference. Texas doesn’t want to become part of the pie, it wants to become the whole pie.

Notre Dame was the first school to televise its games exclusively. Then the Big Ten rolled out its network and put millions of dollars in its member-schools laps. By the way if you have cable or satellite, you are contributing to the Big Ten’s bottom line.

So now it’s Texas’ turn to make the big splash and the big dollars. Maybe Texas football coach Mack Brown will get a pay raise. That’s my attempt at a joke, sorry. For my foreign readers, Brown is making 5.1 million per year. That is huge American dollars.

My biggest question in this is what’s ESPN’s role? Will the sports network plaster Longhorn ads on its other channels? Will they give Texas more game exposure on its other channels? Will ESPN become an arm of the Texas athletic department?

At the very least, prepare yourself to see plenty of the burnt orange color scheme and the hook ‘em Horn’s symbol.

What do you think of Texas’ plan?

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