By Bill Zeeble, KERA News
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-907651.mp3
Dallas, TX – After days of controversy and headlines, the college sports conference shake- up of has settled down. The Irving based Big 12 will stay intact, mostly. KERA's Bill Zeeble has more.
The Big 12 boasts some of the nation's and region's top football face-offs, from the Texas-OU Red River Rivalry to the Longhorns - A&M Lone Star Showdown. Those decades-old games were threatened when nearly half the conference teams threatened to bolt for better TV deals in other parts of the country. But Big 12 Commissioner Dan Beebe said most schools, including perhaps the biggest - the University of Texas - chose to stay put instead of moving to the Pac-10. Money made a difference, but it wasn't the only thing.
Beebe: We don't' have a future TV deal that's been reached at this time. We had extremely strong verification based on analysis by our consultants, and others and media companies that we are in a tremendous position to execute future agreements that'll put our members on par with any in the country.
Beebe said money however was not the only factor. By staying, he said Texas can pursue its own TV network - not possible in the Pac-10. And it can keep long-standing traditions.
Beebe: the fact that college athletics is regionally supported and it would be a travesty if its major institutions located in a conference that isn't even in this region.
To those who say this deal was only about money, David Carter labels that accusation as short sighted. He's the director of the Sport/Business Institute at the University of Southern California.
Carter: Yes, it's about money but money funds opportunities for these non revenue or low revenue sports and for women's athletics. Without football and money flowing in, that balance of academics and athletics to those student athletes, who we seldom see, it makes a lot of sense to me.
Carter also says the larger financial packages to follow, especially for the premiere schools in the Big 12, will more realistically reflect the college sports market place.
Carter: What's going on in fact is they've been undervalued and underpaid for quite some time and maybe they're just now getting paid what they're in fact bringing to the table.
Carter says this mad conference scramble of the past few days and longer is definitely unheard of. He says it points to both the huge amount of money and national interest in college athletics. As for winners and losers, he says it's unclear whether the smaller conference players will do as well as they may hope.