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| Texas and ESPN announced a 20-year, $300 million deal Wednesday |
 The University of Texas already has one of the richest sports programs in the country are lining up for even more money.
Texas and ESPN announced a 20-year, $ 300 million on Wednesday to treat a television network which airs 24 hours have and sports, including soccer match at least one eight games and other basketball season sports and academic content.
"We want to define what it means to be" the "public university," said Texas president William Powers. "The challenge is to create new revenue streams to support our mission."
The agreement includes licensing and marketing Texas IMG College partners with more than 80 percent of revenue set to go to college. Do not replace existing TV offerings from the Big 12 and ABC both ESPN and Fox
ESPN Deportes will be responsible for the distribution of the unnamed network via cable or satellite in Texas and other states, and has already had preliminary talks with Time Warner Cable and Comcast Corp.
The network is scheduled for release in September and will be broadcast at least 200 Texas sporting events each year. Football will include at least one live broadcast and multiple repeats of other networks, the annual football scrimmage of the spring and before the game and postgame coverage.
"We will cover (Texas) football has ever been covered before," said Burke Magnus, senior vice president of college sports programming from ESPN, the sports media giant based in Bristol, Connecticut
Basketball includes a minimum of eight live games and replays of games broadcast on other networks. Women's basketball, baseball, volleyball, soccer and other sports, coaching programs, biographies and highlights will also be broadcast.
Programming also includes some academic and cultural programs. The contract will be sent at least $ 25 million to academics over the next five years, said Powers. The network is based on the studio space Royal-Memorial Stadium and will employ 100 people.
George Bodenheimer, president of ESPN and ABC Sports Inc., called the network "a remarkable testimony of the school, success in the rich tradition and broad-based, dedicated fan."
The ability to launch its own network was a major reason why Texas rejected offers to leave the Big 12 to join the Big Ten and Pac-10 last summer. These links have not allowed the independence of Texas to strike its own deal out of conference contracts television.
The contract size raises questions about whether other schools in the Big 12 will be jealous of money in Texas and whether it could affect the next round of negotiations between the conference network and ESPN and Fox
"I personally am not convinced that is best for your conference," said Steve Solomon, a former ABC and NHL executive who now works as a media consultant. "We cannot forget that without the other teams could not exist. Give them credit they have such market power."
The contact also raises the question of whether Texas is considered independent if the network is successful. The Big 12 is reduced to 10 members in July, when Colorado lost (Pac 12) and Nebraska (Big Ten).
Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds said Texas will not be independent.
"Absolutely not. There is no idea of movement, no thought of being independent," said Dodds. "We love our conference."
Powers said that league officials knew about Texas was pursuing a settlement of network, including conference realignment threatened to separate the Big 12 last summer. Texas began investigating the network agreement in 2007.
Longhorns football coach Mack Brown was enthusiastic about the "great exposure" for Texas sports.
"It will allow college sports fans across the country to access our sporting events and stories on this campus 24 hours a day. That's something everyone here can be really proud," said Brown. |