State of the Big 12 in 2024 and Beyond

[Brisket]

Saw on Twitter a rundown of the Big 12 champions in various sports this school year:

Football:
Men's Basketball: Houston/ISU (tournament)
Women's Basketball: Oklahoma/ (tournament)
Softball: / Oklahoma

There were several other sports where OU & won championships as well (golf, gymnastics, volleyball, etc.). That got me to thinking - just what will the Big 12 look like going forward without the 2 premier programs. Despite all the happy talk coming from Yormark & the conference offices about being "bullish on the future of the Big12," the picture is not good. Did a little research to see how the remaining Big12 teams & the new teams joining from the Pac12 finished in the 5 "major" sports.

Football - Only 2 teams had double-digit wins. Only 5 teams finished ranked, with none of them being ranked in the Top 10 (WV was not ranked in the AP poll, but was ranked 25 in the Coaches' Poll).

Men's Basketball - 6 teams finished the year ranked. Houston & ISU finished in the top 10. Tech was unranked in the AP poll, but finished 25 in the Coaches' Poll.

Baseball - Only 2 teams finished the season ranked (AZ & OSU), & neither were close to the Top 10. 8 teams are currently projected to make the 64-team tournament, but none are projected to host a Regional.

Softball - Only 2 teams are currently ranked, and only OSU is in the Top 10. 5 teams made the tournament, & only OSU is hosting a Regional.

The Big 12 looks to remain a solid conference in men's & women's basketball. I was surprised to see just how sad the conference looks to be in baseball & softball. As we all know, though, football pays the bills, and the conference is nowhere close to being on par with the SEC or Big10.

Yormark received all kinds of praise for renegotiating the Big12 TV deal. That pays each member school $31.7M in annual revenue. The existing SEC TV deal paid member schools $51.3M for 2022-2023, and that's BEFORE renegotiating a deal that includes OU & as conference members. It is going to be very, VERY hard for Big12 (and ACC) teams to consistently compete with Big10 & SEC schools when they bring in $20M+ less revenue annually.

[WishBone]

(AZ & OSU)....WHO IS AZ?

[EMan]

(AZ & OSU)....WHO IS AZ?

Arizona. They join next year.

[RussC]

I’d call this thread a “muscle-memory” thread.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that, to quote Seinfeld.

[Triple Option]

Yormark received all kinds of praise for renegotiating the Big12 TV deal. That pays each member school $31.7M in annual revenue. The existing SEC TV deal paid member schools $51.3M for 2022-2023, and that's BEFORE renegotiating a deal that includes OU & as conference members. It is going to be very, VERY hard for Big12 (and ACC) teams to consistently compete with Big10 & SEC schools when they bring in $20M+ less revenue annually.

This is why OU made the switch. That deficit is likely to increase over time, just due to the number and fervency of fans, but even more importantly, it's cumulative, year after year.

[StatesEye]

Not to mention revenue sharing with "student" athletes.

Revenue sharing is a tangled up legal mess right now, but some form of revenue sharing is coming. Hence, there will be a lot less money coming from football and basketball to fund other areas of athletic departments after revenue sharing payments are made, so the disparity in TV payouts will become an even larger issue for Big XII and ACC athletic programs.

Don't forget the new college football playoff payouts. SEC and Big 10 members schools will receive $21 million annually from the new CFP deal, while Big XII and ACC members will receive $12 million annually.

OU leaving the Big XII for the SEC will catapult its athletic department's total annual revenue to around the #5 to #7 ranking. It ranked 10th nationally in total revenue for college athletic departments during the 2021-2022 academic year. It was no-brainer choice.

Interestingly, Texas doesn't stand to gain a whole lot in total revenue (excluding CFP payouts) with the move to the SEC in the near term because the wrongborn Network deal with ESPN was already placing their total TV payouts at same level as SEC member schools. Not that any of us would do so here, but don't feel sorry for those asshats. Their athletic department revenue will still outpace OU's by $50 million or so, annually.