Post by Trojangles on Jan 24, 2023 14:42:43 GMT -8
When BYU withdrew from a 2023 scheduled game against USC (due the Cougars pending move into the Big 12), the Trojans filled the vacancy on short notice with San Jose State, a result I found disappointing, because BYU always draws a huge crowd of Cougar fans to the Coliseum. Accordingly, I was interested in seeing what school BYU would replace the Trojans with and somehow could never find any Big 12 schedules for the 2023 season. I continue to look for them, but without success.
As several months have now elapsed without release of 2023 schedules for Big 12 schools, it's now apparent the league had a lot of issues that had to be resolved, involving delicate negotiations over money matters and more. However, (drumroll) . . .
According to reports issued just last week, the BIG TWELVE is set to release all league schedules "at the end of January".
With just seven days left, I'm guessing Big 12 fans who want to buy game tickets and make travel plans are pretty desperate right now and will be more than a tad disappointed if there's any further delay. Gotta figure those College Football Magazine publishers are already frothing at the mouth too! So, in an effort to mollify the angst Big 12 fans are suffering, the league management recently announced that country and western singer Garth Brooks has joined their leadership team!
Now, that's a publicity release which has me remembering the night Ole Garth crooned large while flying through the air 100 plus yards suspended over a Texas football stadium!
Could it be that Brooks' first job will be to announce the league's 2023 schedule in similar fashion?
The release also opined: "The addition of BYU, Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF plus the retention of Oklahoma and Texas for at least another season, the Big 12 looks to be the most entertaining and competitive conference in the nation from top to bottom in 2023!" Sounds great to me! But a footnote less thrilling, . . . "Now, we just have to wait and see how the schedule works out for each team with a “round-robin” schedule no longer feasible with 14 teams."
Related Footnotes:
Presumably, the league's nine-game conference schedules will feature a temporary two-year rotation that allows all 14 teams to play one another at least once, and there will be permanent opponents set for both the 2023 and 2024 seasons without key rivalries being interrupted. The Big 12 will not play divisions those two years, though it may revisit such a split in 2025 when the league moves back to 12 members. Sports Illustrated first reported the scheduling details, noting that Big 12 executives agreed to the format this week in Dallas.
Though there was a belief that Texas and Oklahoma may have been attempting to exit the Big 12 one year early in 2024, sources told Dennis Dodd that Fox Television would likely have demanded a return to make its future programming whole, including a top-tier selection of games years into the future given the marquee programs would have left its airwaves early. That's beyond what would have been a potentially massive early exit fee the programs would have needed to pay the Big 12 directly.
Fox and ESPN are currently partners in Big 12 programming, while ESPN will be the exclusive television partner of the SEC beginning in 2025 when the Longhorns and Sooners join the league. The Big 12 was actively seeking a new media rights deal with Fox and ESPN both engaged in conversations---and apparently those matters have been resolved.
As several months have now elapsed without release of 2023 schedules for Big 12 schools, it's now apparent the league had a lot of issues that had to be resolved, involving delicate negotiations over money matters and more. However, (drumroll) . . .
According to reports issued just last week, the BIG TWELVE is set to release all league schedules "at the end of January".
With just seven days left, I'm guessing Big 12 fans who want to buy game tickets and make travel plans are pretty desperate right now and will be more than a tad disappointed if there's any further delay. Gotta figure those College Football Magazine publishers are already frothing at the mouth too! So, in an effort to mollify the angst Big 12 fans are suffering, the league management recently announced that country and western singer Garth Brooks has joined their leadership team!
Now, that's a publicity release which has me remembering the night Ole Garth crooned large while flying through the air 100 plus yards suspended over a Texas football stadium!
Could it be that Brooks' first job will be to announce the league's 2023 schedule in similar fashion?
The release also opined: "The addition of BYU, Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF plus the retention of Oklahoma and Texas for at least another season, the Big 12 looks to be the most entertaining and competitive conference in the nation from top to bottom in 2023!" Sounds great to me! But a footnote less thrilling, . . . "Now, we just have to wait and see how the schedule works out for each team with a “round-robin” schedule no longer feasible with 14 teams."
Related Footnotes:
Presumably, the league's nine-game conference schedules will feature a temporary two-year rotation that allows all 14 teams to play one another at least once, and there will be permanent opponents set for both the 2023 and 2024 seasons without key rivalries being interrupted. The Big 12 will not play divisions those two years, though it may revisit such a split in 2025 when the league moves back to 12 members. Sports Illustrated first reported the scheduling details, noting that Big 12 executives agreed to the format this week in Dallas.
Though there was a belief that Texas and Oklahoma may have been attempting to exit the Big 12 one year early in 2024, sources told Dennis Dodd that Fox Television would likely have demanded a return to make its future programming whole, including a top-tier selection of games years into the future given the marquee programs would have left its airwaves early. That's beyond what would have been a potentially massive early exit fee the programs would have needed to pay the Big 12 directly.
Fox and ESPN are currently partners in Big 12 programming, while ESPN will be the exclusive television partner of the SEC beginning in 2025 when the Longhorns and Sooners join the league. The Big 12 was actively seeking a new media rights deal with Fox and ESPN both engaged in conversations---and apparently those matters have been resolved.
