
Texas Tech, UT plan to play annually as non-conference foes
The College of Texas shortly will be absent from the Major 12, but the Longhorns will never be forgotten in Texas Tech circles.
Nor are they possible to vanish from venues such as Jones AT&T Stadium, United Supermarkets Arena and other Tech stadiums.
Tech and UT have experienced severe conversations about continuing to perform each year as non-meeting opponents following the Longhorns go reside as associates of the Southeastern Conference, Tech athletics director Kirby Hocutt explained to A-J Media on Friday.
Pink Raider Sporting activities first documented the advancement.
“We have experienced conversations with the University of Texas about continuing to perform them once they go away the Massive 12 Convention, on an annual foundation, in all sports,” Hocutt told the A-J, “and we have received affirmation from management at the College of Texas that they agree that would be a beneficial issue and have pledged that they will work that out with us in terms of future program.”
The details are continue to to be established, but such an agreement likely would be lengthy phrase.
“The discussions that I have experienced with my colleague, (athletics director) Chris Del Conte at the College of Texas, we have spoken about a 20- to 25-calendar year determination,” Hocutt said.
Oklahoma and Texas on July 30 acknowledged membership invites to the SEC, productive July 1, 2025. The management of each educational institutions has claimed publicly they strategy to honor their contractual obligations to the Large 12 by means of the 2024-25 university yr.
The Massive 12 moved quickly to swap them, extending invitations that ended up accepted on Friday by Brigham Young, Central Florida, Cincinnati and Houston.
Massive 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby mentioned before this summer time about 50 percent of the Major 12’s television revenue was tied to Texas and Oklahoma.
By adding yearly non-conference games versus Texas, Texas Tech could help make up some of the shortfall probably to come. It unquestionably would do so at the Jones AT&T Stadium gates.
On 29 of the previous 30 instances the Longhorns have performed a football video game in Lubbock, a extend that dates to 1962, it’s been the Crimson Raiders’ optimum-attended household sport of the season. The Longhorns were outdrawn by a further checking out workforce at Jones Stadium only by Nebraska in 1996.
The last soccer period in which the Pink Raiders and the Longhorns did not encounter other was 1959. They’ve satisfied every year considering that as customers of the Southwest Meeting or the Massive 12.
Hocutt reported the details of a non-meeting arrangement are nevertheless to be worked out.
One implication that will have to both be labored via or acknowledged: Do the Crimson Raiders want to matter by themselves to a rugged non-convention routine?
Tech has Oregon State on the 2025 and 2026 schedules, North Carolina State on the 2027 routine and Mississippi State on the 2028 and 2029 schedules.
If Tech and Texas continue their sequence as soon as the Longhorns go away for the SEC, do the Crimson Raiders want to choose on two electricity-5 non-meeting opponents a year?
“I believe just about anything and everything’s on the table at this issue in time as we believe about the long term and how we want to technique scheduling,” Hocutt explained. “You have a whole lot much more issues than I have responses to and have not had the time — have not taken the time still with everything which is been heading on — to appear at our non-conference matchups and what overall flexibility we could or may not have subsequent the ’24 football period.”
The Massive 12 and college leaders from each and every of its new users did 4 different information conferences Friday welcoming Houston, BYU, Cincinnati and UCF. It was only 51 days following the Houston Chronicle shined a spotlight on UT’s and OU’s solution talks with the SEC about jumping leagues.
Hocutt confirmed stories in the past 7 days that Major 12 leaders did not want unfavorable headlines and uncertainty about the conference’s long run to carry through football time or linger for months.
“As I talked to our coaches listed here,” he reported, “recruiting is the lifeblood for any athletic system. When there is certainly a narrative out there about the future of your conference, that’s not good, and so we experienced to get swift motion, and I never believe you can move significantly more quickly than we did.
“Commissioner (Bob) Bowlsby guided us as effectively as a result of this procedure as he potentially could have. I consider it has promptly transformed the narrative, so that is a fantastic advantage to us and to our coaches as we go out to recruit.
“Our Higher education Soccer Playoff place has not improved. Our position within the NCAA governance construction is not likely to modify. So I felt like it was really essential for us to shift as quickly as we could.”
BYU, an impartial in soccer, stated it will start out Massive 12 competitors in all athletics in 2023. Bowlsby reported Cincinnati, UCF and Houston will join no later than July 2024.
The new customers will come into the conference acquiring scaled-down earnings shares than existing customers.
“You can find anticipated to be a progression, a revenue development that the new customers would enter with, and those particulars are however getting discussed,” Hocutt mentioned. “That’s normal when you be part of a new league, and this would not be any distinctive.”
As to what the once-a-year profits distribution will be when the Longhorns and Sooners are long gone and the four newcomers get there, Hocutt claimed it is really as well early to explain to. The convention was approaching an regular of $40 million per university for each 12 months in profits distributions just before that range declined with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hocutt explained the annual Significant 12 payout will not change in the fiscal year that just began, nor will it alter the following fiscal calendar year.
“By way of our procedure, we experienced a media adviser and expert and there were numerous formulas that they ran and offered to us,” he claimed. “But you you should not know what the market’s likely to bring till you get into certain negotiations.
“We nevertheless have a few many years left on our tv settlement, a few-and-a-fifty percent decades, and when it’s the proper time we’ll get back to the open up market, and the value will be established at that time. All we can do concerning now and having back again to the open marketplace and the negotiating table is be profitable and gain.”