Over the weekend it seemed that the Texas Longhorns would be joining the the Pac-12 in the near future as the league and Texas were reportedly close to negotiating how the Longhorn Network would fit within the Pac-12 Network model. However, Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News is reporting that adding Texas is not a sure thing, and that it could be weeks and not within the next 36 hours. Or it may not happen at all.
Texas does have a board of regents meeting scheduled for Monday at 2:00 p.m. MT with conference affiliation on the schedule, but do not expect an answer to what Texas will do. The meeting is to give school president Bill Powers ultimate authority on the future of where Texas will end up.
Wilner also goes on to say that the initial report that says Texas can keep all revenue from the Longhorn Network if the channel earns more than one-sixteenth of all Pac-12 third-tier rights as misleading:
For one thing, the Longhorn Network would have to be folded into the Pac-12 regional model - it wouldn't exist as a separate entity.
What's more, there is no chance that any school will have more than 1/16th of the revenue, whether it comes from the conference's first, second or third-tier rights. NO CHANCE.
Furthermore, Texas is expected to make much more over the life of the deal with the Pac-12 Network model then they would with the Longhorn Network. The Pac-12 has proven that they do not need Texas to earn a large media rights deal, and subsequently hold all the cards. Texas has to decide if they want the exposure of their precious Longhorn Network or make a lot more money by making concessions and folding the Longhorn Network into the Pac-12s regional network model.