University of Texas Brokers New TV Deal

On Wednesday, the University of Texas officially announced a $300-million dollar deal with ESPN to start a TV network devoted solely to covering Longhorn sports. They also claim this will cover cultural and other non-athletic campus events, but that is yet to be seen and definitely is not the money maker in this deal. This is by far the biggest college TV deal in history and it is amazing that it could be done in a state that is trying to slash their budgets by $100+ million dollars.

The new network will spend the majority of its time showcasing its men's and women's "Olympic sports". Of the 200 athletic events that will air beginning in September, most of them will be in baseball, softball, golf, soccer, and other sports programs that don't see a lot of air time currently. Football and men's basketball games will not be shown very often because they are already locked into a deal with the Big 12 Conference. The new network will be allowed to show 1 Texas football game a year, and 8 men's basketball games.

You can read more about this in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Image courtesy of the Austin Business Journal.