I Got Your CONFLICT Right Here!

Some of you have suggested I write a blog entry about the NBA lockout.  I occasionally run camera for Pacers games which puts me on their payroll.  Due to conflicts of interest, I cannot talk about the NBA or it's situation by way of my blog.  But, I can talk about conflicts of interest.  The University of Texas recently started the Longhorn Network.  I would like to explore some of the conflicts of interest that came about by forming this one-school based Regional Sports Network, and the questions that arise due to the fact that the RSN is being run by multimedia juggernaut, ESPN.

ESPN is paying UT $300 million over the span of 20 years with a guarantee of $11 million a year.  CONFLICT!  Hmmm, that's a lot of money.  Questions that arise:  Will this mean that ESPN will have a bias in favor of more Texas games, player news, and coverage as a whole?  Will ESPN avoid sharing news or breaking stories that shed negative light on the university?  Will this give UT a bigger recruiting advantage?

Speaking of recruiting advantages, one of the original plans of the the Longhorn Network was to air Texas high school football games.  CONFLICT!  Man, wouldn't it be nice if you were trying to land a highly touted Texas high school football recruit and you could tell them, "Hey, if you sign to play with us, we'll show a few of your high school games on our network and give you a lot of face time.  You can be a TV star!  How 'bout it?"  Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating, but that would be possible.  But, worry not Texas A&M fans, the NCAA intervened and said absolutely not.  This conflict of interest got put to bed early.  But it makes me wonder if UT really thought they could get away with it.

The last point that I'd like to look at is how is this affecting the Big 12 Conference.  By not sharing a network like the Big Ten, the schools of the Big 12 are questioning the fairness of the UT RSN deal.  Wouldn't you?  Colorado and Nebraska both left the Big 12 and it wouldn't surprise me if one of the reasons was that they weren't generating any money from a RSN deal while their conference counterpart was going to be reaping such rewards.  I have a hunch that the recent scare of Oklahoma threatening to leave the conference had at least a little something to do with the Longhorn Network.  With Texas being the only Big 12 school making money and gaining attention from an RSN, don't be surprised if things remain contentious in the Big 12 realms. 

Before I conclude, I should state that FOX is the majority stake holder in BTN or, the Big Ten Network.  And if you are a viewer of BTN you see nothing that suggests any type of influence of FOX and you never seem to see any bias toward the Big Ten when watching FOX programming.  In fact, BTN digital rights are outsourced to CBS because FOX felt that the move would better serve the network.  So, maybe we can hope that the same positive things can be said about the Longhorn Network and ESPN relationship once they really take off.  The future will tell.