Light Bulb just went off for me.
We are going to share 1st and 2nd Tier money equally...that goes without saying. Third Tier will remain with the individual institutaions (i.e. UT can keep their LHN). There will be rules around what is allowed for content on those 3rd Tier rights though (no HS games/highlight, no conference games, etc).
Now...hear me out...everyone keeps saying the other teams should band together and form a B12 network less UT. Problem is geography and amount of demand/TVs is limited with the remaining markets. IF we add the remaining BE schools, we could have a footprint over the Eastern half of the US and potentially now 15 markets that would make the B12 network less Texas much more economically feasible and profitable for all the other institutions. I could honestly see this adding up to another few million per school per year. I don't think that would be the case less the BE schools.
In this model, nobody is PO'd at UT's financial gain from LHN and as long as content is controlled, 1st & 2nd Tier is shared equally, and we get a new commish, everybody should be happy for the long haul.
I like it!
I agree, with the stipulations as you noted. As long as the LHN isn't sapping the quality out of the lineup that we offer, and not giving UT a huge recruiting advantage through high school games, I see no reason why individual members shouldn't retain their rights to do their own thing.