AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — When the Longhorn Network launched in 2011, the 20-year, $300 million partnership with ESPN set up Texas with its own 24-hour television showcase that sent shockwaves across college sports some say can still be felt today. Rivals in the Big 12 Conference bitterly complained the swaggering Longhorns were stomping over the rest of the league, and would reap an unfair recruiting advantage amid that shower of cash. Some worried Texas was about to become a runaway train in colleg
AUSTIN, Texas — When the Longhorn Network launched in 2011, the 20-year, $300 million partnership with ESPN set up Texas with its own 24-hour television showcase that sent shockwaves across college sports some say can still be felt today.
“Yeah, it was bold,” said former Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds, the architect of the idea for LHN. “We built something we can be proud of ... I think it's a big loss for Texas to have to give it up.” “We’re going to cover football like it’s never been covered before,” Burke Magnus, then senior vice president of college sports programming for ESPN, declared when the deal for LHN was announced.That meant a broad range of behind-the-scenes programming, including pre-game and post-game coverage. Some of it was too much: Former“Our rivals all got Longhorn Network and they watched us practice. They could text each other and say ‘so-and-so looked good,’'” Brown said.
The NCAA quickly ruled that a school or league-affiliated network could not broadcast high school games. Texas A&M declined. It wasn't until Fox offered $3 million a year, and ESPN countered with its even larger deal, that Dodds realized Texas really had something.There were initial struggles to secure deals with cable and satellite carriers to get LHN in front of viewers. Critics snickered Texas created a network simply to show reruns of Vince Young's game-wining dash to victory over Southern California in the 2006 Rose Bowl.
LHN will be shuttered without the football team delivering on the initial hopes. Since a 13-1 finish in 2009, Texas has gone 91-72 with five losing seasons and hasn't won the Big 12. In this final year of the network and the Longhorns' final year in the Big 12, Texas will start the season ranked No. 11 and is the favorite to win the league.
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