Now that West Virginia is officially the newest member of the Big 12 -- a teleconference is scheduled for later this evening -- the focus shifts to when the Mountaineers can join their new home and how much it’ll cost the school to move, as well as how much they’ll get once they’re relocated.
The legalities of those issues will be sorted out soon enough, but for now, there’s an interesting report on the latter issue that would definitely be of interest to TCU. BlueGoldNews.com, West Virginia’s division of Scout.com, reports that WVU will receive an equal share of the Big 12’s Tier 1 and Tier 2 broadcast revenue immediately upon joining the league. Depending on which press release you believe -- the Big 12/WVU’s or the Big East’s -- that could be in either 2012 or 2014, respectively.
If WVU wishes to join the Big 12 in time for next year’s football season, and all signs point in that direction, it could cost the school as much as $21 million, although that number has not been confirmed yet.
At any date of entry, it’s the notion that WVU would get an equal slice of the revenue pie upon entry that could concern TCU the most. As you’ll recall from a post earlier this month, TCU is slated to “gradually slide into the conference’s revenue-sharing structure over the next four years.” According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, TCU will earn 50 percent of the normal $17 million payout in the 2012-13 academic year, 67 percent in 2013-14, 84 percent in 2014-15, and 100 percent in 2015-16.
As a reader pointed out, that’s not an unheard of tactic, but it’s odd on the surface for TCU to be brought in gradually to the conference’s revenue streams while WVU gets more right away. It could be -- and keep in mind this is just a theory -- that the decision on TCU was a concession to Texas, Texas Tech and Baylor to allow another Texas school to the conference.
Obviously, there could be a number of reasons behind it; maybe TCU"s fine with the whole thing. These are just initial reports and sources on WVU. It’ll be interesting to see what interim Big 12 commissioner Chuck Neinas has to say, if anything, about the financial dealings tonight.
UPDATED 5:20 p.m. ET: Chuck Neinas confirmed via teleconference that WVU will actually be brought into the Big 12 on a “similar” revenue model as TCU. WVU AD Oliver Luck simply stated “There’s a revenue model we’ve agreed to.”