S
scott715Excerpts:
At this juncture, the Big 12 owes a favor to ABC for its decision to continue paying the league its full $60 million per year in TV rights fees through the 2015-16 school year despite the impending absences of Nebraska, Colorado and a football championship game. What might ABC want in return?
"TV is not going to allow the Big 12 not to have a presence on championship Saturday," Texas coach Mack Brown said, referring to the first Saturday in December. "So I think we'll work out something to where some of us play."
...
Adding two teams from outside the league's existing TV footprint to revive the football championship game, if it is deemed financially advantageous to do so at a later date. Dodds and commissioner Dan Beebe have acknowledged that possibility exists. A list of candidates would include Notre Dame (long shot), Arkansas and BYU. If the Big Ten continues expanding by raiding strategic schools from the Big East (likely), Louisville and Cincinnati could emerge as candidates for the Big 12.
...
An increase in the number of BCS bowls, effective for the 2014 season, that could elevate the AT&T Cotton Bowl -- Arlington's postseason game at Cowboys Stadium -- to BCS status. Enough has changed in the college football landscape, say administrators with intimate knowledge of the situation, that discussion is expected about increasing the minimum number of BCS berths for each conference from two to three in the next round of negotiations for a new TV contract that would be in place for the 2014 season.
If that happens, along with the possibility of the Mountain West becoming an automatic-qualifying BCS league in 2014, more BCS-affiliated bowls would be needed. And the Cotton could emerge as either an open-ended BCS bowl or an anchor bowl for the MWC champion.