DALLAS — All eyes are on Texas in the slimmed-down Big 12 Conference, though for different reasons.
The Longhorns’ football team is coming off its first losing season in 13 years under coach Mack Brown, who has new offensive and defensive coordinators and is still unsure who will be his starting quarterback.
What is also being watched by other Big 12 teams is how much extra exposure, and potential advantage, Texas will have when its 24-hour cable TV network produced by ESPN debuts next month.
Texas A&M athletic director Bill Byrne, who has long had concerns about the Longhorn Network, said Monday that athletic directors and Big 12 staff will be meeting “within the next few weeks” to talk about the new network amid reports that high school football games would be part of the programming.
Byrne said he had been advised that he “should play nice and not say any more.”
Missouri coach Gary Pinkel said a lot, however. “It’s a lack of common sense there to think that the network, the university network, can have high school games.”
NCAA presidents could also address such issues during a retreat next month in Indianapolis.
Footnotes.
Time Warner Cable customers in Nebraska will be able to watch the Cornhuskers’ football games on the Big Ten Network beginning Aug. 23.
• The University of Alabama told a Tuscaloosa store to stop selling items signed by current Crimson Tide athletes, which is a potential violation of NCAA rules.
• Florida State and Virginia Tech are the preseason picks to meet in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game this year, with the Seminoles the choice to win the title.
• N.C. State running back Mustafa Greene will miss the first four games because of a foot injury, and sophomore cornerback Jarvis Byrd (ACL) will miss the season.
The AP
