Good read from CuppyCup (Re: "A Tale of Two Programs")

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Top College Football Teams by TV Ratings

1 Alabama 6,465,000 3.9 10
2 Texas A&M 5,263,900 3.3 10
3 Michigan 5,257,381 3.3 7
4 Ohio State 5,240,455 3.2 11
5 Auburn 5,216,500 3.2 10
6 Georgia 4,832,300 3.0 10
7 LSU 4,531,818 2.7 11
8 Missouri 3,991,500 2.4 8
9 Notre Dame 3,906,364 2.5 11
10 Michigan State 3,769,111 2.4 9
11 South Carolina 3,499,875 2.2 8
12 Florida 3,369,583 2.1 8
13 Nebraska 3,240,833 2.1 6
14 Florida State 3,232,417 2.0 12
15 Tennessee 3,082,630 2.0 9
16 Oklahoma 3,027,083 1.9 12
17 Clemson 2,970,417 1.8 10
18 Stanford 2,741,550 1.7 10
19 Oklahoma State 2,698,630 1.7 9
20 Northwestern 2,684,300 1.7 5
21 Wisconsin 2,671,278 1.7 9
22 Penn State 2,652,000 1.7 6
23 Mississippi State 2,607,429 1.6 7
24 Mississippi 2,536,750 1.5 8
25 Arkansas 2,485,000 1.5 6
26 Texas 2,408,778 1.5 9
27 Oregon 2,372,350 1.5 10
28 North Carolina 2,244,500 1.5 4
29 UCLA 2,235,650 1.4 10
30 USC 2,205,000 1.4 8

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Sliver gonna sliver

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We were Texas

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FIFY

The LHN was such a terrible decision. So Dodds of Dodds to think ONLY of money. This is college sports. It's not about making money; it's about winning. Money is a means to winning, but so is exposure, because exposure gets you recruits, and it also gets you fans (which gets you money). The LHN, when coupled to the Big XII's awful TV contract (which relegates their best conference games to regional coverage, at best) has killed UT's exposure.

When you look at the original motivation for the LHN, it was exposure. Dodds was willing to self-bankroll it to get it off the ground at the start when we were offered a "sliver" of the action. He wanted the exposure advantages he felt having a network would bring.

But then ESPN got involved, and offered them a stunning amount of cash for rights to the thing. Suddenly exposure took a backseat to money because academics were getting a cut. Dodds didn't expect the exposure problem to be as bad as it has been because We're Texas and all, but the day recruits and high school games couldn't go on the thing the big structural advantage it gave them went away.

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Dodds didn't expect the exposure problem to be as bad as it has been because We're Texas and all,

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It's exactly this, they weren't worried about exposure. They thought they had all the exposure they needed, that was the problem.

They're the joneses already, so why not cash in on some of the ESPN money? It's not like the network is going to fail. Everyone in the world can't get enough of Longhorn sports after all. Hell, we'll put volleyball on there and everyone will be watching because We're Texas!

It was about ego and quick money, that's it.

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The LHN, when coupled to the Big XII's awful TV contract (which relegates their best conference games to regional coverage, at best) has killed UT's exposure

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Big 12 games are on Fox, FS1, ABC and ESPN networks in addition to FSSW now. Very few of the Texas games will ever end up on Fox Sports SW anymore.

Last year 7 of their games had true national broadcasts.

We had 10 but with the SECN that number will shrink.