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Posted on: June 14, 2024 at 15:46:55 CT
JeffB MU
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fwiw, the numbers don't quite make sense to me either, but here are some excerpts from the article (there is a lot more info in the full article, of course):
https://eu.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/big12/2023/09/22/texas-oklahoma-big-12-sec-espn-role-realignment/70910157007/
The Big 12 announced in February that Texas and Oklahoma will forgo $100 million from the conference under an agreement that is allowing the schools to leave a year earlier than initially required. In response to recent questions from the USA TODAY Network, the conference said more than $80 million of that is based on money the schools will not get in 2024-25, the year after the move. The rest is attributed to cuts in full revenue shares for 2023-24 that Texas, Oklahoma and the rest of the Big 12’s continuing members will be taking to finance payments promised to four schools that joined the conference this summer.
...
∎Oklahoma and Texas will be getting no money from the SEC’s primary revenue sharing pool in 2024-25, according to the schools' entry agreements. However, they stand to collect millions through football- and men’s-basketball-specific distributions that already existed under the SEC’s bylaws. They could receive additional money through other specially negotiated terms. And they will get what their agreements describe as “transition” payments being funded by ESPN.
ESPN cushions impact for Texas, OU in move to the SEC...
..........
However, some within the Big 12 have admitted to confusion about why the league didn’t fully enforce its bylaws with Texas and Oklahoma and other aspects of the deal.
The settlement left the athletics directors at some of the continuing Big 12 schools “kind of dumbfounded,” Kansas State athletics director Gene Taylor said. “We fought back as hard as we could,” but he said the conference’s lawyers advised them, Yormark and the schools’ presidents and chancellors that the bylaws were “not as rock-solid as everybody thought and we could be tied up on lawsuits forever.”
Despite bylaws, UT and OU receive full shares from Big 12
The bylaws in place in July 2021 stated that any school withdrawing from the conference would owe a buyout amount equal to the sum of conference revenue shares it would otherwise have received during its final two years in the conference. And there was a provision that would allow most of the buyout to occur through the conference withholding revenue that it otherwise would have given to the school.
In addition, the payment of the buyout would not free the school from the Big 12's grant-of-rights agreement. In other words, if a school changed conferences before June 30, 2025, the Big 12 – rather than the new conference – would be entitled to the TV rights fees for the school’s home games.
In theory, this meant that Texas and Oklahoma faced the prospect of losing two years’ worth of money from the Big 12 – and under another provision in the bylaws, any withheld money potentially could have been redistributed to other Big 12 schools while UT and OU finished their time in the conference. In addition, Texas and Oklahoma faced the prospect of having to negotiate to essentially buy back the TV rights to their home games, so they could then transfer those rights to the SEC.
That’s not what happened. Texas and Oklahoma received full revenue shares from the Big 12 during a fiscal year ending June 30, 2022, according to the conference’s federal tax records. Former Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby, who announced his plans to retire in April 2022, said no withholding of revenue occurred at that point because OU and UT were “still suggesting they would stay till the end of the (TV) contract (in June 2025). A lot of things were in flux at that time.”
Yormark, who became commissioner on Aug. 1, 2022, said at the conclusion of the conference’s spring meetings in early June 2023 that Oklahoma and Texas were getting full shares for 2022-23. And in written responses to questions from the USA TODAY Network, the schools and the Big 12 said they will be getting full shares in 2023-24, confirming their departure agreement.
The Big 12 wrote that the $100 million cited in the February statement is “an estimate based on financial distribution projections. Conference revenue derived from media rights contracts in (2024-25) will not decrease despite the early departures of OU and Texas. By leaving a year early both institutions forego (fiscal year 2024-25) distributions from the Big 12. The ($100 million) also includes (the schools’) shares of the reduced payouts this (fiscal year) that all 10 continuing members will forego as a result of expansion.”
Texas and Oklahoma also will leave behind a total of at least $13 million in NCAA basketball tournament money over a six-year span.
Edited by JeffB at 15:49:39 on 06/14/24
https://eu.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/big12/2023/09/22/texas-oklahoma-big-12-sec-espn-role-realignment/70910157007/
The Big 12 announced in February that Texas and Oklahoma will forgo $100 million from the conference under an agreement that is allowing the schools to leave a year earlier than initially required. In response to recent questions from the USA TODAY Network, the conference said more than $80 million of that is based on money the schools will not get in 2024-25, the year after the move. The rest is attributed to cuts in full revenue shares for 2023-24 that Texas, Oklahoma and the rest of the Big 12’s continuing members will be taking to finance payments promised to four schools that joined the conference this summer.
...
∎Oklahoma and Texas will be getting no money from the SEC’s primary revenue sharing pool in 2024-25, according to the schools' entry agreements. However, they stand to collect millions through football- and men’s-basketball-specific distributions that already existed under the SEC’s bylaws. They could receive additional money through other specially negotiated terms. And they will get what their agreements describe as “transition” payments being funded by ESPN.
ESPN cushions impact for Texas, OU in move to the SEC...
..........
However, some within the Big 12 have admitted to confusion about why the league didn’t fully enforce its bylaws with Texas and Oklahoma and other aspects of the deal.
The settlement left the athletics directors at some of the continuing Big 12 schools “kind of dumbfounded,” Kansas State athletics director Gene Taylor said. “We fought back as hard as we could,” but he said the conference’s lawyers advised them, Yormark and the schools’ presidents and chancellors that the bylaws were “not as rock-solid as everybody thought and we could be tied up on lawsuits forever.”
Despite bylaws, UT and OU receive full shares from Big 12
The bylaws in place in July 2021 stated that any school withdrawing from the conference would owe a buyout amount equal to the sum of conference revenue shares it would otherwise have received during its final two years in the conference. And there was a provision that would allow most of the buyout to occur through the conference withholding revenue that it otherwise would have given to the school.
In addition, the payment of the buyout would not free the school from the Big 12's grant-of-rights agreement. In other words, if a school changed conferences before June 30, 2025, the Big 12 – rather than the new conference – would be entitled to the TV rights fees for the school’s home games.
In theory, this meant that Texas and Oklahoma faced the prospect of losing two years’ worth of money from the Big 12 – and under another provision in the bylaws, any withheld money potentially could have been redistributed to other Big 12 schools while UT and OU finished their time in the conference. In addition, Texas and Oklahoma faced the prospect of having to negotiate to essentially buy back the TV rights to their home games, so they could then transfer those rights to the SEC.
That’s not what happened. Texas and Oklahoma received full revenue shares from the Big 12 during a fiscal year ending June 30, 2022, according to the conference’s federal tax records. Former Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby, who announced his plans to retire in April 2022, said no withholding of revenue occurred at that point because OU and UT were “still suggesting they would stay till the end of the (TV) contract (in June 2025). A lot of things were in flux at that time.”
Yormark, who became commissioner on Aug. 1, 2022, said at the conclusion of the conference’s spring meetings in early June 2023 that Oklahoma and Texas were getting full shares for 2022-23. And in written responses to questions from the USA TODAY Network, the schools and the Big 12 said they will be getting full shares in 2023-24, confirming their departure agreement.
The Big 12 wrote that the $100 million cited in the February statement is “an estimate based on financial distribution projections. Conference revenue derived from media rights contracts in (2024-25) will not decrease despite the early departures of OU and Texas. By leaving a year early both institutions forego (fiscal year 2024-25) distributions from the Big 12. The ($100 million) also includes (the schools’) shares of the reduced payouts this (fiscal year) that all 10 continuing members will forego as a result of expansion.”
Texas and Oklahoma also will leave behind a total of at least $13 million in NCAA basketball tournament money over a six-year span.
Edited by JeffB at 15:49:39 on 06/14/24
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Excerpts from the article: - JeffB MU - 6/14 15:46:55