Sports Extra - Blogs - OU and OSU Fighting fire with Fox

OU | OSU | TU | ORU | HIGH SCHOOLS | THUNDER | COLLEGE FOOTBALL | COLLEGE BASKETBALL | NFL | OUTDOORS | GOLF | PROS | ALL

@TWSportsExtra

HOMEPAGES

SPORTS EXTRA BLOGS

FOR THE RECORD

Scores, statistics and standings for local and national sports.

LOCAL PROS

ALL SPORTS

PHOTOS & VIDEOS

OUTDOORS

FIND A STORY

Search the World's archives

EMAIL ALERTS

SOCIAL MEDIA

RSS FEEDS

CONTACT US

Editors
Michael Peters
Sports Editor
Patrick Prince
Asst. Sports Editor
Columnists
John Klein
Sr. Columnist
John E. Hoover
Columnist
Writers
Eric Bailey
OU sports, Big 12 sports
Guerin Emig
OU sports
Jimmie Tramel
OSU sports, ORU sports
Kelly Hines
OSU sports
Bill Haisten
TU sports, Thunder
Barry Lewis
High Schools, Drillers
Mike Brown
High Schools, Shock
Kelly Bostian
Outdoors

BUY PHOTOS & PAGES

Buy a published photo by clicking the "Order this Picture" link on the photo. For a full-color page reprint, call 732-8198 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday or order online.

ADVERTISE ON SPORTS EXTRA

Learn more about the site.

OU and OSU: Fighting fire with... Fox
Published: 9/18/2012 3:43 PM
Last Modified: 9/18/2012 3:43 PM

The long-awaited Sooner Sports TV was unveiled last week, and it seems like we'll have to wait a little longer for Oklahoma State to follow suit.

In between, both Texas Tech and TCU signed on with Fox Sports Net. The deals presumably aren't that valuable -- although OU is said to be taking in about $5 million extra per year. But at this point, money isn't the issue.

As Bob Stoops likes to say, "Texas has always had more money than everybody."

No, the $5 million isn't what's important. It is, as Eric Bailey pointed out in our story last week (you can read it here) this number OU, OSU, Tech and TCU should care about -- 9 million.

That's the approximate number of households that get Fox Sports Southwest in Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico.

While the Longhorn Network has struggled to reach major cable systems -- only Verizon and AT&T carry the station nationally -- Fox Sports Southwest is available to just about every home with a pay television service in this part of the country.

The Fox Four can't match Texas in revenue, but now they more than match the Longhorns in reach. And that's the most important part.

At least for Texas' opponents, the Longhorn Network has always been about exposure and recruiting -- not money.

Bob Stoops says he only wants Texas to follow the same rules as everyone else when it comes to recruiting. But the Longhorns changed the game. Now OU, Texas Tech, TCU and soon Oklahoma State have fought back the best way they could.

Fox Sports has acknowledged its loss of Houston Astros and Houston Rockets broadcasts made these deals financially possible. Those losses could have another fringe benefit for the Fox Four -- more exposure in the extremely fertile Houston recruiting area.

Without Astros and Rockets games to broadcast, Fox Sports Houston will have thousands of available programming hours. It stands to reason these deals -- especially the live men's and women's basketball, baseball and other Olympic sports -- will help fill that void.

If that's the case, the deals with Fox Sports may give OU and OSU the kind of exposure money -- even ESPN/Longhorn Network money -- can't buy.

As I mentioned in a previous blog (you can read it here) the Longhorn Network isn't much of a TV network, but it's one heck of a recruiting tool.

Now OU -- and soon OSU -- will have an avenue of their own. Certainly a Big 12 Network would have been better for everyone.

But given the league's "everyone for itself" mentality, OU and OSU are doing the best they can.

Reader Comments

Show: Newest First

Learn About Our Comment Policy

To post comments on tulsaworld.com, you must be an active Tulsa World print or digital subscriber and signed into your account.

To sign in to your account, go to tulsaworld.com/signin.
To activate your print subscription for unlimited digital access and to post comments, go to tulsaworld.com/activate.
To purchase a subscription, go to tulsaworld.com/subscribe.

The Editor's Desk

Tulsa World Sports Editor Michael Peters has nearly 20 years of daily newspaper experience. A 1993 graduate of Texas A&M, he worked at papers in Bryan-College Station, Texas, Beaumont, Texas, and Galveston, Texas, before joining the Houston Chronicle as High School Sports Editor in 2008. While in Houston, he coordinated coverage of the 2008 Texas Class 5A state football championships and the 2011 NCAA Men's Final Four.

Follow Michael Peters on Twitter

Subscribe to this blog

2/2013	1/2013	12/2012	11/2012	10/2012	9/2012
8/2012	7/2012	6/2012	5/2012	4/2012	3/2012
2/2012	1/2012	12/2011	11/2011	10/2011	9/2011
8/2011	7/2011

Your bookmark will appear on your Profile page. Please give it a title, and short description so that visitors to your page will understand where the bookmark leads.
Bookmark Title :

Bookmark Text :