I think this may be the thing my buddy e-mailed me
Chip Brown
Orangebloods.com Columnist
Talk about it in Inside the 40 Acres
Colorado has indicated to Big 12 officials the Buffaloes will join the Pac-10 in 2011, meaning the Big 12 will lose both CU and Nebraska after the 2010-11 school year, according to multiple sources in the Big 12.
Dan Hawkins and Colorado are headed to the Pac-10 in 2011, according to Big 12 sources.
According to Big 12 officials, the penalty for leaving with one year's notice is an 80 percent forfeiture of TV revenue for two years.
The TV revenue for both schools in 2009-10 is in the range of $8 million (Colorado) to $12 million (Nebraska), sources said. Nebraska's figure could surpass $12 million for its appearance in the Big 12 title game, sources said.
The Big 12 has already made partial payments to Colorado to Nebraska for their 2009-10 TV revenue in excess of the money the schools are supposed to receive under the reduced revenue formula for leaving the conference with one year's notice.
As a result, sources tell Orangebloods.com Colorado and Nebraska will not receive any more TV revenue for 2009-10 or 2010-11 and both schools will have to write a check to the conference to pay back the TV money they must forfeit.
The total of forfeited TV money by both Nebraska and Colorado is expected to be about $40 million, sources said.
One Big 12 executive told Orangebloods.com, Colorado and Nebraska will to pay back a combined $12 million and $15 million to the league in TV money already paid to the schools.
Nebraska chancellor Harvey Perlman has indicated he will take the stance that Nebraska did not damage the Big 12 by bolting for the Big Ten and thus NU should not have any of its TV revenue forfeited. That will be an argument that will likely have to be taken to court, sources said.
HOW WILL PENALTY MONEY BE DISBURSED?
A hot topic in the Big 12 is quickly becoming how the estimated $40 million in TV money being forfeited by Colorado and Nebraska over two years will be disbursed among the remaining members.
To help salvage the Big 12, Missouri, Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State and Baylor got together last weekend and agreed to give their share of that money to Texas, Oklahoma and Texas A&M.
That commitment gave UT, A&M and OU a guaranteed $20 million in TV revenue from the conference starting immediately. But Texas and OU officials have indicated they would like that money distributed evenly among the conference.
So far, Texas A&M officials have not indicated they would be willing to do the same. According to sources, A&M is fine with having the forfeited TV revenue dispersed evenly as long as A&M achieves the $20 million guarantee it was promised in the remodeled Big 12.
A message left by Orangebloods.com with Jason Cook, a Texas A&M University spokesman, wasn't immediately returned Friday.
Texas Tech regents have already expressed their discontent about being left out of the guarantee that is available to Texas A&M. They expressed their discontent by refusing to commit to a remodeled Big 12 with only 10 members until after a regents meeting Tuesday afternoon. All the other members of the league pledged their allegiance to each other on Monday, sources said.
How CU's and NU's forfeited TV revenue will ultimately be disbursed remains to be seen.
No one said Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe's job was going to be easy holding together all of the complicated relationships in a league that nearly blew apart less than a week ago.
Stay tuned.
