Big 12 Reform: Commitment of Rights Is Big
The conference realignment news has been fast and furious in recent days.
Giving every angle it’s due is nearly impossible.
Which brings me to commitment of rights.
Yes, it sounds like something lawyer-ey, and frankly, it is a bit of legal mumbo jumbo. But it might actually be the thing that binds the Big 12 together like nothing else can.
I talked a bit about it during a radio interview Wednesday night with Jeff Culhane, who hosts Husker Sports Nightly in Lincoln, Neb. — you can listen to the whole interview below — but that got me thinking that this is one area that really hasn’t been given its due.
A commitment of rights from each of the schools is something that the Big 12 doesn’t have right now. If agreed upon by the schools, what it would do is require each one to give all their game revenues to the Big 12 during the agreed upon time. A high-ranking source from Oklahoma told me that they want to push for a commitment of rights for more than five years, an issue that will be discussed during the Big 12 board of directors teleconference this afternoon.
Committing their rights would make Big 12 schools moving to other conference nearly impossible during the agreed upon time.
Why?
Because if, say, a school that had agreed to a commitment of rights decided to move to the SEC, it would still have to give every last penny of its game revenues back to the Big 12 until the agreed upon time was up. Do you think the SEC, or any other conference for that matter, would want a school that couldn’t give anything to the conference? That would be reaping the benefits of being in the SEC but not contributing anything to the league?
Doubtful.
Enacting a commitment of rights in the Big 12 would be like having a massive buyout clause that no one would want to fool with. It would bind the Big 12 together in a way that it has never been tied.
Now, is it a little bit of forced togetherness?
Sure. It’s a little bit like saying, “We’re going to get along. We’re going to be so happy together. And just to make sure of that, we’re going to chain ourselves to one another and throw away the key.”
It’s not a perfect method, but I think it could be a legal way of keeping the conference together the schools work out their trust issues. This is a conference that has a lot of broken relationships right now. Repairing those will take time.
Commitment of rights just might buy the Big 12 time to heal.
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Comments
Crap in one hand, trust Texas in the other, see which one fills up first. Trust, Commitment of Rights, Gentleman’s Agreement-all BS when dealing with the “Lowest Form Of Whiteman Alive”. Dr.Tom, strong conservative ex-coach, got it right about UT 10 years ago. Huskers just gained some more fans down here. Tom’s a leader, Joe & David are follower’s.
There has to be something illegal to such an agreement. Restraint of trade? Against Public Policy? It is just too high a penalty if any team wants to leave the Big 12.
***
David:
Other leagues have commitments of rights. In fact, most of them do.
Jenni
Jenni,
I would be careful about signing something like that type of contract. A conference that can’t hold it together, is not going to make it by ultimately trying to force everyone to stay. If your in a bad marriage, its best to leave future options open without placing unnecessary road blocks in the way. This conference is what it is….if it can’t survive by positive teamwork with these schools then it will finally reach a time where it gets what it deserves.
Who will sign first???? Will they all have sit in a room and sign at the same time….or is there a clause that is one team opts out I’m out also???
I think the other 8 teams ought to kick Texas out but then the media revenue would decline….damned if you do or don’t…..with a horn up your A**
So, the LHN showing (only) high school game highlights of verbally committed athletes is worth killing the Big XII. You know how that sounds, right?
What does it say about the stability of a league that has to handcuff each other together to survive?
Commitment of rights traps OU in a dysfunctional conference where Texas and Texas alone calls the shots. How is this a good thing?
How can the conference members work out their “trust issues” when the only trust issue involves the 800-lb. gorilla in Austin? Everybody knows that Texas will push its interests as far as it can, without regard for the welfare of the other conference members or the conference itself. How does OU and Mizzou working on trust issues fix that?
Baylor has the “Right” to the fruits of Oklahoma’s labor and in the name of social justice and economic equality, Iowa State has the “Right” to a share of Texas’ wealth????
A happy and harmonious collective equally sharing what is artificially deemed to be community property regardless of individual contribution?
Utopia?
The concept of Man endowed Rights is dishonest for at inception, by the very nature of the act of endowing, those who grant such Rights have presumed moral and/or intellectual authority over the grantee’s.
I was not born with the equal attributes to eventually run the football like Barry Sanders, sing like Nat King Cole, play basketball like Michael Jordan, compose music like Mozart, paint like Rembrandt, nor contemplate nature like Albert Einstein… nor were you.
Equality?
The vain attempts to centrally plan away greed, to legislate away envy, and to mandate equality are folly. The notion of re-educating away human emotions is absurd.
The idea of establishing a firm philosophical foundation for this newly reorganizing conference is righteous but the notion of founding it upon Utopian principles that have failed upon each and every trial throughout history is Einstein’s definition of insanity (doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results).
While adopting principles for which to found this new alliance of individual institutions, the powers to be would be wise to adhere to the principles established by the founding fathers of our country.
Rights are only endowed by the Creator.
Money is not the only big issue. The LHN showing high school games and highlights is another. The NCAA needs to pass a bylaw to block that immediately.