(Image Source: Daily Oklahoman)
 

BY: NICK GERHARDT

ANCHOR: ANTHONY MARTINEZ

You're watching multisource sports video news analysis from Newsy. 

Call it a balancing act--before the upstart Longhorn network launches next month, critics want to know--can ESPN and the University of Texas generate revenue, without putting the Big 12 at a competitive disadvantage?

After an interview with Texas A&M President R. Bowen Loftin, KBTX explains...

"The Longhorn network is the ESPN-UT partnership. It's set to launch next month, and Loftin says it was a great victory of the Horns, but now there's talk of the network airing a conference game--one that isn't picked up by other media outlets, plus the network at least wanted to air high school games, which critics say could give the Horns a clear recruiting advantage, if not an illegal one."

As conference rival Oklahoma explores the possibility of their own network, OU President David Boren says no school-affiliated network should be allowed to broadcast high school games. The Daily Oklahoman reports, the NCAA will have to step in,

"There can be no link between school and recruit until they are actually signed with that letter of intent. So you mean to tell me with all of that very specific, very restrictive legislation that's out there in the NCAA, now they're going to allow a network that's been branded by one of the institutional schools involved in all of this to allow high school games to be broadcast? I can't imagine the NCAA is going  to do this."

Texas is willingly deferring to the NCAA for guidance on the proposed broadcasts. Meanwhile, Texas A&M and Oklahoma have threatened to bolt for the SEC if they don't like the verdict--and that's pure hypocrisy, says Aol's David Whitley.

"The official school position: Unequal playing fields are a problem if we’re not equal. Otherwise, they’re just dandy. [UT, OU and A&M] got to split about $20 million in buyout fees from Colorado and Nebraska. Baylor and the rest of the Big 12 got approximately squat. Does that sound like the makings of an equal playing field?"

Headlines touted the development as a death knell for the Big 12. Says Rivals' columnist Chip Brown-- if there's anyone to blame for the week's worth of doom-and-gloom rumors, it's ESPN.

"Three Big 12 administrators said ESPN appears so desperate to put pressure on cable systems to carry [the Longhorn Network] that it ignored protocol and embarrassed not only the Bristol, Conn.-based network but also the University of Texas."

The NCAA currently has no rules against broadcasting high school games. Big 12 figureheads don’t have another meeting planned until October--but a decision from the NCAA is expected sooner than that.

Follow Newsy on Twitter @Newsy_Videos

Transcript by Newsy.