As the Pac-12 struggles to find a partner to broadcast its games, the Big 12 is making the most of its new six-year media rights extension with FOX and ESPN by pondering new ways to innovate its coverage. According to Sports Illustrated, the conference is discussing a plan to implement in-game interviews with players, record real-time audio from coaches and grant cameras more access to the locker rooms. This aligns with an approach taken by various other sports leagues and networks in an effort to bring fans closer to the game and keep them engaged.
The efforts to revamp the broadcast are reportedly the first phase of commissioner Brett Yormark’s multi-tiered effort to modernize the league. However, the full details of the plan are relatively unknown.
The Big 12 plans to operate as a 14-team conference next season with the additions of BYU, UCF, Cincinnati and Houston, but will be a 12-team league beginning in the 2024 football season, after Oklahoma and Texas move to the SEC. Moreover, the league plans to abolish divisions in football, but each team will continue to participate in nine conference games with all schools playing one another at least once biannually.
While information on the development is still limited, an industry source told Joseph Duarte of the Houston Chronicle that the idea could be expanded to include other conferences. It is not yet known if the plan will be able to be successfully included in coverage at the start of the 2023 football season.
“Just being a fan of golf; being a fan of other sports – basketball – when I see that there, that engages me,” Baylor Bears football coach Dave Aranda said regarding in-game interviews. “Not knowing all the details of this particular matchup or the importance of this game – when you are brought into the inside like that, it connects those dots.”
Duarte points out that many coaches were averse to cameras and an overabundance of media coverage about their team. In today’s era of mass consumption, however, team personnel have reached a point where they tolerate and sometimes facilitate the media being prominent around a program.
The University of Houston football program was constantly being filmed for an all-access documentary in the process of being pitched to streaming services. Similarly, most of the players and personnel have smartphones, and often capture a moment at virtually any time and disseminate it en masse.
Outside of changes in the broadcast, the Big 12 is introducing an array of new marketing activations and fan engagement activities – including hosting coaching clinics at the famed Rucker Park in New York City and a conference pro day in Frisco, Texas. In addition, the conference aims to play football and basketball games in Mexico sometime in the near future.
