Big 12 Stands Up to Longhorn Network. For Now.

Seemingly lost in the CFB universe this week was the story Monday that the Big 12 conference--otherwise known as the nine remaining teams not named Texas--put their foot down to nix certain aspects of the new Longhorn Network debuting the 26th of this month. If you recall back to last year's spring and summer, we saw the defection of Nebraska and Colorado to other BCS conferences and the subsequent shameless shopping of itself by the Longhorns to just about any conference that might make them a sweetheart deal. The possibility of Texas leaving the Big 12 had every major conference scrambling to shore itself up not only from possible defections itself, but for improbable Pangea-like expansions brought on by the sudden glut of marketable teams left homeless if the Horns bailed. One of the reasons Texas decided to stick it out where they were was that the remaining schools quickly agreed to allow them their prize jewel, the Longhorn Network, partnered with ESPN, which would show 24...