How Will Razorback Fans Experience the Longhorn Network in the Future?

SEC has pair of options if it decides to utilized failed channel in line-up

Author:
Kent Smith
Updated:
Jan 12, 2023 11:08 AM EST
Original:
Jan 11, 2023

In this story:

With Texas coming into the SEC presumably in 2024, one of the biggest questions hanging over the agreement is whether Arkansas fans are going to watch games on the mythical Longhorn Network.

I say mythical because, while I have never actually seen it in person bouncing between Arkansas and Texas over the years, I have heard from people I don’t entirely think are crazy say they’ve seen it.

It’s kind of like Bigfoot. If a friend of yours says they’ve seen it, you want to give them the benefit of the doubt, but know in the back of your mind that it was probably just an old Oklahoma vs. Texas Red River Shootout being replayed on ESPNU late at night.

It’s been known for quite a while that Texas bringing its poor performing channel with it to the SEC was laughable at best.

When it first came out, there were plenty of people who were serious about switching providers because they didn’t want to be part of what Texas was doing to the rest of the Big 12. They also didn’t want to add money to the coffers of a program that already destroyed the Southwest Conference, appeared to be set on finishing the job of destroying the Big 12, and also wanted to openly do everything it could to put programs like Iowa State and Texas Tech in their place.

It just felt wrong and dirty.

Fortunately, most providers figured this out and opted not to carry the channel, saving Arkansas fans and fan bases across the country the hassle of looking for programming elsewhere.

But is it something that can be salvaged?

Obviously, the first thing that would need to be done is get rid of the name and color scheme. A simple rebranding as SEC Network 2 or changing both the Longhorn Network and SEC Network into SEC Network East and SEC Network West would be a little costly, but an effective way to rectify the initial programming problem.

If the league were to decide to go with an SEC Network and SEC Network 2 configuration, then things could remain the same for the original network and SEC Network 2 could be used for major sport games that would normally get deferred to SEC+, tennis, golf, swimming, gymnastics, along with replays of Arkansas winning the national championship in cornhole and the two recent national championship runs by Texas in Quidditch.

However, if the Network were to go with the East and West designation, then games played at Arkansas, Texas, A&M, Oklahoma, Missouri, LSU, Mississippi State and Ole Miss would be on the West channel and the rest of the league would be on the East designation.

The latter would avoid the true, but still uncomfortable, notion that the league office and ESPN would be viewing certain schools or sports as unequal to others.

If this is going to happen, it needs to be done before Texas and Oklahoma arrive. Switching it to a desirable channel will mean negotiating with the numerous providers who will need to add it to their programming line-up.

Typically, ESPN likes to do this during football season to try to put providers in a difficult spot to force their hand. That wouldn’t be a wise move in this case. It’s bad publicity for the SEC and it will just make a group of fan bases already predisposed to being annoyed by Texas to begin with to develop immediate disdain right out the gate.

Greg Sankey needs people to want to get along with Texas, and that’s not a step in the right direction.

If it all goes according to plan, it will be just one more reason for the SEC to think it’s a better conference than any other.

And it will be a far, far better thing than Texas has ever done before.