Texas vs. Wyoming Marks Beginning of End for Longhorn Network

Though the fate of the Longhorn Network has been decided for quite some time, Saturday's meeting between the Texas Longhorns and Wyoming Cowboys marks an important date in the inevitable death of the joint ESPN channel.

AUSTIN, Texas -- The Texas Longhorns are hosting the Wyoming Cowboys on Saturday in Austin. Texas' final non-conference game of the regular season will be broadcast on Longhorn Network, which marks an important date for the joint ESPN channel.

With the program heading to the SEC next season, Texas vs. Wyoming will be the final live football game broadcast on the Longhorn Network. It launched on August 26, 2011 as a joint venture between ESPN, the University of Texas and Learfield with the Network being operated by ESPN.

Since then, LHN has run 24/7/365 Texas Longhorns coverage while occasionally broadcasting smaller football and basketball matchups for the university along with other sports.

With the SEC Network already existing under ESPN's extensive branch of channel options, LHN will disappear since SEC teams aren't allowed to have their own network. After all, the original birth of LHN was one of the reasons the Texas A&M Aggies left the Big 12.

"The Longhorn Network will be folded into the SEC Network," Texas Athletic Director Chris Del Conte said in February. "We have a year or two left with the Longhorn Network. Then, all that inventory stays with us."

It's certainly a somber goodbye for some of the fans that tune in to the one-of-a-kind network on a daily basis

The Longhorns will be looking to send football on LHN out with a bang against Wyoming. Don't worry, though. Longhorn Network will still have around-the-clock coverage of the football team, and is set to broadcast a handful of men's and women's basketball games later this year.