• E-mail

A Big 12 team has played in the Bowl Championship Series national title game five of the last seven years. Basketball teams from the conference reached the Final Four in 2002, 2003 and 2004 with Kansas playing for the title in 2003.

As long as teams are playing deep into the postseason, the conference wields clout and gets rich. BCS money from football and monetary units earned for every round reached in the NCAA basketball tournament are collected in addition to revenues from the Big 12's television contracts.

For the 2006-07 academic year, the league generated $106 million in revenue.

How those monies are divided may be the single biggest issue facing the commissioner who will replace Kevin Weiberg.

Weiberg announced Thursday he was stepping down effective July 15 after nine years to take an executive position with the Big Ten Network.

While other conferences, such as the Big Ten and Atlantic Coast Conference, split revenue equally, the Big 12 does not.

When the league was formed 11 years ago, the Big Eight was forced to create an incentive for schools such as Texas and Texas A&M to join because those schools had invitations to other leagues. Texas was courted by the Pac-10, A&M by the Southeastern Conference.

What the Big 12 came up with was unequal revenue sharing that would reward the drawing power of traditional football schools.

Currently, all sources of revenue outside of television are shared equally among the 12 schools. Only half of television revenue is shared equally. The other half is placed in an "appearance pool." Schools earn monetary units based on football appearances and on national TV non-conference basketball appearances.

Weiberg was a proponent of equal revenue sharing. He felt it would strengthen the conference and its brand. But at last month's Big 12 meetings in Colorado Springs, the issue didn't even come up. That's because the bylaws written when the league was formed require a "super majority" of nine schools to approve a change in the formula.

Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas – who have combined to play for five of the last seven national titles in football – are in no hurry to split all the TV money equally.

It's no surprise that several of the league's other schools – including Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas and Kansas State – would love to see the formula changed to show all the schools are in this together.

"I wouldn't say it's a bitter issue," said Kansas State athletic director Tim Weiser. "But it is an emotional issue."

Under the current formula, the so-called haves in the conference earn anywhere from $1 million to $1.5 million more per year in television revenue than the have-nots.

Athletic budgets in the Big 12 average nearly $50 million with Texas at the top end ($83 million) and Iowa State at the bottom ($32 million).

Kansas athletic director Lew Perkins, whose school generates significant appearance pool fees from basketball, is willing to share equally. He doesn't think the disparity of $1 million in TV revenue is really worth fighting over.

"I just prefer the idea of equal partners," Perkins said.

Weiberg said he believed the possibility of a Big 12 network was rejected because the haves were worried they would lose earning power enjoyed under the current formula.

Weiberg was certainly intrigued by the idea of a Big 12 network. Was the league's repudiation of such a network and its unwillingness to share revenues equally enough to push Weiberg onto a new career path?

Whatever the answer may be, the new commissioner can expect the topic of revenue sharing won't go away.