Veterans ... and Longhorns

God's blessings to all our veterans on this Veteran's Day. We have so much because they have given so much ...

On a completely unrelated note, interesting story in Business Week on a proposed new channel dedicated to University of Texas athletics. We know that the Big 10 already has a channel, but it would be a first for one school to do it.

Texas already has the largest athletic budget in the country ($120 million!) and some fear that this could make the rich even richer, in the same way the Yankees and Mets are profiting from their own sports networks.

The main questions are whether enough distributors will carry the channel and whether enough fans will pay the additional fee to subscribe. The main problem for Texas is that its most valuable asset, football, is already committed to ABC, ESPN and Fox Sports Net. That would leave the network with sports such as baseball, softball and track.

But despite such obstacles, the 24/7 network hopes to launch next fall. It could set a precedent whereby other schools (Notre Dame?) create their own networks and try to reap a potential windfall. It will also be interesting to see whether a powerhouse like Ohio State or Michigan would be tempted to break away from the Big 10 Network and create its own channel.