Texas A&M has turned to the NCAA in hope of using a 17-year-old rules interpretation on the organization’s books to prevent the Longhorn Network from airing high school football games.
CBSSports.com reported tonight that it had obtained documents showing that A&M wants the Longhorn Network to be classified as an “institutional publication,” as defined under bylaw 11.2.3.4. As such, that would make the network an “athletics representative of the institution” and _ theoretically _ would prohibit the airing of high school games.
If the same standard is not applied to the network, A&M officials said in the document, “the NCAA, in allowing institutions to create video-based publication agreements without any restriction on content, is opening Pandora’s box.”
Big 12 athletic directors are scheduled to discuss the implications of the Longhorn Network and future institutional networks at a meeting Monday. NCAA officials have called an Aug. 22 meeting, which Texas officials will attend, to discuss the topic. Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe and Texas men’s athletic director DeLoss Dodds have said plans to broadcast high school games are on hold until the situation is resolved by the NCAA.
_ Jimmy Burch
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