Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Lubbock’s Chamber of Commerce has joined the chorus sharing concerns about impacts from the University of Texas’ and Oklahoma’s potential departure from the Big 12 conference.
The Chamber last week announced it sent a letter to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, voicing concerns about the future of the Big 12 and what it could mean for both Texas Tech and the local economy.
“The potential demise of the Big 12 — and of major college athletics in Lubbock — could devastate not just Texas Tech itself, but the local economy that is accustomed to welcoming hundreds of thousands of visitors for sporting events on an annual basis,” reads a portion of the letter. “In 2019, the Big 12 paid out nearly $40 million to its member institutions. Meanwhile, payouts from the largest ‘Group of 5’ conference, the American Athletic Conference, were closer to $7 million per school. It is nearly impossible to overstate how devastating this would be to Texas Tech, our region’s largest employer, their recruitment and retention of students, and our local economy.”
The Chamber’s letter came as the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal and other media outlets have reported Texas and Oklahoma are expected to leave the Big 12 in 2025.
They took the first official step to leave the Big 12 on Monday, notifying league officials they would not be renewing their TV rights following expiration in 2025
It’s expected the Longhorns and Sooners will become members of the Southeastern Conference.
The Chamber’s letter, signed by Chamber President and CEO Eddie McBride, argues this is the “latest in a long line of instances where West Texans have felt left behind,” pointing to the difficult legislative effort to secure a new school of veterinary medicine for the Texas Tech system and ongoing efforts to expand Interstate 27.
The letter also points out a disparity in funding for the states’ Land Grand universities compared to institutions like Tech.
“Moreover, we now stare down the barrel of college athletics being relegated to irrelevance so that the state’s wealthiest universities can earn even more money,” the letter reads. “Does the state of Texas want to fall behind Florida and California, which have three and four universities competing in major college athletics, respectively? For once, voters in West Texas — which currently have a significant amount of influence in statewide elections as the landscape of Texas has evolved over time — would like to be recognized as equally important to the rest of the state of Texas. The potential changes to the Big 12 show it’s time to decide whether the entire state’s portfolio of higher education institutions matter, or only a select few.”
As reports of the potential UT/OU departure developed last week, State Rep. Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, announced he filed a bill aimed at enabling the Texas Legislature to determine college football conference alignment.
The bill is joint authored by State Reps. Jeff Leach, Greg Bonnen and Charlie Green and is supported by over 30 legislators who have initially signed on as co-authors, according to a statement from Burrows’ office.
State Sen. Brian Birdwell, chairman of the Senate Natural Resources and Economic Development Committee, announced he is filing a companion bill in the Senate, along with Lubbock Republican Sen. Charles Perry and Sens. Lois Kolkhorst and Beverly Powell.
“A decision to switch to a different athletic conference affects the opportunity and stability of our publicly funded universities across the state and must be fully vetted in the most transparent and comprehensive manner possible,” Burrows said in the statement, adding he’s pleased to join lawmakers from around the state in pursuing the legislation. “The exceptionalism of the great state of Texas must not be left in the hands of a few but is a responsibility shared by all.”
