Editing Big 12 Conference (section)

=== Grant of Rights ===
Member universities granted their first and second tier sports media rights to the conference for the length of their current TV deals. The Grant of Rights (GOR) deal with the leagues' TV contracts ensures that "if a Big 12 school leaves for another league in the next 13 years, that school's media rights, including revenue, would remain with the Big 12 and not its new conference".<ref>{{cite web|last=Ubben|first=David|url=https://www.espn.com/blog/big12/post/_/id/54878/big-12-cements-future-wallets-and-revival|title=Big 12 extends rights deal, cementing future – Big 12 Blog – ESPN|date=7 September 2012|publisher=Espn.go.com|access-date=2014-03-29}}</ref>

GOR is seen by league members as a "foundation of stability" and allowed the Big 12 to be "positioned with one of the best media rights arrangements in collegiate sports, providing the conference and its members unprecedented revenue growth, and sports programming over two networks." All members agreed to the GOR and later agreed to extend the initial 6-year deal to 13 years to correspond to the length of their TV contracts.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.statesman.com/news/sports/college/by-signing-away-tv-rights-horns-offer-stability--1/nRn93/|title=By signing away TV rights, Horns offer stability to Big 12|publisher=www.statesman.com|access-date=2014-03-29|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131226195112/http://www.statesman.com/news/sports/college/by-signing-away-tv-rights-horns-offer-stability--1/nRn93/|archive-date=2013-12-26|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Prior to this agreement, the Big Ten and Pac-12 also had similar GOR agreements.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://collegefootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/09/07/report-big-12-tv-announcement-coming-friday|title=Updated: Big 12 TV deal made official &#124; CollegeFootballTalk|publisher=Collegefootballtalk.nbcsports.com|access-date=2014-03-29|archive-date=2013-12-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131226212244/http://collegefootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/09/07/report-big-12-tv-announcement-coming-friday/|url-status=dead}}</ref> The Big 12 subsequently assisted the ACC in drafting its GOR agreement.<ref>{{cite web|author=Chuck Carlton|url=http://www.dallasnews.com/sports/college-sports/headlines/20130525-carlton-a-year-into-big-12-tenure-bob-bowlsby-has-seen-conference-stabilize-but-won-t-rest-on-his-laurels.ece|title=Carlton: A year into Big 12 tenure, Bob Bowlsby has seen conference stabilize, but won't rest on his laurels &#124; Dallas Morning News|publisher=Dallasnews.com|date=2013-05-25|access-date=2014-03-29}}</ref> Three of the four major conferences now have such agreements, with the SEC the only exception.