Texas Basketball: Iowa State AD castigates Longhorn Network

Feb. 21 was probably going to be one of the more significant days in the remaining lifetime of the Longhorn Network before the move to the SEC in 2024, as it televised the matchup between No. 8 Texas basketball and the No. 23 Iowa State Cyclones. The Longhorn Network hosted multiple big events for Texas sports on Feb. 21.

It wasn’t only the top-25 matchup between Texas and Iowa State that the Longhorn Network broadcast live on Feb. 21. LHN also broadcasted the home opener for Texas baseball on Feb. 21 at UFCU Disch-Falk Field against the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders.

Over the course of around five hours, the Longhorn Network arguably broadcast one of the biggest consecutive stretches of Texas athletics on the Forty Acres in the last few months.

And the fact that such a big game was broadcast to a limited audience on Longhorn Network on Feb. 21 when Texas hosted Iowa State at the Moody Center in Austin clearly didn’t sit well with the Iowa State administration. Iowa State athletic director went to the media to voice his frustrations with his school having multiple games broadcast on the Longhorn Network.

The Texas-Iowa State men’s hoops game on Feb. 21 was one of quite a few ranked matchups over the years that was broadcast on Longhorn Network.

Iowa State AD Jamie Pollard throws some punches at Longhorn Network for Texas basketball broadcast this week

Iowa State athletic director Jamie Pollard told 365Sports on the morning of Feb. 22 that Texas “can’t leave soon enough” in reference to the Longhorns and Oklahoma Sooners leaving the Big 12 for the SEC in 2024.

Pollard was clearly not happy with how inaccessible this game was for those that weren’t able to attend the Texas-Iowa State contest at the Moody Center this week. And I can’t say I disagree with him in terms of the frustration regarding the inaccessibility of such an important game to be broadcast to a limited audience on Longhorn Network.

Most TV packages don’t carry Longhorn Network. And there is only one streaming-only service that offers Longhorn Network, which is SlingTV Orange (for around $50 per month). Even the bigger TV companies that do have packages that carry Longhorn Network, such as DirecTV, only offer regional access for most to the channel.

This game had Big 12 regular season title and Selection Sunday for both teams.

However, it won’t be long until Pollard’s frustrations are left behind as the Longhorn Network will soon be a thing of the past. Once Texas and Oklahoma leave for the SEC in the summer of 2024, the Longhorn Network will wind up folding into SEC Network.

Pollard and Iowa State then won’t have to worry about big games such as the ranked Feb. 21 showdown between the Longhorns and Cyclones being broadcast on a single-college-focused network.

Texas will be competing for one more basketball and football season in the Big 12 (during the 2023-24 academic/athletic year) along with the four new members in the conference. Then, Oklahoma and Texas will be officially joining the SEC ahead of the 2024 football season.