Thursday, June 12, 2003 | 9:11 a.m.
It's tough to "cowboy up," as the rodeo expression goes, when all anybody wants to talk about is college football.
That's the predicament Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association commissioner Steve Hatchell finds himself in as the Atlantic Coast Conference continues to pursue Miami, Syracuse and Boston College of the Big East in an attempt to form yet another 12-team super conference.
Although rodeo and the college revenue sports would appear to have little in common, Hatchell is an expert on both. He was commissioner of the Southwest Conference just before it capitulated, and went on to become the first commissioner of the Big 12 in 1995 after it added former SWC members Texas, Texas Tech, Texas A&M and Baylor.
Hatchell also served as commissioner of the former Metro Conference, which evolved into Conference USA, and was executive director of the Orange Bowl and an assistant commissioner in the Big Eight. His contacts in college sports helped him broker lucrative television and marketing deals for the Big 12, although even those windfalls weren't enough to appease his constituents.
According to published reports, Hatchell was forced out as Big 12 commissioner in 1998 after three years. Complaints questioned his management style although insiders said money, additional conference expansion issues (Texas, one of the Big 12's marquee programs, was investigating the possibility of joining the Pac-10 at the time of Hatchell's resignation) and the conference's disappointing performance on the football field up to that point all contributed to the change in leadership.
"You're about the 30th one -- this week," Hatchell said when asked if anybody else in the media wanted to talk to him about the ACC-Big East situation.
Hatchell was guarded in his comments, saying only that the Big 12's formation was every bit as acrimonious as what is happening with the ACC and Big East, and that money -- specifically, television revenue -- is at the heart of the matter.
Although the Big Eight didn't expand until 1994, Hatchell said the conference presidents, facing a financial crunch, had been talking it about for years.
"At that time, the Big Eight and the Southwest Conference, as individual entities, represented only about 6 1/2 or 7 percent of the television sets in the country," he said. "But when you put them together, you're talking about 14 percent of the TV sets, which enables you ... to do some big-time deals. It's based on economics, totally."
Hatchell, who also was responsible for giving Conference USA, another sprawling amalgamation of sports-playing schools, its appropriate name, represented the Big 12 during negotiations for a five-year, $150 million football TV contract before becoming its commissioner.
While he's been out of college sports for five years, his legacy lives on. An entire page on the Big 12 website features the logos of its corporate partners Dr. Pepper, Chick-fil-A, Cooper Tires, 7-Up, Gatorade, MBNA, Phillips 66, SBC and WorldSpan, many of which came on board during his watch.
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