Big 12 athletic directors voted unanimously to prohibit the Longhorn Network from airing high school sporting events Monday.

In addition, any conference games aired on the Longhorn Network would need the approval of the Big 12 and the opposing school.

Below is the full statement from the Big 12 Conference:

Hear Richard Cho, the recruiting manager at Facebook, discuss trends in social recruiting and how Facebook’s hiring process works this week at Mediabistro Career Circus, August 4 in New York. Other speakers include Andrew Goldman (HBO), Cary Barbor (Martha Stewart Living Radio), Susan Strayer (Marriott International), and more. Register Now.

Congratulations to ESPN football commentator Craig James, who beat Fox droll-monger Joe Buck in the finals of Awful Announcing’s 32-person tournament to determine who would replace former Sunday Night Baseball commentator Joe Morgan on AA’s four-person Mount Rushmore. James joins Pam Ward, Dick Vitale and Tim McCarver on the facade.

James defeated his broadcast partner Mike Patrick in Round 1 and was never tested along the way, also beating out some of the biggest names in AA lore – Rick Reilly, Stephen A. Smith, Chris Berman, and Joe Buck.  His victories over Berman and Buck were astoundingly ginormous.  77% of the vote against Berman and 85% of the vote against Buck (over 21,000 votes in the Final were cast for Craig James).

Is James an “awful” announcer? That’s debatable. Frankly I’ve never found anything he’s said to be particularly insightful or inflammable; but he’s a former college football star from Texas, who happens to be telegenic, so he gets a lot of airtime on the World Wide Leader. Is he an “awful” human being? That assessment might have more traction, at least when you consider Awful Announcing’s take on why James was so unpopular among voters in the site’s tournament.

In case you’ve been in the Alaskan wilderness the last two years, James’ son Adam was at the center of a scandal that resulted in Mike Leach being fired from Texas Tech.  Since, Leach has been on a crusade against Tech, Craig James, and ESPN in what appeared to be a “he said, she said” kind of roundabout argument.

But when excerpts from Leach’s new book, Swing Your Sword, were introduced it was a gamechanger.  Now, we had visible proof through e-mails between James and his hired trolls at Spaeth Communications that the PR campaign against Leach was largely bogus.  Spaeth and James conspired to falsely vilify Leach, forward lies from Adam James as truth, pollute blogs with fake comments, and feed fabrications to ESPN “reporters,” all the while grinding a personal axe against Leach for not treating Adam James with the regality that he deserved.  Simply, Craig James took part in a false character assassination using his position in the college football media and on the “leader” to do nothing more than carry out his petty, childish, pathetic personal agenda.

With the NFL season a little more than a month away, Charter Communications reached a new, long-term agreement for carriage of the NFL Network.

NFL Network will be available to Charter customers on the Digital View Plus tier and in high definition to customers with high-definition service and HDTVs. In addition, Charter’s sports tiers customers will receive the NFL RedZone channel. Read more

A rumor floating around the Twitterverse in the past few days alleged that New York Jets coach Rex Ryan had asked comedian Adam Sandler to call prize free agent cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha and sell him on the merits of playing for the Jets. Turns out the rumor, which began with Michael Lombardi of the NFL Network, was not true. But what if it were? And what if we had the opportunity to actually listen to what Sandler would say to Asomughi by means of a sales pitch? Enter Dan Patrick, who had Sandler on his radio show.

Jets fans will be heartbroken to hear this clip, because Sandler no doubt would have closed the deal. Provided Asomugha is a sucker for gibberish.

(H/T to Sportsgrid)

Maybe it’s the public backlash over “The Decision.” Or maybe it’s LeBron James‘ disappearing act in the fourth quarter of last season’s playoff games. Or maybe it’s Dwyane Wade‘s insistence on always doing press conferences right alongside James, looking part lackey and part look-out. Or maybe it’s all those reasons and more that the public image and marketability of James and Wade, respectively, have plummeted over the last year, according to Nielsen Sports, whose N-Score measures name and image awareness, appeal and personality attributes such as sincerity, approachability, experience and influence, both at the national and local levels.

Over the last year James’ N-score dropped from 131 to 26, while Wade’s went down from 117 to 34. Both fell out of the top 10 NBA list, which was led by Dirk Nowitski of the Mavericks at 132.

“From endorsement superstars to being knocked off the top 10 list, they’ve learned the hard way the importance of public perception and appeal,” said Stephen Master, vice president at Nielsen Sports. “After that whole Game 6 press conference, do you think companies are going to be lining up to do business with LeBron James? Probably not.”

Following Nowitski in the top 5 of NBA players are Kobe Bryant (83); Steve Nash (68); Kevin Garnett (65) and Tim Duncan (51).

You know summer has arrived when the WWE collectible Slurpee and Super Big Gulp cups and straws are at your local 7-Eleven.

For the third consecutive summer, the WWE and the convenience store giant have teamed up to promote the sports entertainment brand.

“It is a testament to the branding power of both 7-Eleven and WWE that has enabled us to undertake a third consecutive summer promotion,” said Michelle Wilson, chief marketing officer, WWE. “We look forward to another successful partnership that drives WWE fans to 7-Eleven stores to collect cups and straws as part of their WWE memorabilia collection.” Read more

Former NFL veteran Hugh Douglas is joining ESPN as a studio analyst.

The former NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year will provide analysis on SportsCenter, NFL Live, First Take and ESPNEWS.

Douglas makes his ESPN debut Monday, including an appearance on NFL Live at 4 p.m. ET.

“I am very excited about becoming a part of the ESPN family,” Douglas said. “I plan to approach my role with ESPN with the same tenacity and commitment that I had during my 10-year NFL career.”

Following his retirement in 2004, Douglas worked as a sports radio personality on Philadelphia’s WIP 610 Radio and served as an on-air reporter for Comcast SportsNet.

 

Chicago sportscaster Mike Adamle was cleared of driving under the influence after Cook County prosecutors dismissed the charges Friday.

The 61-year-old was stopped in January by Evanston police after he committed a traffic violation and exhibited erratic behavior, according to authorities. Adamle’s blood-alcohol level was only 0.04, half the legal limit.

Goalie Hope Solo signed a multi-year marketing deal with Gatorade, according to Sports Business Daily.

This is the second major endorsement deal for a player from the U.S. women’s national soccer team. Following a second place finish in the Women’s World Cup, Solo, along with Abby Wambach and Alex Morgan, inked an endorsement deal with Bank of America.

“Being on the cover of Sports Illustrated helped her awareness with the general public,” Richard Motzkin of Wasserman Media Group told SBJ. “She has an opportunity to become well-known not just in the soccer scene, but in the public mainstream as well.” Motzkin has represented Solo for  10 years.

Gatorade is no stranger when it comes to sponsorships with the U.S. women’s national team. The beverage company has sponsored the ladies since 1999 and they signed Wambach to an individual deal in 2004.

Gow Broadcasting announced today that Sporting News Radio has been rebranded as Yahoo! Sports Radio, a change that will affect about 180 affiliates and will allow content from Yahoo! Sports and Rivals to now be featured on the radio network.

David Gow, chairman of Gow Broadcasting, said the relationship with Yahoo! will include branding, content and promotional elements and is effective immediately. Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.

“We’re aligning with the No. 1 sports media web company in the world,” Gow said. “We’re picking up one of the most recognizable brand names in the world. We’re getting access to some of the best sports journalism in the country, and we get to link ourselves together in a way that will accelerate the growth of our digital business.

“When you combine the sports experts of Yahoo and Rivals with our on-air talent and analysts, we believe we will have the best roster in sports radio. And we can take that combined roster and create compelling sports radio, grow our affiliate base and audience size and take our company to much greater heights.”

Gow said the radio network plans to add new shows in collaboration with Yahoo in the next 60 days to reflect the new partnership. Topics could include weekend programs on fantasy sports, mixed martial arts, soccer and golf, he said.