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The yet-to-be-named network will provide Texas, already one of the biggest names in college sports, with unprecedented coverage. According to sportsillustrated.com, the network will air 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and televise roughly 200 games, including at least one football game and eight basketball games a year.

The deal will benefit and showcase the academic side of the school as well as the athletic side. The first five years of the agreement will see $25 million go towards academic programs. And there will be academic-focused programming as well, according to Jerome Soloman of the Houston Chronicle.

"The school expects to air three hours a day of non-sports programming -- performances by the school's drama and music departments, plus documentaries made by faculty members and students," he writes.

Still the main benefit will be to Longhorn teams. And Kirk Bohls of The Statesman wrote that the network will be a boon to more than just the revenue-producing sports on campus.

"As beneficial as this will be for Mack Brown and Rick Barnes, it will be mega-appealing to all the nonrevenue sports at Texas," he wrote. "Now ESPN may not televise every hole of the Betsy Rawls tournament and every rowing stroke on Lady Bird Lake, but it will show enough to entice recruits to Austin."

Not surprisingly, Texas' coaches are excited about the possibilities of the network.

"What an exciting day for Texas athletics," football coach Mack Brown said in a statement released by the university. "Any time you can partner with ESPN on a project, you know it's going to be first-class and that it will present unbelievable exposure opportunities for all of our sports and the university."

That exposure is causing some to question whether the network creates a competitive advantage for Texas. ESPN recently announced that they want to see,

"significant coverage of high school athletics on the new University of Texas network to reflect what's culturally important in the state."

But does televising high school games on the network violate NCAA recruiting rules? Some think it may. Sports Illustrated's Michael Rosenberg wrote,

"Don't you think Texas will get a recruiting advantage by putting certain high school games on its network? Will high school coaches steer kids to Texas in the hopes of getting their games on TV? This is shady territory, and I'm sure ESPN will launch a thorough investigation after it goes into its business partnership with the University of Texas. Will the NCAA have the guts to put a stop to this?"

Texas A&M Athletic Director Bill Byrne raised a similar concern, telling the Dallas Morning News,

"I would imagine the governing body will look into the use of a collegiate television network airing games of prospective student-athletes. I understand networks such as FSN and ESPN airing high school sports, but whether or not employees under contract with a university that may have additional contact would seem to be an issue."

But Bohls pointed out that Texas is just taking advantage of their unique popularity.

"Hey, don't blame Texas for being Texas this time. It's looking after its own self interests. Can't fault Texas for maximizing its position in such a populous state with so many potential subscribers."

Rosenberg agrees, saying,

"If you're a Texas fan and you think, "Oh, come on, 95 percent of schools would do this if they had a chance," I think you're wrong. It's more like 98 percent. So this isn't about Texas. I don't fault UT at all."

Patrick Bohn is an assistant editor at Athletic Management.