Nebraska athletic officials are expecting to double their TV revenue from $10 million to about $20 million a year in the Big Ten. Besides receiving TV money from the broadcast and cable networks, each conference school reportedly receives a $6.5 million annual payout from the Big Ten Network.

The 24-hour network also provides addition exposure for conference sports teams. For instance, last fall it broadcast all football games not aired by ESPN or ABC, and most of them were live.

Kevin Weiberg, Big 12 commissioner from 1998 to 2007, helped launch the Big Ten Network as its vice president of university planning and development. Now the Pac 10's chief operating officer and deputy director, Weiberg is expected to use his TV expertise in developing plans for a TV network for the expanded conference, which is likely to include Oklahoma and Oklahoma State.

Weiberg, who along with Big Ten Network officials declined to be interviewed, will find it's not so easy this time around.

However, in an interview last month with the Columbia (Mo.) Daily Tribune, Weiberg credited stronger leadership and conference unity for the network's success.

"In Jim Delaney, the Big Ten has a commissioner who's unafraid to take risks and has enormous clout within the conference and around the country,” Weiberg said. "Second, and perhaps most important, the Big Ten is unique in its solidarity among the member schools.”

In early stages, the network faced enormous start-up costs and the challenges of getting cable and satellite systems on board. In the Big Ten's eight-state area, cable and satellite systems reportedly pay 70 to 80 cents a month per subscriber. Some at first balked at the costs, which are passed on to subscribers.

Malcolm Moran, a former New York Times and USA Today sports writer, has observed the Big Ten Network's growth from Penn State, where he is director of the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism.

"It appeared to be a very difficult negotiation period to work out the distribution on some cable outlets, particularly Comcast, which is huge in Philadelphia and Chicago,” Moran said.

Outside the main area, the network reportedly charges 5 to 10 cents a month per subscriber.

Other conferences, including the Big 12 and SEC, have discussed starting their own networks, only to decide against it.

"If a league with the visibility and the interest that the SEC inspires chose a different route,” Moran said, "it's safe to explain that there are a number of good reasons to explain why they chose that route.”

An expanded Pac-10 will present difficult challenges for Weiberg. As a diverse conference in a large geographic area, it won't have the same institutional unity as the Big Ten. The network likely also will be a tougher sell to cable and satellite systems in an area.

The Pac-10 reportedly receives $96 million annually as part of its TV contracts, which will expire in two seasons. The expanded conference will need to generate much more TV revenue to accommodate a 16-team split.

If anyone can pull it off, Moran says it might be Weiberg.

"What I think he would appreciate as much as anybody is that the success of the Big Ten Network in such a short amount of time may obscure how difficult it is to pull this off,” Moran said.

Moran acknowledges the Big Ten Network is playing a major role in conference realignment by luring schools to the Big Ten.

"All of sudden institutions that thought three or four years ago that they were in a pretty good situation now look at the Big Ten and think, 'What were we thinking?'”