There's a big front page article in today's News Sentinel about controversy surrounding a new UT sports media contract. UT awarded the $83.4 million contract last week to Host Communications, Inc. Rival bidder Action Sports is protesting the decision, saying their proposal wasn't given a fair evaluation under the RFP's "point" system. Read the article for details.

One twist is that Action Sports owns the "Jumbotrons" at Neyland Stadium and Thompson-Boling Arena. Under a new contract with another company, UT will have to buy out their interest, and Action has set the price at $11.3 million. It would seem that this reduces the value of any other bidder's contract by that amount, since presumably UT would not have to pay Action Sports if they were awarded the contract.

(Note: the $83.4 million contract does not include revenues from UT football game television broadcasts, which are covered by other contracts.)

Here is more information about the contract from Host Communications.