In the fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood, the big bad wolf stalks a sweet, innocent little girl through the woods. The wolf is afraid to eat the girl in public and talks her into telling him where she is going.

After learning she is headed to her grandmother’s house, the wolf convinces the girl to pick flowers, which gives him time to get to grandma’s house ahead of her.

Upon arriving at grandma’s house the big bad wolf swallows grannie whole and puts on her nightgown to await Miss Hood.

Of course Little Red Riding Hood is no fool, and immediately recognizes that something is wrong.

“My, what big hands you have. My, what big eyes you have. My, what big teeth you have,” she says.

The wolf has an excuse for everything, and tells her that his large teeth are for eating her, and swallows her whole as well.

A hunter comes along and cuts the two out of the belly, fills the wolf with stones and the wolf drowns in the well when he goes to get a drink – ridding the world of his evil presence forever.

Now, lets take some modern entities and put them into the fairy tale.

We’ll put the Pac-12 football conference in as Little Red Riding Hood – she’s a little older, has been to jail a few times, and swears like a sailor, but still looks good in her trademark hood and cloak.

We’ll put the Big-12 football conference in as grandma, and then we’ll put ESPN in as the Big Bad Wolf.

Now, before I take the analogy any further, I don’t think that ESPN the channel is all that bad, in fact, I think it is pretty darn awesome.

The big bad wolf refers to ESPN the conglomeration, reaching its long, multi-fingered tentacles into every aspect of sport, from Little League to professional, and making millions on the backs of the masses.

ESPN jumped into bed and swallowed the Big-12 whole with the creation of the Longhorn Network, which broadcasts the University of Texas Longhorns’ football games and any other Longhorn programs it can.

It’s even looking at broadcasting high school football games as well, which has some college football coaches screaming foul.

“You’re going to advertise your school on there, where you list all the great recruits you have on there? There’s just no common sense there. That can’t happen. Are you kidding me?” University of Missouri Head Football Coach Gary Pinkel was quoted as saying in an online report.

Now there is talk of the Pac-12 creating their own broadcast network. In fact, they’ve already entered into talks to create seven channels for the Pac-12 fans.

What happens when there isn’t enough programming from the college level? Can we expect to see high school football games from around the state broadcast on Pac-12’s Oregon channel? Can we expect to see the Bruins on television in the near future?

I can just imagine ESPN licking its chops as it fantasizes about some if not all of the Pac-12 channels. 

Here’s hoping that the hunter rescues our poor Little Red Riding Hood before the Big Bad Wolf swallows her whole.

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Here is a weight-loss update: I began this adventure at 366 pounds. As of Tuesday morning, I weighed 326 pounds, a 40-pound difference – or as my wife put it as she placed my 10-month old son on my shoulder, “Do you realize you’ve lost a whole one of him?”