OT: ESPN and Big East close to TV deal

ESPN should've negotiated down to giving each school a big bag of footballs and a bunch of Gatorade mix.  I think they would've taken it.

~Herm

I'm surprised they don't have to pay ESPN for the tv time and exposure.

Is there a termination clause for ESPN when there's no longer a Big East to broadcast?

have to promise a minimum of one Big East College Gameday as part of the deal as well?

The Big East is actually a pretty stable entity now.  If the ACC needs to borrow Cincy and UConn then it will do so, but there aren't any more deathblows in the Big East's future.  It's just a southern-oriented conference now, and if it has to replace more members then there's a very large pool to choose from that won't affect the new character of the conference any.

I was under the impression that the Big East is dead/dying. Why do business with them?

can the bigEast just be a tuesday/wednesday only conference? that would be a way to get themselves a ton of exposure. they could have 2 games tuesday night, 2 games wednesday, that is 8 team a week, maybe even go to three games a night if they really include some of the other random boise schools.

 would you spend money on this

"In 2011, ESPN offered a new nine-year deal to the Big East worth $1.17 billion or an average of $130 million annually. However, the Big East's presidents voted to turn down the deal that would have earned football members nearly $14 million a year."

As I recall, one of Notre Dame's lasting legacies in the Big East was being a vote in the negative for this deal actually. Then again, I also seem to remember that John Marinatto told the Boston Globe in an interview back around this time that believed he might get a better offer from NBC or Fox Sports. After all, why have revenue only somewhat less than the more influential conferences (for now anyway) when you could turn down that deal and make slightly more than the Mountain West or Conference USA?

Rutgers is going to make 1.8 million a month in the Big Ten. 

Should the NCAA have more control over the conferences?  Or at least the BCS ones?  It's weird to me that the NCAA doesn't seem to have any issue with individual conferences and even schools signing their own TV deals, whereas this would never be allowed in professional sports.  (Imagine an NFC East Network in the NFL, or Pacific Division Network in the NBA.)  It's funny that in "amateur" sports you can do this.

They are also still tremendously solid in basketball.  At leat until the nonfootball Jesuit schools that form the core of the basketball league (Georgetown, Marquette, Villanova) spinoff and create their own league.