(03-23-2017 11:19 AM)stever20 Wrote:  

(03-23-2017 11:13 AM)bluesox Wrote:  Uconn to the big east with a football only to the Mwc? Crazy or maybe not if espn gives the mwc some coin

why would ESPN do that allowing UConn to go to Fox? That's just stupid.

Yea, ESPN isn't facilitating that move. If UConn does go to the BE, it'll mean either they stay as football-only in the AAC (as the conference wouldn't need to ask for an additional share) or they went football indy and Fox floated them with a nominal national deal to grease the skids on the basketball move. Getting Fox to invest in a distribution deal could be key to it all being workable, as I think they also own the rights to the PAC and a portion of the Big 12/B1G, and if they could lean on the conferences to keep an independent UConn on the list of approved P5-equivalent opponents it would help a ton in scheduling lower-level P5 opponents looking for a soft OOC schedule that also meets conference requirements.

They're not going to call up Oregon and say "give UConn a home-and-home because we said so", but letting the conference know their broadcast partner would appreciate the equivalency could mean, say, Kansas signs up for a home-and-home on their own.