The C7 correctly believed that they could create an identity more aligned with the original vision of the Big East - universities with strong basketball in major cities without football. They also bet on themselves (and won) by believing they were more valuable as their own entity, and not dragged down by a number of programs with little-to-no basketball history/tradition, or very poor basketball success.

ESPN, Fox, NBC, CBS, et al, all had the opportunity to bid on either (or both) of the Big East/AAC when the opportunity arose. While ESPN had the right of matching with the AAC, no competitor made a higher value than what Fox paid for the Big East. Fox could have easily made the same offer to the AAC (they didn't). They could have gotten more content with the AAC. The fact that Fox made the offer for and paid for the Big East the amount it did should be pretty telling where the value of each brand respectively was.