Maybe I am the only one that was blind-sided by this Cuse/Pitt to the ACC thing.

I can't help but think, Pitt's Chancellor was the head of the BE committee that was dealing with ESPN and their offer that was turned down by the conference.

The Big East was hoping to get ESPN, CBS, Fox and NBC into a bidding war for their services.

ESPN was already in bed with the ACC, which is probably the number two basketball conference, and ESPN may bad mouth the Big East for football, but there were key teams they didn't want to lose in basketball to their competitors.

So to me, the signs point to ESPN sabotaging the Big East by going after the guy leading the Big East charge from Pitt to sway him into looking at leaving for the ACC.

And considering ESPNU is based out of Charlotte, I can see ESPN discussing/planting the idea of grabbing Cuse and Pitt with the ACC brass, offering to let them renegotiate their TV deal, which would still be cheaper than having to pay an altogether different deal to the Big East.

What better way to ensure you won't get into a bidding war with your competition than by eliminating the product you would be bidding for, or at the very least weakening it to the point of making it far less attractive to other bidders.

(09-18-2011 08:03 PM)TheJayBo Wrote:  Maybe I am the only one that was blind-sided by this Cuse/Pitt to the ACC thing.

I can't help but think, Pitt's Chancellor was the head of the BE committee that was dealing with ESPN and their offer that was turned down by the conference.

The Big East was hoping to get ESPN, CBS, Fox and NBC into a bidding war for their services.

ESPN was already in bed with the ACC, which is probably the number two basketball conference, and ESPN may bad mouth the Big East for football, but there were key teams they didn't want to lose in basketball to their competitors.

So to me, the signs point to ESPN sabotaging the Big East by going after the guy leading the Big East charge from Pitt to sway him into looking at leaving for the ACC.

And considering ESPNU is based out of Charlotte, I can see ESPN discussing/planting the idea of grabbing Cuse and Pitt with the ACC brass, offering to let them renegotiate their TV deal, which would still be cheaper than having to pay an altogether different deal to the Big East.

What better way to ensure you won't get into a bidding war with your competition than by eliminating the product you would be bidding for, or at the very least weakening it to the point of making it far less attractive to other bidders.

I agree. ESPN had to tell the BE members what the money would be for a deal like this because they can't be making this move with the same ACC money they already have.

Personally, I think that the ACC's envy of the PAC-12's media deal combined with the threat of invasion from the SEC were behind this.

I definitely think that ESPN is behind it. Like you said, it's a lot cheaper to pay the ACC to take 4 schools to lock up the Northeast part of the country than it is to pay a 16 team conference. Now they only need to pay the new new Big East, aka the catholic schools for their basketball rights. All the other schools, i.e Louisville, Cincy, TCU, USF will end up in leagues that ESPN has the rights to, or doesn't care about.

(09-18-2011 08:08 PM)Chappy Wrote:  Personally, I think that the ACC's envy of the PAC-12's media deal combined with the threat of invasion from the SEC were behind this.

I think those very two things were the catalysts ESPN used to get the fear going within the ACC ranks to make them pull off the move.

There is LITTLE doubt ESPN is behind all of this. I always said there is a good chance ESPN could destroy the BE before the next TV deal. Well, here we are sitting on the edge of titantic.

I can't say that I think ESPN is "behind" this. I think they contributed, but they're not the one driving it. Do you think they drove Texas A&M out of the Big IIX? Do you think they're behind the move to make it a Pac-16? Those moves are just as much a contributor to what's going on now as anything else.

To me, the ACC is moving to 14 and raising their exit fees as a way of trying to protect itself from being raided by the SEC and/or the B1G. The fact that the Big East never acted beyond adding TCU is just as big a factor as anything the ACC or ESPN did.

USFFan

Of course ESPN is behind it. They shuffle the money around, tell conferences who to add all while decrying the greed involved in the sport and undercutting the NCAA. How many pay the players stories has ESPN run lately? They want to turn CFB into a pro-style TV package. ESPN is pure business.

I haven't forgotten ESPN's involvement in getting BYU indy & trying to take apart the MWC or their involvement in creating the LHN and destroying the B12.

Of course they were behind it. I love watching college sports, more than the pros, but i cant stand the way its operated right now

Whether ESPN set this up is immaterial. ESPN surely would have sweetened the pot to get the teams and Swofford has indicated they can re-negotiate the contract. This leads me to believe that ESPN was at the very least facilitating a portion of the deal to make assurances for Syracuse and Pitt. It is also hard to believe that FSU and Clemson and VPI would not have listened to the SC (and still would not listen to them) unless there was more $$$$ coming their way.

I don't think they were. They fought hard last year to save the status quo. This opens up deals that they will have to fight for all over again.

As an alternate take to this, it isn't necessarily ESPN just killing off the Big East as a football conference. I think there's something to killing off the competiting entities of ESPN and being able to get more access to schools that they wouldn't have had. NBC Sports Network wanted to get in on college sports, particularly the Big East. FOX made an investment in the Big 12 as a ten member league, but could lose access to A&M going to the SEC (where ESPN owns the majority of football rights), along with games hosted by Texas & Oklahoma. Even if UT and OU go to the Pac-?? where FOX is a TV partner, I suspect that both FOX and ESPN might not get more access to those schools and the conference could decide the extra games would be best served to be part of the Pac-12 Regional Networks.

If there was a time for an anti trust investigation this might be it. ESPN by protecting their Texas LHN is killing off the Big 12 and now in response to the Big East not accepting's ESPN offer and protecting their ACC interest is now killing off the Big East as we know it. This appears to be both a conflict of interest and monopolistic. Remember, ESPN is owned by Disney Corp who is always concerned about their bottom line.

(09-18-2011 08:11 PM)SF Husky Wrote:  There is LITTLE doubt ESPN is behind all of this. I always said there is a good chance ESPN could destroy the BE before the next TV deal. Well, here we are sitting on the edge of titantic.

So true...it was ESPN's fault that they made the Big East Conf REJECT their new TV contract last year.

(09-19-2011 06:46 AM)KnightLight Wrote:  

(09-18-2011 08:11 PM)SF Husky Wrote:  There is LITTLE doubt ESPN is behind all of this. I always said there is a good chance ESPN could destroy the BE before the next TV deal. Well, here we are sitting on the edge of titantic.

So true...it was ESPN's fault that they made the Big East Conf REJECT their new TV contract last year.

No - that was the Pitt president's fault. I couldn't resist.