(07-02-2019 10:38 AM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  https://www.tulsaworld.com/sports/colleg...a7bd2.html

This article from last night and interview with Aresco makes it sound like ESPN can renegotiate the terms of the original AAC TV deal.

“We’re going to sit down with ESPN fairly soon,” Aresco said. “Obviously we hope that the impact is minimal, but I really don’t want to get into it. I don’t want to do anything that would put them on the spot.”

Is “renegotiate” the right word?

“We don’t know yet,” Aresco said. “I think we should leave it at that.”

Sounds like Aresco is unsure how ESPN would proceed with a UConn-less AAC package, which was not the same tune he was singing just a week ago.

It looks like they might be able to. The reality? Conventional wisdom says the vast majority of the deal is in football. We also know no other conference wants to take UConn football---even conferences only earning $400-$800K per team. Thus, we know the value of UConn football must below that number. So, the loss of value for the vast majority of the contract is negligible. The real question is how much does the loss of UConn affect the basketball side of the deal? My guess is ESPN is going to want the AAC add someone like VCU to replace the chunk of value UConn took to the Big East.

Adding VCU now---along with a promise to add football #12 within a couple of years, will probably give ESPN enough to leave things alone....for now.