Reply to thread

Message

[QUOTE="IthacaMatt, post: 283146, member: 405"]
The reason they got that huge amount of money was because (a) the Longhorn Network threatened to bring down the whole conference - and Texas still has the Longhorn Network deal; and (b) if the Big 12 had blown up, you had Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State (and at the time, Missouri) - all out in the cold without a BCS level conference.  
 
All hell would have broken out over that and ESPN would have been looking at an anti-trust suit, along with the folks who run the BCS.  It almost happened before with Orrin Hatch starting to kick up a fuss on behalf of BYU a few years ago.  All those folks in the Midwest would have gone ape- if they had been left out in conference realignment.  That was when there were the Kansas to the Big East rumors.  
 
THAT is why the Big 12 got this huge payout from ESPN, when they only had 10 teams, and then were below the 10 team mark and had to poach WVU to keep at that number.  The Big 12 is ESPN's payoff.  Their conference is not worth that much, really, especially when Texas keeps all its own Tier 3 rights.
[/QUOTE]

Verification

What is a Syracuse fan's favorite color?