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23 June 2010
What exactly is the Big East doing when it comes to expansion and ensuring its long-term viability on the football side?
"There is no simple answer to your question," commissioner John Marinatto told The Courant last week. "As you know, we've always been at eight [teams]. There are issues associated with [eight] that are both positive and negative, but we do want to strengthen ourselves."
"There are no specific answers to share with anybody right now."
No matter what conference followers on the outside say about expansion, there really is an equally pressing need: a better television deal.
The rest of college football is pulling away from the Big East, which has the least lucrative TV contract among the six Bowl Championship Series conferences by far.
There are three years remaining on the six-year deal with ESPN worth about $33 million annually, so a little more than $4.1 million goes to each of the eight football schools. By comparison, the Big Ten, which has its own network, is raking in around $240 million a year — about $22 million for each of its 11 members.
"That's where we're focusing with [special adviser Paul Tagliabue]," Marinatto said. "We're trying to ascertain what our value is in the marketplace so that when we get to the point where it's our turn to renegotiate, we are prepared and we can optimize and maximize our revenue for membership."
The main question for the Big East: Does it simply renegotiate with ESPN or try to create its own network for your viewing pleasure?
It would be difficult for the league to put the brakes on its relationship with ESPN. The Big East and ESPN have been partners since 1979, when both organizations got off the ground.
"We obviously have to honor the three remaining years on our respective contracts with ESPN [football and basketball]," Marinatto said. "We have to honor the terms of our existing agreements, which we fully intend to do, but at the same time we need to be smart in terms of how we determine our value before we get into the negotiating period."
ESPN has reportedly said it won't talk about renegotiating a new deal until the proper time.
The Big East, top to bottom, might have the best men's basketball product of any conference.
It also has six members in the top 12 media markets, 12 in the top 34. That's easily the largest of any conference in America. That is the main reason the Big Ten came sniffing around the Big East for teams.
It might still be sniffing.
