Good timing for ESPN to broker this deal. We're still in the exclusive negotiating window with them, so this makes our conference less valuable, therefore they will low-ball us even more.
Yup, this has ESPN back-door tactics written all over it.
ESPN is single-handedly destroying college football. They've effectively reduced the amount of haves to 63 (Pac12, Big12, ACC, SEC, Big10 and ND), which all but eliminates the have nots (every other conference and team) from competing for a national championship.