Bingo!
I read the artcile this morning regarding adding BYU. The artcile pissed me off for 2 reasons.
1. It makes it look like BYU and the BE are some jaded ex lovers and that they are going to come crawling back once the new TV deal is in place...... The best part is it a quote from the famous "industry source" aka this is ESPN's way of trying to add fuel to a fire that is not there. They have been doing this to the BE for years now.
2. The per school payouts seem really low. How can a "respectable" journalist entity remain objective when they are reporting on an entity they are engaged in contract negotiations with? Of course they are going to devalue the product publicly in order to make it look less appealing so they pay less for it. Are we the SEC, no, but we are definately on par or close to the ACC. The problem ESPN has is we are the last conference in the market and they dont want the competition to get any additional programming.
I think the BE is going to NBC and will end up with weekly primetime BROADCAST TV games and possible afternoon games. All of the other games will end up on NBC sports. This is great visibility for all involved and an upgrade to all involved. Even if full members get $12-15M per school and Football only members get $7-10M per school. This would be an upgrade for all BE schools and BYU if you were to join. We could use the $45M in exit fees to buy BYU out of the Football portion portion of the TV contract, and they can renegotiate the TV deal for BBall and all other sports. Better tv deal, more exposure, and a possible BB scheduling agreement makes this a win win for all of us. Trying to schedule 12 football games per year is tough to do. This will give them quality opponents on a yearly basis and still allow them to schedule ND, Utah, etc. It may not be a bad deal for yus. Its just a thought.