I think there might have been a bigger upside in terms of exposure if the conference went with NBC Sports Network. Like the NHL, the Big East would have gotten the star treatment on the network.

At ESPN, it will remain a lower level player thanks to the Big East not being the Big East anymore.

Old pal Mark Blaudschun addressed the issue in a post at ajerseyguy.com. For starters, he made a great comment about how the Big East isn’t the only entity which saw its value dramatically reduced in the market.

The official announcement came on Saturday afternoon, with details to follow, which should include a 7-year package in football and basketball which will bring Big East schools a total of approximately $130 million.

That total of course, is far short of the more than $1.2 billion offer the Big East turned down 20 months ago, but then again the Boston Globe was a billion dollar purchase by the New York Times 20 years ago and is now being shopped on the market for approximately 100 million dollars.

Stuff happens.

As for staying with ESPN, Blaudschun writes:

What NBC was offering was exposure and a place as the guest of honor for its NBCSports Network. cable network which still needs more programming.

What ESPN was offering was the comfort of a network which is still the gold standard for broadcasts of college athletics, as well as a relationship with the Big East, which dated back to the creation of both the network and the conference in 1979.

Familiarity was definitely a factor. But so was the wide variety of outlets ESPN had. As one source at the Big East said on Saturday, “ESPN over matched the offer. The deal they offered in terms of exposure is better than the deal we have now in football. It was more than fair.”

So while there will be less money–much less money–ESPN is going to be part of making the Big East the “best of the rest”, which means not quite at the BCS level that the Big East will be part of for one more year, but a cut above, the other groups of conferences such as the Mountain West and Conference USA, who are also fighting for a seat at the main table.