Big East will still gain a very sizeable television contract with either ESPN or NBC when it is all said and done. Losing Notre Dame is a minus across the board except in football (because they never WERE Big East participants in that sport).

Notre Dame isn't as big of a loss as people might expect. I think we'll see after the negotiating period with ESPN, that it will be to our conference's benefit in scheduling and revenue that Notre Dame is no longer sapping our revenue stream.

The impact might be little of nothing or it might be catastrophic.

If I were the president at Georgetown or Providence or Seton Hall I think I'd be calling my peers right now about pulling out. They've been asked to take schools they didn't want (USF, UCF, Houston, SMU, Temple) just to save football. The new TV deal will give 70% of the money to football instead of 66% to basketball under the old deal. They can't be happy about the direction of the league.

So I'd look at starting a new league and the decision to make would be do you round out by inviting old friends UConn and Rutgers and new friends Louisville and Cincinnati or do you say the heck with it and pick some Catholic schools from the A10.

1. Notre Dame will never be a football member of any conference. The Big 10 wanted them all-in, and Notre Dame said no.
2. With the ACC adding a $50M exit fee, it reduces the chances they will get raided by the Big 12 or SEC. Which means they're less likely to need to raid the Big East.
3. Losing ND does not hurt the Big East, since they did not play as a conference member in football. The Big East will go after BYU or Air Force as the 14th football member and all will be well.


I think this actually makes the conferences more stable, not less.

It's hard to say what the impact will be on the BE contract, because no one knew what that contract would be with Dame. The BE faithful were saying a minimum of 10mill per team 6 months ago, which, of course, was completely ludicrous then and even more ludicrous now. I'd look for something in the $5 mill per year range, which will result in a big pay cut for the long-term BE football programs....many of which take massive amounts ($20 mill per annum +) from the students/taxpayers to fund their programs even with the AQ money and the prior TV deal. The newbies, of course, will receive a pay-raise and will be happy.

(09-12-2012 11:22 PM)EdisonDoyle Wrote:  It's hard to say what the impact will be on the BE contract, because no one knew what that contract would be with Dame. The BE faithful were saying a minimum of 10mill per team 6 months ago, which, of course, was completely ludicrous then and even more ludicrous now. I'd look for something in the $5 mill per year range, which will result in a big pay cut for the long-term BE football programs....many of which take massive amounts ($20 mill per annum +) from the students/taxpayers to fund their programs even with the AQ money and the prior TV deal. The newbies, of course, will receive a pay-raise and will be happy.

Even the lowest estimates are over $14M.