The two caveats the writer misses is that A) he is comparing the best big 10 games to all Big East games and B) the Big 10 games likely got the best slots. Even with those caveats, assume the Big East gets about half the Big 10’s $2.5 million/game for hoops. It would still be pretty good. The ballpark estimate would be about $150 million for the league ($1.3 per game x 120 games) based on what the Big 10 made.
Let’s look at the most recent comparable. The PAC 12 ratings were terrible, and by the time the networks are done they will be paying (2x $100 for USC and UCLA, 4 x $31 for Colorado, Utah, Arizona and Arizona State; 2 x $50 for Washington and Oregon; 2 x $20 for Cal and Stanford in ACC) &460 a year for the Pac 12 teams, let’s assume 25% is hoops (number is probably greater in streaming) and we have a recent price of $115 million a year for basketball rights to bad programs that will be playing games against non rivals going forward.
Finally, Apple just bid between $25 and $30 million per team for the PAC leftovers, whose ratings were bad.
$150 million a year for the Big East seems like reasonable starting point, even if it comes down a bit. That doesn’t suck. We will see.