The Big East TV deal does not expire after this year. It expires on Dec. 31, 2013. RU is expected to join the Big Ten on July 1, 2014, the very next season, so there is no lost TV money that needs to be made up by the school.
Big East teams currently earn 3.12 mm a year under our current contract. For argument's sake, even if Rutgers had to lose a year of TV revenue by waiting until the 2015 season, RU's current athletics spending is 60mm a year with a 27 million a year school subsidy. That 60mm a year is less than 2 percent of the school's $2b annual budget. Losing out on 3mm for one year is about two tenths of 1 percent.... of the school's overall annual budget.
Chump change.
I think RU can swing that, knowing that once they join the Big Ten, they will be making about 12 million in their first year, more than tripling that to 36mm when the BIG's new contract takes effect in 2017...and to an estimated 43 mm a year (the figure given to Rutgers and Maryland by Delany) by 2020, when Rutgers is earning a full share of the league's new TV rights revenue.