- Joined
- Feb 22, 2014
- Messages
- 2,129
- Reaction Score
- 8,595
Leveraging the terms of an existing contract is not screwing your partners. ESPN signed that contract knowing its terms and will live by them. Furthermore, these media companies are in business - they will bid for the next contract based on the value of those rights at the time the new deal is negotiated. It's called competition. They won't hand a valuable asset to a competitor by under-bidding in some sort of retribution gambit. Let's look at it another way - does anyone think ESPN will bid more for a future contract if the Big 12 does them a favor by not maximizing the value of the current deal? Hell no.
ESPN just grossly underbid on The B1G Contract. That is a valuable asset and Fox is most certainly a competitor. If I were the Big 12 I would tread lightly. Do what is in your best interest? Absolutely, but understand fully what that is before you act.