While that is true, it is equally as likely that because they lost content (C07) to Fox, they do not want to allow another competitor into the marketplace. NBC made a very weak bid for the Big East. ESPN does not actually want the Big East, which I think agree on. However, for the lowball price NBC put out for the league, it is probably worth it to match the bid anyway. Now, they get to preserve UConn, Cincy, Memphis, Temple basketball games which are pretty good, and have some value comparatively. But most importantly, they denied NBC content with which to compete with ESPN. The fact that the content is weak compared to what ESPN offers doesn't change the fact that for a relatively low cost (compared to the deals for other conferences), ESPN completely shut NBC out of the college market, save for ND.I land on the side that they are doing much more ruthless business than bad business.
NBC didn't have a reason to overbid for the Big East, but with the extravagent offers going to the conferences, good businesspeople would understand that a lowball offer against the strongest corporation in the sports marketing business was going to be matched. ESPN has an interest in preventing competition in their domain as much as they can. ESPN figured it was either worth it to match the deal, even if it was a loss financially, for theoverall payoff of eliminating a competitor.