Marty,
That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is that you could easily fill the time slot with other games. Would UMass-Fordham draw what UConn-St Johns does? In an average weeknight game, probably not. But I think they'd draw reasonably well, and you could get that one for much less. If you have to pay say $6 million for the Big East but can get the A-10 for $1 million, which I think you could, I'm not sure it makes sense to break the bank for the big East because I doubt that Big East basketball, or any basketball for that matter is going to draw that well as to justify such big numbers. On the other hand, if the big East is so desirable that it is worth those kind of dollars for basketball, it seems pretty unlikely that a move to NBCSports, especially for more money, would be damaging to the conference? Either the big East brings the fans and they'll follow it where ever it lands, or the Big East is simply the beneficiary of ESPN's following to a large extent, and should really take whatever it is offered to stay there. another way of putting it is "Is Big East basketball a creation of ESPN or is it valuable in its own right?"