[timmynausea]

I think Swaggs called it a while back. The Big East not only was flirting with NBC (and to a lesser degree Fox) over ESPN for their next contract, the commissioner was bragging about it constantly. Makes a lot of sense to me that the ESPN just had the ACC, whom they've already signed to a long term deal, take out the Big East in response.

And of course the Big East commissioner John Marinotto was completely blindsided by this. This is why I couldn't believe it when Marinotto was calling for a face to face meeting with the Big 12 and ACC commissioners a few weeks ago to talk about what their plans were. This isn't the mickey mouse club, and you're a complete idiot if you think one or both of those conferences isn't plotting to take you out. Did he think the ACC was going to tip their hand at this meeting or something? I honestly think he was convinced that the Big East was in the driver's seat with a new contract on the way and wanted to do those conferences the courtesy of letting them know the Big East's intention of expanding (probably just going for the Big 12 leftovers, but there were rumors about approaching BC or Maryland as well, depending on how big the NBC offer was.)

After the 2003 ACC raid, the Big East administrators have been obsessed with the idea of doing things "the right way" and being "above board." So instead of actually being proactive, he wants a face to face meeting to telegraph his plans, is completely blindsided and is now reading headlines this morning like "Marinotto Clueless as the Big East Crumbles".