re: How did we not totally get our lunch eaten by the Big Ten with the new TV deals?

quote:

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seems that Sankey and the rest of the SEC 'brain-trust' forgot to include ANY kind of escalator clause, which would automatically provide an option for more $ IF, additional teams [OK,TX] were to be added to the conference ! What kind of idiots do we have in charge ????

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My understanding is there is an escalator clause for adding two teams, it is an equal share to the new members. The sticking point is ESPN doesn’t want to pay additional money for rights to a 9th conference game (more inventory/more premium matchups) the SEC won’t go to 9 games unless ESPN sweetens the pot for the additional game.

Also the escalator clause was just an equal share, whereas national brands like Texas and OU were thought might get more than just an equal share. That is why we Sankey and the universities are being hard assess on the 9th game negotiations. We probably won’t see it until 2026 and that assumes ESPN/Disney want those rights.