You can pour through the archives of this blog and find plenty of posts by me saying and (on occasion) explaining why the Big East will split by the end of 2010 between b-ball only and football schools.

I’ve always felt that the main reason would be the way ESPN has and will increasingly shunt televised Big East football to weekday nights — Fridays and Wednesdays — while minimizing the broadcasts on weekends.

Well I may have to hedge on the time, at a minimum, since the Big East is apparently close to a new deal with ESPN.

The Big East is close to a six-year contract extension with ESPN to televise conference basketball and football games, according to a network source.

Financial terms are not known, but the deal apparently would extend ESPN’s considerable commitment to men’s basketball and perhaps grant exclusive conference football rights to ABC and ESPN.

The basketball part looks especially good for the conference.

According to the source, the deal, which would start in 2007 and run through 2013, would increase regular season basketball coverage, including the addition of a second weekly prime time game to go along with Big Monday.

Under the terms, ESPN would agree to show every intraconference basketball game (except for those on CBS) on one of its outlets.

Games would be shown on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Classic, ESPNU, ESPN 360 – a broadband service that allows fans to watch games on their home computers – or the ESPN regional network.

The Big East is already part of the network’s prime time Big Monday package, but under the new deal the network would add a nationally televised Thursday game to be shown in prime time on either ESPN or ESPN2.

Basketball games would also be part of the ESPN Full Court package, a pay-per-view plan that allows fans to see games not broadcast in their area.

In addition, every game of the Big East tournament would be televised by ESPN or ESPN2.

That would maintain the BET as the primary and marquee tournament on ESPN. Two national games on the weekdays is also a big deal considering the conference size. That would mean all 128 of the BE Conference games would be on some TV outlet, and likely would go to 144 if the BE expands to an 18 game schedule.

All games being on a national TV outlet is also huge — provided they can ever expand ESPNU to more then ten people.

As for the football side,

As for football, the details, in terms of the number of games, have not been finalized, but fans could expect to see Saturday games on ABC as well as weeknight and weekend games on ESPN.

ESPN would probably also broadcast a Labor Day or Thanksgiving weekend game.

Football games would also be included in the Game Plan package, which is the college football version of Full Court.

It doesn’t sound much better, to be honest. Except perhaps insuring that all games are televised — even in it’s through GamePlan. But if the deal is extended to 2013, breaking up the conference sooner seems less likely.

There is one glimmer of hope. The Big 11 is negotiating with FOX.

Fox Sports would love to seize a Big Ten football package after nailing down rights to four of the five BCS bowl games. Fox will break into the college game after the new year by broadcasting the Jan. 1 Fiesta Bowl, followed by the Orange, Sugar and national championship game, which figures to add a title sponsor. (The Rose Bowl remains an ABC property.)

Fox made a run at Notre Dame before the Irish re-upped with NBC in December 2003. And the network wants to join forces with the Big Ten to add a season-long buildup to the BCS games.

But ESPN has to be considered the strong favorite to retain its Big Ten rights, in large part because of its continued commitment to college athletics.
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So while Fox might offer more money, ESPN would be nearly impossible to top in terms of national exposure. The NHL and Senior PGA Tour (now the Champions Tour) have not exactly flourished after leaving those omnipresent four letters.

The Big Ten could take an entirely different route by forming its own network and partnering with a cable distributor, such as Comcast.

The New York Yankees and New Jersey Nets live and breathe on the YES Network, and the NFL Network has boosted its availability to 65 million homes.

Such a move would be a radical departure for the Big Ten, which, since its first deal with ESPN more than 20 years ago, has thrived. If only its 2005-06 basketball teams could say the same.

Last year, ESPN’s networks and GamePlan had 42 of the 44 Big 11 games on TV. I just don’t see the Big 11 jumping to FOX unless they could get some sort of guaranteed set-up that would put other games on all of the Fox regional sports channels.

It would be a short-sighted move to get more money for less national exposure. And unlike the Big East’s issue with being shunted to weekday games increasingly, that isn’t an issue for the Big 11 in football.

Still, if that were to happen, that would open things up for more Saturday BE games on ESPN.