I realize the latest Big East Commissioner from the Providence College cabal has stressed the need to improve the Big East’s bowl tie-ins as a top priority. And I don’t disagree since that is the most immediate contract. At the same time, he dismisses the need for a 9th team in football.

Well, the football stuff and the bloated side of basketball is in need of being addressed because of the impact on the TV money.

This shows the current set-up for TV deals in the conferences.

It is no surprise that the Big East has the worst contract of any of the BCS conferences with a 6-year/$200 million arrangement with ESPN/ABC for football and basketball. The Big East wasn’t in a position of strength having just lost three football teams and being on double-secret BCS probation.

Still, it is hideous even compared to the inept work of the Pac-10:

• ABC/ESPN: Five years, $125 million for football

• Fox Sports Net: Five years, $97 million for football

• ABC/ESPN: Six years, $52.5 million for basketball

(All run through 2011-12.)

However the Big East allocates the money to football schools versus basketball only schools, it is not good for the football schools overall. Guessing that $100 mill gets a roughly 8-way split ($12.5 mill) and the other half gets a 16-way ($6.25 mill), that’s a paltry $18.75 million over the course of the 6-year deal (or $3.125 mill/year).

Even the Pac-10 clears over $5 mill per team per year with their contracts, and they are considered to have the dumbest negotiators in big-time college sports.

This only underscores one of the problems with the Big East’s basketball side. It is just too big. Too many slices of the pie. Couple that with the too small football side that can’t get even close to the same drawing power of the other major conferences, and this will be a looming catastrophe for the football programs competitively. And eventually for the basketball side as well.

BONUS UPDATE: Brian Bennett on his Big East football blog for ESPN has some more disturbing numbers on where Big East teams lie on the overall list of what D-1 programs take in for overall revenue:

Now think about this: The top Big East teams made less than half of the revenue that Texas and Ohio State generated. Ten of the 12 SEC schools, 10 of the 11 Big Ten schools, six of the 10 Pac-10 schools and half the Big 12 ranked ahead of the top Big East revenue maker.

This list isn’t all about football, of course, and some schools sponsor several sports that bring in money. But we all know that football is the rainmaker, and those that have the most cash usually find the most success. The gap between the SEC and the Big East (and possibly everybody else) only figures to widen given the SEC’s new lucrative TV deal.

39. UConn: $54.7 million

40.: WVU: $54.3 million

44. Louisville: $52.2 million

45. Rutgers: $50.2 million

54. Syracuse: $44.7 million

61. Pittsburgh: $39.7 million

66. South Florida: $34.7 million

67. Cincinnati: $33.9 million

Yeep. Here’s the full chart.