There’s a lot of stuff I have to get to. On the blog, elsewhere on-line, and of course in the offline world.

This is one of those things I’ve been meaning to get to for some time.

The next Big East TV contract looks to be better than the last. Of course, given how far behind the last contract was compared to all the other BCS conferences, that’s not exactly a huge stunner.

The Big East Conference may get as much as $460 million for multiyear television contracts to its college basketball and football games, media analysts said.

The conference, which has 16 members for basketball, may get an increase close to the 230 percent that the Atlantic Coast Conference received when News Corp. (NWSA)’s Fox and Walt Disney Co. (DIS)’s ESPN got in a bidding war, RBC Capital’s David Bank said.

The Big East’s six-year, $200 million contract with Disney’s ESPN network runs through the end of the 2012 season. Commissioner John Marinatto said in December that boosting television fees is a priority for the conference, which has hired former National Football League Commissioner Paul Tagliabue to help. Interest from ESPN and other broadcasters, including Comcast Corp. (CMCSA)’s Versus and Time Warner Inc. (TWX)’s Turner network, may increase the league’s income, analysts said.

Now this comes with a lot of caveats and needs perspective on the numbers.

The article doesn’t indicate whether the number they bandy about is also for 6 years. I’m assuming for the sake of discussion that it does. So to keep numbers nice and round, I’m upping it to $480 million over 6 years or $80 million a year. Now that needs to be split 9 ways in football and 17 ways in basketball.

I don’t know exactly how it gets split, but for argument’s sake, let’s say half divided by the football schools and half for the all the basketball. So that’s $40 million divided by 9 ($4,444,444 per school per year) and another $40 million divided by 17 teams ($2,352,941 per school per year).

For a football school like Pitt, that would mean about $6.8 million a year. The ACC’s latest contract gets them $155 million per year. Nearly $13 million a year for each school. And given the new contracts that the Big 12/10 are getting that will be paying between $13-$20 million per school, per year. And the much better deal looming in the Pac-12, you can see that the Big East is still lagging way, way behind the others.

So, once again, please. No Big East dictated expansion scenarios that include any teams from the ACC or Big 12/10 (untill Texas decides to leave). Also, Anyone thinking that there will be conference stability because of increased money should toss that theory out the window. If another BCS conference comes calling, any school in the Big East would (and should) jump.

That still blows out the money the MWC or C-USA can get, but that only explains why UCF and other schools in that level are begging to get to the Big East. It isn’t access to the BCS Bowl. It’s the money.

Another money story came from Forbes on revenue schools in the Big East take in from football and basketball. It’s an interesting read, but don’t put incredible trust in the numbers. Those revenue numbers are very easily manipulated. Treat them as rough ballpark figures.

The one thing that is clear. Football money is still where it’s at. It also explains one other reason why Pitt needed to make a change at head coach. There is still plenty of room for growth in the football revenue stream. Especially when you consider ticket sales. Pitt has kept the prices exceptionally low trying to get volume to help make up the difference. After everything from the past season — to the loss of faith in the team, the style of play, the disappointments. They were looking at losing any ground gained over the previous years.