The next cycle of domestic rights to the US college sports conference the Big East will be opened up to the market after sports broadcaster ESPN failed to reach a deal with the operators of the conference, the ESPN College website said.
The report said that ESPN would not reach a deal with the conference before a 60-day window of exclusive talks expires this week.
The Big East’s current basketball media rights deal with ESPN and the CBS network expires after the 2012-13 academic year, while the American football deal with ESPN expires after the 2013-14 academic year.
The report said that the NBC Sports division of the NBC network had impressed the conference’s athletic directors during a pitch at the Big East’s sprint meetings in April. The Fox network also pitched to the directors in April, the website added.