US cable-television sports broadcaster ESPN will be able to cancel its new rights deal with the Big East college sports conference if certain teams leave the competition, according to ESPN’s news website.
The seven-year deal, from 2013-14 to 2019-20, includes a clause that would allow ESPN to cancel the agreement if two of the conference’s ‘Group A’ members – Connecticut, Cincinnati, Houston and Temple – or a combination of one Group A member and one of the remaining ‘Group B’ colleges, quit the conference. If two Group B colleges leave, the contract would be renegotiated, the report said.
The clause does not include any schools that already have announced they are leaving, such as Louisville, Rutgers, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh or Syracuse.
The deal, worth a total of $126 million (€96.9 million), was first reported by ESPN last month. As the incumbent rights-holder, ESPN was given the opportunity of matching the highest offer on the table, from the NBC Sports division of US media company NBCUniversal.
The agreement includes seven years of coverage of Big East men’s basketball, from 2013-14 to 2019-20, and six years of coverage of American football and other sports, from 2014-15 to 2019-2020.