No, Fox/BTN loses a significant amount of controllable inventory as a result of the reduction to 8 conference games and I doubt they are fully on board with this.From an inventory perspective, it would still be a wash. When you play a conference game, two teams are playing in one game, thus one TV timeslot. In an out of conference game, those same two teams are now playing in different games, thus two TV timeslots. While the media company may loose out on the away game being on their network, they would still get the same number of games. The difference is, at least I think, out of conference games may generate more interest and thus viewers because its something different.
Do you think ESPN is going to have the SEC stay at 8 conference games? No flippin way and Sankey has admitted that.