ESPN was more nefarious imo, which is why Bob had to use the cease and desist, but it takes both to delay the apple and Amazon types.
Singularly they don’t have the bandwidth to control and shutout new entrants from 5 conferences. But if together they consolidate into two leagues, they grab enough of the value in college athletics that’s it’s very tough for subscription based providers. Even more so with FOX getting all the CBS and NBC to cover the BIG league, which not only allows for expansion of BIG, but marginalizes anything outside the two conferences.
Anything leftover is going to lack the exposure and quality needed. Consolidation of leftovers is really the only chance, and why Pac schools like Utah are on a fool’s errand if they truly think passing on “just” $5 million to consolidate is not worth it. Long term, the networks have no issues with those outside the P2 passing on aggregating their current P5/peer perceptions in favor of fading to a minor league status