also, and not to harp on this but here is one more thought...
it takes 2 to tango. the media partners wanted to settle up with the big 12 and agreed to enter into negotiations with them. they could have said no, lets wait, we have this more lucrative deal pending with the Pac, but they sure as **** didnt because that wasnt the case. the big 12 was the more lucratuive deal.
That's a really insightful observation. TV and TV money is really what is driving all this anyway. If Fox/ESPN valued the PAC higher than the Big12, they wouldn't have done the early negotiation with BY - or they would have lowballed the heck out of it. BY didn't "trick" the TV folks into that for crying out loud. It's a lot more likely the TV folks did it to further destabilize the PAC.
So if you want to blame someone, you could start with the B1G for taking your flagships. Or you could start with the TV folks for paying for that to happen. But that would be admitting you are on the wrong side of the power leverage curve, and that's pretty scary.