Frustrated with the Big East? Feel like the suits in Providence are morons that only look out for the basketball schools? Pining for the ACC or Big 10/12? Just wish the conference would get its act together and make more money on a TV deal? Or start up their own channel? Want the conference to expand in football, but hate the choices?

I’ve been thinking a little bit about this. As much as Pitt, Syracuse, Rutgers, UConn, etc. are stuck right now with the Big East. There are no good choices.

Apologies in advance if this seems a little disjointed. Every time I’ve been about to wrap this up and post, there has been one more link and one more thing that I wanted to add.

The conference expansion spinning has come to an abrupt stop. As far as the Big East is concerned, nothing happened. If anything, things have solidified and stabilized for at least a few years — for good and bad.

The Big 12/10 is now at 10 teams, and may look to expand eventually. But, it will likely take a few years before they do anything, and their choices aren’t that great as far as football and media markets are concerned. They could stretch the geography to grab Louisville, but that really doesn’t move the football needle. BYU remains doubtful with their insistence on not doing anything on Sunday. TCU? Houston? Southern Miss? No.

Texas wants its own channel. Now that it has put the rest of the Big 12 in its place, it will probably focus on putting it’s own channel into action without having to worry about the conference situation. A good case could be made that the long-term Texas plan is to have its own channel in place so that when expansion happens next, they can better stake their claim to retaining control over more of their media rights. That or force whatever conference they might join to actually pay them a huge buyout for it.

The Big 10/12 has stopped for. While Jim Delany may still be thinking of adding more pieces, the chaos seems to have spooked the presidents of the schools. The only way that changes is if Notre Dame finally changed its mind. Not happening. The Irish didn’t break down when it looked like all hell was happening. They won’t do it now. So, everyone is saying the Big 10/12 is done with expansion — unless they can land a big fish like ND or Texas.

The SEC and ACC aren’t likely to go beyond 12 teams. The SEC, especially wouldn’t expand unless it is a voyage into a new market like Texas (A&M). The one thing the Big East basketball side of things has shown is that, too many teams really diminishes the amount of money each school gets. So that will keep things in check. The ACC isn’t going to stage another raid unless they lose teams of their own.

Then there is Pac-10/12 expansion. I think the other conferences will watch how their expansion goes regarding the money. The first issue: how much do they really increase their media rights?

But the response from media-rights consultants to Pac-10 expansion has ranged from lukewarm to chilly.

“On a per-school basis, it’s not a massive increase,” said AJ Maestas, president of Navigate Sports and Entertainment Marketing, “but there’s a net benefit to adding Utah and Colorado.”

Maestas projects the league’s per-school revenue to jump from $8 million-$9 million to $13 million-$14 million based on the new TV deals and a football championship game.

But a significant portion of that increase, he said, comes from “an inflation accelerator and catching up to their fair market price.” (The league, which has a $43 million annual deal with Fox Sports Net, has been undervalued for years.)

How much of the new revenue is a direct result of adding Colorado and Utah, which bring the Denver and Salt Lake City television markets, respectively?

“Gaining Colorado is absolutely meaningless for TV purposes,” said a consultant who has negotiated TV deals for college conferences. “And gaining Utah is close to meaningless.”

Of course, no one expected the ACC to get the money it just got.

The second issue is whether the Pac-10/12 gets its own network going.

If it struggles to find a niche and barely exceeds “The Mtn” then the ardor by other conferences for their own network fades. The Big Ten Network would be seen as the exception.

But if a Pac-10/12 network succeeds then it changes a lot. You would have two conferences successfully having control of their own properties and establishes that the Big Ten Network is not just an aberration. Without a doubt you would see the SEC and ACC plan for their own networks at the end of their TV deals. Even the Big 12/10 would have to look for someway to pull it off with Texas’ blessing. There doesn’t appear to be any shortage of media partners interested in teaming with the Pac-10 on its own network.

ESPN recently sent word to the conference that it is interested in discussing a possible channel partnership, sources say. The move is a significant one for ESPN, which in the past has tried to keep conferences like the SEC from launching such a channel, and it shows that ESPN will be a serious bidder.

…

Fox has had preliminary conversations with the conference about a partnership on a channel that would be similar to the Big Ten Network, which, in the college world, is considered a runaway success. Fox owns slightly less than half of the channel.

The wild card is Comcast. By the time the Pac-10 begins to accept bids, regulators will have approved of Comcast’s NBC acquisition, which should put Comcast at the table for any future rights negotiation. Having been out of the public eye for the year since the acquisition has been under regulatory review, Comcast almost certainly will covet the conference’s media rights, both for Versus and its family of regional sports networks.

While most industry observers view the Pac-10’s additions of Colorado and Utah as poor substitutes for Texas and Oklahoma, Comcast executives see the Pac-10 as a perfect fit. It operates cable systems throughout Colorado and Utah; it’s not the dominant cable operator in either Texas or Oklahoma. As it currently stands, Comcast is the dominant cable operator in markets covering eight of the Pac-10’s 12 schools.

Comcast likes to own programming in areas where it operates cable systems. I’d look for Comcast not only to bid on the media rights, but also to look into partnering on a channel.

The Big East conference and Big East football schools find themselves in a tough situation. Time and money are against them.

The football schools need at least one other football school. Just for scheduling. Yes, we can all agree the choices suck. When hoping Villanova makes the move to 1-A seems like the best option, you know it is bad.

The basketball schools don’t want any other members. They don’t want to lose an equal say over the conference. They certainly don’t want to start splitting the Big East basketball revenue with yet another program. DePaul, Seton Hall or Providence isn’t getting kicked out. The other basketball schools wouldn’t support it, there would be lawsuits, and even if the Big East wanted to they would have to give notice and time to improve like they did for Temple.

The conference is unlikely to bring in a football only member. No program would likely be interested without at least a long-term agreement that they would become full members.

Here, I know, is where people start tossing out the idea of Army and Navy joining as football-only members. That doesn’t interest the service academies. They left a conference to go independent in football so they could schedule nationally. They can get bowl bids without being part of a conference, and there is no aspiration for their programs to challenge for a national title — just being respectable and representative of their military branch. There is no real benefit for them to be part of the Big East in football.

As for the ‘Nova solution, here’s the problem for them. Even if they can secure use of the Linc or somehow get a decent-sized facility to operate or use in the area, how can they risk committing to 1-A football? How can they when it is very clear that any of the Big East football schools would bolt for another BCS conference in a nanosecond? If Big East football conference did implode, they would still be on the hook for the costs of upgrading their program, while being forced to consider dropping to something like C-USA. From a Villanova perspective, it is hard to see the possible benefits outweigh some very significant risks.

Almost casually and without thought — is the idea of a Big East Network.

There are three years remaining on the six-year deal with ESPN worth about $33 million annually, so a little more than $4.1 million goes to each of the eight football schools. By comparison, the Big Ten, which has its own network, is raking in around $240 million a year — about $22 million for each of its 11 members.

“That’s where we’re focusing with [special adviser Paul Tagliabue],” Marinatto said. “We’re trying to ascertain what our value is in the marketplace so that when we get to the point where it’s our turn to renegotiate, we are prepared and we can optimize and maximize our revenue for membership.”

The main question for the Big East: Does it simply renegotiate with ESPN or try to create its own network for your viewing pleasure?

It would be difficult for the league to put the brakes on its relationship with ESPN. The Big East and ESPN have been partners since 1979, when both organizations got off the ground.

“We obviously have to honor the three remaining years on our respective contracts with ESPN [football and basketball],” Marinatto said. “We have to honor the terms of our existing agreements, which we fully intend to do, but at the same time we need to be smart in terms of how we determine our value before we get into the negotiating period.”

The SEC and ACC have contracts that keep their money competitive and gives them time to see what happens with the Big Ten Network over the longer term and what a Pac-10/12 network might do. The Big East isn’t making much money right now, and they don’t have the time between contracts to wait and see.

The Big East media contract comes up in 2013. Seemingly too long with the present revenue gaps. Yet it is too short to watch and see what happens with the Pac-10/12 and if they do their own network.

Even considering a Big East Network would require the expansion to 9 or more likely 10 football schools. Why? Inventory for games.

With 8 teams, once you get into the conference slate there are no more than 4 Big East games in a weekend. That is not even accounting for byes.

There is no doubt that even if the Big East starts its own network, they would still have  a deal with ESPN/ABC (or god help us, FoxSports) that would have the Mouse Monopoly picking 1-2 games each week for Thursday/Friday/Saturday games. That wouldn’t leave the Big East with much to fill the two Saturday slots on its own network.

Regardless of the fact that the Big East is a basketball conference, football is the moneymaker. The plight of Kansas demonstrated that more than any other example. and how can a Big East Network sell itself when it doesn’t have any games to showcase?

So, yeah, UCF can probably be a little cocky that their time will come. They are likely right. No matter how much USF tries to pretend otherwise.

The biggest complaint in the Big East comes from the football coaches who want a ninth team so they can have four home and four away games. There have been talks about adding a ninth school just for football, and UCF has been mentioned, but Woolard doesn’t see that happening in the foreseeable future.

“ESPN values both the basketball and football in this conference,” Woolard said. “The league feels if there is somebody out there that is an automatic and would bring us instant recognition we would go for it. We would have to cross that path if it happened, but right now it appears things have slowed down and there might be stability.

“I think this league has been good for everyone in it. We manage to do alright with eight football teams. Most of us play six or seven home games in a season and having that year when you play only three conference games at home hasn’t been that bad.”

Sure. Just keep making that argument while scheduling two 1-AA teams per year. I’m sure the other schools buy it.

I play this out in my head and no good, proactive option is out there for the Big East and Big East football schools. There are options. Choices. But none of them feel like a clear path.