If there is one story to read, this SBJ article on how Fox and ESPN teamed up to give the Pac-12 their huge deal, and keep NBC/Comcast out of the game.

Prior to that call, executives from ESPN and Fox were resigned to losing the Pac-10’s media rights to Comcast, which had told the conference weeks earlier that it would bid $225 million per year to pick up the rights for Versus and NBC. Neither of the current partners, ESPN nor Fox, had the shelf space to bid that much individually.

In early April, NBC Sports executives, led by Chairman Dick Ebersol, gave a presentation in New York, according to conference sources. Pac-10 officials left the meeting believing that Comcast viewed the Pac-10 as an important piece of its plans to build NBC Sports and Versus. Steve Burke, CEO of NBC Universal, also was present to meet and greet Pac-10 executives, but he left before the meeting started.

Despite the strong bid, the conference recognized its long relationship with the two incumbents. The Pac-10’s media consultant, Evolution Media’s Chris Bevilacqua, proposed an idea to Skipper: What if the two media giants joined forces and combined their bid?

The intrigue of that, and the concerted effort by the Mouse Monopoly and House of Murdoch to work together on keeping NBC/Comcast out of the picture is astounding. Beyond giving the Pac-12 control and content to have their own network on top of this, the Pac-12 also retained all digital rights to their games. That’s huge for inventory and future packaging.

But there is a lot more to this story , and bodes well (hopefully) for the Big East.

Obviously, this still leaves a major media company out there jonesing hard to expand their inventory. With the Big East the only BCS conference coming on the market in the next couple of years, they become that much more attractive. Voodoo Five (USF) is excited at the possibility.

The fact that Notre Dame already has a relationship with NBC could only help. It would be an opportunity for NBC/Comcast to get more Notre Dame football and have them in basketball. Pitt and ND have their long-running football series through 2016 at the moment. Starting in 2014, Syracuse and ND have a 4-year series. Not to mention a game at UConn in 2017

Of course it is not without risk and some big questions. Will NBC/Comcast make the commitment to air Big East games on NBC or try to keep it all on Versus (or whatever the next name will be)? How much and how hard are they willing to promote the Big East? Will they cross-promote on Sunday NFL games (whenever the lockout ends) which would be a huge spot. What kind of resources are they willing to commit to producing and airing football and basketball?

The last is a big issue. Let’s face it, Versus and Comcast’s work on the Mtn. network has not even matched the ESPN/Big East syndication in production values. Heck, anyone particularly impressed with NBC’s production for Notre Dame football?

Here’s the other issue. ESPN, and it looks like FoxSports as well, has limited space to broadcast Big East games. Football, because of it’s small conference size might still have good fit at 9 teams in ESPN’s line-up. For Comcast/NBC, however, it would behoove them to have more inventory — and thus at least 10 teams for football.

The other issue with 10 schools, allowing the Big East to play a 9 game conference schedule. Something that is likely to become increasingly common as the cost for patsy games continues to rise and the difficulties in non-con scheduling continues.

Speaking in general terms, [West Virginia AD Oliver] Luck said West Virginia is “assuming, as we look down the road and try to make schedules do what schedules are supposed to do, we’re making the assumption we’ll have nine conference games.

“That’s because I think we’ll have nine conference games, and a 10th member, relatively soon. And we need a 10th team. If you look at it from a television standpoint, it adds content.”

With an 8-game conference schedule, that’s an inventory of 36 games (a jump from 28 with 7-games). 9 games (minimum 10 teams needed) increases conference inventory to 45 games.

Then there’s the Villanova issue. In case you were, unaware, Comcast is based in Philly. Deeply tied to the city. One of Comcast’s biggest regional sports channels is their Philly one. Would they want Villanova as a full member in the Big East? Would it make the Big East more attractive to them? Are there any personal ties between Comcast and Villanova that could come into play?

With Comcast also having regional sports channels in Baltimore and DC as well, there would be potential for great exposure in that region for the Big East. A real pushback against the ACC.

Football may be driving the money for conference media rights, but ESPN would have to make a tough call. Not for the football, but basketball. Losing basketball also means no live college programing tying them to the Northeast in basketball season except for Boston College (ACC) and Penn St. (Big 10). Nothing in New York. No Philly market or New Jersey.

The other thing the Pac-12 negotiations may have taught NBC/Comcast is that it might pay to have a second partner to help share costs and rights. We’ve seen Turner team up with CBS for the NCAA Tournament. Why couldn’t NBC/Comcast do something with Turner? Or even CBS, which would probably like to grow its CBS College Sports Channel almost as much as NBC wants to grow Versus.

It just screams that the Big East is sitting on some great options if it can figure out a strategy — and Commissioner John Marinatto can handle it. Those are some big, big ifs.