re: In realignment circus, desperate Big East likely to lose its AQ status

That story is linked three posts above yours. It's one person's opinion. Also, it is not fact that ESPN was involved in the defections of Syracuse and Pitt. As Mike DeCourcy puts it, "what would be ESPN's motivation? To increase the costs of their ACC contract?"

A more plausable story is that the ACC layed out several expansion scenarios and some ESPN exec told them which one looked the best. That's a far cry from it being "engineered by ESPN."