Not that they wouldn't get by just fine with BYU in the Big12, but ESPN would lose out on some real good inventory that they can show in the later time slots aimed at the mountain and pacific time zones. Other than a few Pac12 games and a couple BSU games, BYU is all ESPN has out west. So, in ESPN's perfect world, they'd probably prefer BYU to be independent. ESPN also gets a pretty darn good deal on BYU games. Still, I don't think it's a big deal to ESPN, and I doubt they would do anything to trash our chances at P5 conference membership.