component that is they are already paying $6-8M for BYU separately and if random team picked over BYU is not currently being paid separately then ESPN is on the hook for a complete $10M extra for said team. But if BYU is picked then they stop paying that $6-8M to BYU for a separate contract and instead pay them $10M under the B12 contract.

In that scenario their bottom line would have been saved $6-8M over keeping the BYU contract and keeping any other random team with out a separate ESPN contract.

Then you can start to consider other value proposition in comparing candidates, etc. But I can almost guarantee you that no other non-P5 team would be able to cover more on a value proposition consideration for ESPN to make up that $6-8M bottom line component for them...