Those schools more than other AAC teams. ESPN may be hoping that if the AAC could pay those schools $15-20 million it might be more than they could get on their own working with FOX or CBS. ESPN would still save money while getting OU and Texas to the SEC sooner.
It should be noted that ESPN apparently offered the AAC incentives to poach, which also leads me to believe it would provide the resources.
Whether the Big 12 survives depends on whether or not FOX or CBS is willing to pay the Orphans more TV revenue than ESPN would in the AAC.