the alliance wisely recognized that its better not to give ESPN the power without making them bid on the open market against competitors.

That was somehow part of the deal, that if they scrap the remaining years of the current contract to expand to 12 right away, then ESPN automatically gets the rights.

So now they will just let the current deal play out until 2025 or 2026 when it runs out, and then expand to some bigger number with various media companies being allowed to bid for the rights.

Plus now they'll have time to reconsider the number, so perhaps they will choose some other number besides 12.