packages. The whole point of creating a network is to get on a cable package. ESPN gets like $6 from every comcast/Dish/Directv subscriber every month. (I'm going to make up numbers here to get the point across).

If you are the PAC-12, you create a network. You want this network on Comcast, Dish, Directv. You make a deal that you get $1 a month from every subscriber. If you add UNLV, you get the cable guys to put the PAC-12 Network on the basic cable package in Las Vegas and you get $1 per subscriber. Las Vegas Metro has 2.3 million people in it. Let's pretend they all have Comcast. You have just generated 2.3 million dollars a month for the P12 Network.

This is why Rutgers and Maryland were so valuable. Not because their programs were good, but because the cable subscribers were so man.

The goal of adding SDSU, Rice and SMU is that those universities are in highly populated areas. If you can add SMU and get the P12 Network on the basic cable package on in Dallas at $1 per subscriber per month then you've just generated 8 million dollars of revenue a month for yourself.

It's why adding both Utah and BYU was not a good idea for the P12. By adding Utah, you got the P12 Network on tv in Provo. Adding both teams didn't increase your revenue.

So, to your question. LA Metro has 18 million people in it. By losing the LA schools, you are getting the P12 Networks kicked off 18 million people's basic cable package. You've lost that $1 per subscriber per month, or 18 million dollars (theoretically) per month. You didn't care if people watched or not. You just wanted the P12 Network on the cable package.

But by adding in markets that equal 18 million, you've added back those cable packages and you have the same revenue you had before.