One of the key factors in the decision making from the B1G when they contracted with their second TV partner was the fact that a number of their key coaches (Meyer and Harbaugh) were strongly against being completely off of ESPN airwaves. They believed that it would significantly hurt the ability for their programs to recruit if their content was not on the worldwide leader.

I can tell you that Turner was very interested in getting into the Big 10 sweepstakes as they are very interested in expanding their live sports content. They know that March Madness is a big winner for them and they want more college sports to feed into the tournament. It appears that Comcast/NBCU was also in on the discussions but Turner was more formidable in the bidding process.