One problem with your logic here - with the B1G’s new deal(s), Disney was already down to four power conferences to bid on. They apparently decided only three were worth it.
All those years of hyping the “PAC-12 After Dark”, must have been for naught. As Pat Forde put it last week, ‘the PAC-12 was the first NCAA conference to get cancelled because of its TV ratings’.
Remembering all the TV deal details is difficult the older I get. The overall point is that ESPN was cutting costs. You see articles all over the place of ESPN cutting costs left and right. Well, all their personnel they keep laying off... that doesn't add up to the $380m the Big 12 got from ESPN, and a "matching" contract to the Pac-12 wasn't happening.
But again, the ORIGINAL ESPN plan was to break up the Big 12. They already moved Texas/Oklahoma to the SEC. They wanted to divide the rest of the Big 12 to the Pac-12 (top four schools) and AAC (bottom four schools) and give that contract to the Pac-12.
The Pac-12 had lower ratings because of time zones; but adding Central teams helps that immensely, and the the Big 12 has the "secondary schools" of Texas and then REALLY SMALL STATES compared to the Pac-12, which had major cities like Bay Area, SEA, PHX, DEN, Portland.
When the Big 12 called ESPN out and issued a Cease & Desist letter... ESPN turned around and guided them on adding BYU, Cincy, UCF and Houston (from ESPN conferences) and then broke off talks with the Pac-12.
It's no different that a salary cap crunch where the top two players get raises and there's no room to afford middle-six guys, so they get traded for draft picks. And ESPN has a HISTORY of ignoring/screwing over the middle-tier:
Drastic reduction in what they were paying the old Big East ($18m) vs new Big East ($0) and American ($7m). They completely ditched the Mountain West, WAC, Atlantic 10 and Conference USA over the years.
Being next to the cut-line between "big time conference" and "mid-major" is a very dangerous place to be when you're with ESPN. And it's not that different from when ESPN ditched the NHL in favor of NBA and soccer.