The thinking is: "more money now!"
The TV sports boom started with small regional sports networks back in the 80s... then the independent regional networks were gobbled up by larger group sports networks like Group W... then ESPN gobbled up all of those before being devoured by the biggest shark of all-- Disney. And now they're back to regional networks within ESPN, with tiers above and below and ABC catching the overflow. The conferences are becoming less geographically aligned; they're a consortium of brands, with everybody trying to aggregate big brands to create desirable matchups and media narratives that can maximize ratings and revenue.
At some point, the common fan will have had enough. And then the kingdom will start to crumble.