This is the latest loss of big-name talent at ESPN: Last year, for various reasons, Keith Olbermann, Bill Simmons, Jason Whitlock and Colin Cowherd left. Earlier this week, Mike Tirico chose to say goodbye after a quarter-century and move to NBC Sports, where, it appears, he may get a shot at replacing Al Michaels on “Sunday Night Football” and Bob Costas as the Olympics prime-time host.

I don’t get the sense that Bayless is leaving because of any concerns at ESPN about paying high-priced talent while it is losing subscribers to cord-cutting. This is, it seems, Bayless flush with nearly a decade of rising success at ESPN, looking to receive greater riches and, possibly, more control at Fox-owned FS1.

The deal with FS1 is not done yet, but there is no reason to think it will unravel. Bayless turned down ESPN’s offer last Friday and he is talking to FS1 executives, chiefly Jamie Horowitz, the former coordinating producer of “First Take,” who is the president of Fox Sports national networks. He has worked with Bayless and, since going to Fox, coveted him. Now, it appears, he has him.

Horowitz cannot reunite Bayless with Smith, who renewed his contract last year for over $3 million annually.

ESPN is left with a major question: Who, among its talking heads, is capable of replacing Bayless? It may not be easy to find the right person. Chemistry is difficult to manufacture. You need the right mix of intelligence and bloviating. ESPN can’t throw just anyone onto “First Take” and expect him or her to match hardheaded wits against Smith, a verbal force who occasionally gets into trouble with his bosses. His remarks about domestic violence during the Ray Rice scandal earned him a suspension. ESPN’s former ombudsman Robert Lipsyte wrote in 2014 that the positives of a show like “First Take” (a growing audience and some “thought-provoking, entertaining television”) also mean that ESPN has to “live with — or at least take more responsibility — when that particular septic tank overflows.”