It seems straight forward to me with the public auction, high bidder takes the spectrum. They can't particularly court a company for any type of special treatment in that case. The only reason Verizon could turn it's attention to Intelsat directly would be for a buyout.
It's not outside the realm of reality, because Intelsat just went through a courting with OneWeb/SoftBank, which they are currently suing them for not going through with. So fact is, Intelsat is, FOR SALE.