Big East Expansion

College football has gone Whacko! It is spinning totally out of control.

I can see the natural geographical rivalry between Syracuse and San Diego State. What will the increased travel budget costs in football and basketball do to less revenue generating sports like, say, baseball? I can see where travel expenses for football and basketball cut into the budgets of other sports. I believe these conference realignments disregarding geography are dangerous to college baseball.

Cmon. When you think of the Big East Conference, isn't San Diego State the first school that comes to mind.

Aztec Alumns are pretty excited as I'm sure are Boise States. Finally a AQ. The BC$ has brought this on. How does Michigan play in a BC$ bowl and Boise is left out.

quote:

Originally posted by RJM:
I can see the natural geographical rivalry between Syracuse and San Diego State. What will the increased travel budget costs in football and basketball do to less revenue generating sports like, say, baseball? I can see where travel expenses for football and basketball cut into the budgets of other sports. I believe these conference realignments disregarding geography are dangerous to college baseball.

Actually the BEC is limited to footbal. All other sports including basketball will end up in the Big West. Which 1.has a better T.V deal *Fox & espn) 2.Natural rivials i.e Fullerton, Cal State Long Beach, U.C Irvine,U.C Riverside. Travel expenses will be a dream compared with MWC with trips to Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Texas.

RJM,

Syracuse is moving to ACC and I would not be shocked if UCONN goes too. BC, Miami, and VT started this mess a few years ago. I wonder if Syracuse will pick up baseball again in the ACC? - or if they will be like Wisconsin in the Big 10.

As a Cincinnati alum and fan, I have been following this all very closely. Reading everything I can find on it. The following are mostly opinions of mine, nothing more.

* UConn will not be going to the ACC so long as BC has any say about it (reference Boston Globe interview with BC AD) a month or two ago.
* ESPN seems to have their fingers in a lot of the conference realignment as they may have advised/directed(?) the ACC on which schools to go after and possibly somewhat in retaliation for the Big East deciding not to sign a TV deal with them last year in hopes of getting a better deal with Comcast (also reference comments by BC AD in same interview).
* The "new" incoming Big East football...is actually stronger by this year's finish than the outgoing one. Note:

These are the current RPI style rankings of the teams leaving the Big East or left before they ever came.
#18-TCU
#26- WVU
#63- Pitt
#85- Syracuse

These are the current RPI style ranks for those coming in.
#4- Boise State
#14- Houston
#46- San Diego State
#61- SMU
#82- UCF (Though an off year this year, last year they finished #20)

* The Longhorn network (LHN), affiliated now with ESPN...seems to have done more to initiate a lot of the movement as much as anything else...Colorado to the Pac 12, Nebraska to the B1G, Texas A&M and Mizzou to the SEC...all in large part due to the distaste for being a part of a conference with Texas.
* The Big East is very definitely over-controlled by the basketball schools...who hindered moves over the past couple of years that could have been beneficial to the football part of the conference in order to protect the basketball interests (just read the WVU lawsuit trying to escape immediately from the Big East)...but the Big East was also probably poorly managed by the current commissioner.

Additionally, we may look back on the Big East's model in a few years as actually being ahead of its time (although it may well fail anyways). That is, "hybrid" conferences where a school is aligned one way for football, but completely differently for all of the other sports...or the minor sports. Personally, if we are headed towards a 4x16 super conference structure I am rooting for this as its the only way baseball and other sports survive in terms of travel budgets.

Lastly, I, like nearly every other Cincinnati alum...hopes like he!! that the Bearcats find their way into an expanded Big 12 in another year or two. Rumors on both sides about whether or not that happens. Louisville and maybe Rutgers are more likely. But we all hope the Bearcats can move too. That tells you my own opinion of the current Big East management and operating philosophy.

And lastly, lastly...I fear all of this movement...coast to coast...trying to create super conferences...will ruin college football as I love it. It already has to some degree...you can see that if you watched any Wednesday/Thursday night MAC/CUSA type games on TV this year. No one in the stands. UGH!

The Big East.
It's neither big, or East.

And the Big 10 is big, however not 10.

I think it will be called the Capitol One Frequent Flyer Miles Club Conference sponsored by United Airlines.

JBB those are some good thoughts and points and agree with most of them. I do think that while this year the teams coming in are stronger this year than the ones leaving I believe overall this is a step backwards for the Big East.

Can you even really include TCU since they have backed out of joining already and will enter the Big 12? This actually helps make your point but out of Boise State and to a degree Houston none of these teams are really BCS worthy. Look at how the BCS treats Boise State and they are the trophy team of this group. I can see the BCS use this as a reason to get rid of the Big East's AQ status so they can have more control over who they want to pick to go to the big games. Michigan was picked over Boise because they will make money off Michigan and not as much from Boise.

I think the WVU lawsuit will disappear fairly soon or be settled quickly. The Big East went after them because they didn't have anybody lined up to replace them and wanted to try and protect their integrity as a conference. Now they have replacements there's no point in keeping the lawsuit going.

Cincy needs to jump ship as fast as possible too. I think they made a great hire in Butch Jones but if they want to keep him they need to get into a better conference. I can see Cincy joining the Big 10 and fitting in rather easily.

Coach - All good points.

Cincinnati would love nothing better than to join the Big 10. However, OSU will never...I repeat, NEVER let that happen. The relationship between OSU and other state schools (administrative- and legislative-wise) is perhaps the most toxic in the entire country. 20-25 years ago, when Cincinnati built a new basketball arena, because it was state funded (in part), the capacity had to be held at least 100 seats below OSU's St. John's Arena (their home at the time). Cincy to the Big 10 will just never happen.

The perception of UC under Huggins was that of a bunch of thugs who never went to class. Perhaps earned? Don't really know. But about a month ago, UC was one of 3 universities ranked in the top-25 in football, basketball and research $$. Forbes and Travel & Leisure both rate the campus as one of the top 20 in the world (largely due to the architecture) along with Stanford, Princeton and others.

It gets a bad rap sometimes...occasionally deserved, often not.

But you are right, Butch Jones is a class act...just hope they can hang on to him. Big 12 is their best shot.

The WVU lawsuits (both directions) are all about getting about $20M out of them to let them leave next year. The current fee is $5M and 2+ year wait...it will get resolved when the right number is matched.

The biggest problem with the Big East expansion is perception. Truthfully, Pitt and especially Syracuse haven't played very good football in a while. They should be better, they just aren't. No question Boise is far better than both...but even over the past several years the other new members are all better than Syracuse and to some degree Pitt. Losing WVU was the biggest blow. (BTW, don't you worry/wonder about travel for the WVU non-revenue sports athletes? WOW!).

As I said, we are all hoping UC finds a path to the Big 12. On their side are TV market in/near Big 10 territory, campus, research $$ (nearing AAU status), recruiting grounds, new AD (Whit Babcock) and Butch Jones. Against them are national perception and relatively low attendance (average about 35K).

I hope it happens. Until then, I guess I'll take a short trip down to SDSU and over to Boise from my home to watch them play.

I had no idea there was that much animosity between tOSU and Cincy. I always wondered why tOSU wouldn't play Cincy when they did their version of a state championship non-conference schedule when they took on Akron and Toledo and whoever else. Given that I believe the Big 12 is their best bet. What about ACC or are they done with expansion?

Totally agree about the perception of the Big East with Pitt and Syracuse not playing well. When BC, VT and Miami left I thought bringing in Louisville, UConn and USF were good moves but they turned into places where coaches look to jump to a bigger job or dumb coaches getting in trouble. I think this is where some of that bad perception comes from. When RichRod left WVU they went with an emotional hire and it's bit them in the rearend. Hopefully with Holgorson and moving to a big name conference WVU can right the ship.

quote:

I had no idea there was that much animosity between tOSU and Cincy. I always wondered why tOSU wouldn't play Cincy when they did their version of a state championship non-conference schedule when they took on Akron and Toledo and whoever else

You mean actually putting the Buckeyes at risk of actually losing to an in-state opponent? Why would they actually risk doing something like that?

Also interesting...generally speaking, Bearcat fans have virtually no animosity towards OSU. Its kind of a non-issue for most (even though they beat the Buckeyes TWICE for the basketball national championship! 1961 & 62 ).

...and did I mention (just for RJM ), that Sandy Koufax was just inducted into the UC HOF? Even though he only played there for 1 year (on a basketball scholarship).

Just throwing this out there with conference re-alignment. Anybody think that if the B1G comes knocking, Mizzou leaves its new home in the SEC to join the B1G? It is believed that was their first choice initially...

thoughts?

quote:

Originally posted by Bulldog 19:
Just throwing this out there with conference re-alignment. Anybody think that if the B1G comes knocking, Mizzou leaves its new home in the SEC to join the B1G? It is believed that was their first choice initially...

Yes.

B1G will not court Mizzou. They didn't want Mizzou when Mizzou was throwing herself at the conference.

I just read the below paragraph by Ivan Maisel’s 3-Point Stance on ESPN.com:

Washington athletic director Scott Woodward, who appeared at the IMG Intercollegiate Athletic Forum this week, said he spends two hours in the football office every morning “because it is the engine that drives everything we do.” Later, he elaborated. The Husky crew program is one of the best in the nation and a sport in which the school and its fans take great pride. When crew supporters ask him how they can help, Woodward said, “I tell them to buy football tickets.”

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/f...ug=ap-texasam-sumlin

Big East might be taking another hit. Looks like Houston's coach will be at Texas A & M next year instead.

What does that say how other coaches view the BE? You got a coach of a very successful team in a non-AQ conference but instead of staying with them as they move into an AQ conference they jump ship. Obviously money has a LOT to do with this but speaking strictly from the football angle they just got what they wanted - recognition and a chance at a national championship.

There is an unsubstantiated rumor floating around on the Internet......several Japanese, Korean and Phillipine universities are rumored to be joining the Big East. The stocks of several airlines serving the Pacific Rim have risen in after hours trading.

Really, I can't take this Big East thing seriously. Is this not the most ridiculous thing to happen in college sports since the BCS.

quote:

Originally posted by fenwaysouth:
There is an unsubstantiated rumor floating around on the Internet......several Japanese, Korean and Phillipine universities are rumored to be joining the Big East. The stocks of several airlines serving the Pacific Rim have risen in after hours trading.

Really, I can't take this Big East thing seriously. Is this not the most ridiculous thing to happen in college sports since the BCS.

They thought it was the Big Far East.