1080 this morning

[Danzz]

If you are not willing to blame Marinnato (saying its the Presidents etc) then you shouldn't credit Larry Scott for his proactive and lucrative maneuvers for the Pac12. He brought the innovative analysis and gameplan to the PAC 12 Presidents who had their eyes opened wide by a smart and savvy guy. Does that sound like what happened in Providence?

The circumstances were different for the Pac 12. The Pac 12 like most of the major conferences were football first conferences from the start. The BE was formed as a basketball conference with loosely alligned football schools. Once football became the overwhelming driving force, the BE was doomed as a football conference. The BE is still a basketball first conference because half the schools don't play Div 1 football.This was not the case or culture for Larry Scott.
I'm not saying that Mainnato hasn't made mistakes because I don't know but I've never heard one person post a course of action that would have worked.

 

[IthacaMatt]

I think the part about the academies has the strongest possibility of being true but I think the rest is pretty much a wrong and wild guess. I don't think any current Big East members are going indy and we all know that Boise isn't going to the Pac 12, or at least we should all realize that. I think that without the academies this new league still works pretty well with adding Boise, Houston, SMU, UCF, and hopefully BYU. Adding those 4 or 5 schools is really all that matters in all of this.

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com...-usa-members-ucf-president-john-hitt-big-east
UCF's President confirmed pretty much confirmed over the weekend that all 3 CUSA schools are coming and are ready to announce whenever they get the green light fromthe league. The hold up is BYU and to a lesser extent Boise because they are waiting on BYU or another western team.

You need to read it again more closely - he didn't say "decide to go" independent - he said "find themselves as" independent. That's talking about the defection of Louisville triggering the basketball schools to break away.

But that's kind of a stupid argument. The only thing the basketball onlines have is the name and ownership of the history of the conference. That's what will keep them on TV and in the Garden for the foreseeable future. If they suddenly broke off and became the Eastern Catholic League, do you think they come within a mile of the existing TV contract ? And where do they play their conference championship, at the Dunk?

 

[mattp]

So who still thinks beign a basketball power means anything? My biggest concern has been that if kansas could almost be left in the dark, UCONN certainly could, and it looks like it might happen. Not sure how it would work out, but maybe playing as an indepednent for a few years, with a local tv contract would be possible.

we'll be just like Notre Dame!!! i actually think staying in the Big East in everything else and going independent in football for a few years could be a lot of fun. hopefully we'd be able to put together a competent schedule, but assuming we can, it would give us a lot of freedom to try to schedule big name opponents. if we can put together a top level team, we can still make BCS bowls.

not having an AQ hasn't kept teams like Utah and Boise from multiple appearances and we've seen several others come very close. maybe we can build ourselves up with a lot of 10 win seasons against a MWC/CUSA level schedule. if BCS autobids go completely out the window we might have an easier time making a BCS bowl as an independent since BE wins are always so undervalued by voters anyway. the toughest obstacle would be fewer bowl game opportunities but with more independent teams it's always possible that the tie ins will be different

 

[pepband99]

see our 8-4 independent season as a reason this shouldn't happen. If you're 12-0 or 11-1, being an indy is possibly great. Anything less, and not having a bowl tie-in means you're screwed.

 

[willie99]

BSU is coming for football only. They're pretty good at that

and maybe some football money will help them elevate everything else

hoops paved the way for just about everything UConn is today

 

[willie99]

as for Scott Gray, I stopped listening to him about 10 years ago when he said the Phoenix Coyotes were condoning and encouraging gang violence because they picked purple and black as their uniform colors.

He said those were popular gang colors

I kid you not

 

[epark88]

see our 8-4 independent season as a reason this shouldn't happen. If you're 12-0 or 11-1, being an indy is possibly great. Anything less, and not having a bowl tie-in means you're screwed.

Actually we were 9-3 that season, and politics kept us out.

Big Lew had an opportunity to throw us a bone and have Kansas accept a bowl in TX instead of one in FL which could've taken us, and for whatever reason he dissed us and snagged the FL bowl anyway.

Without bowl tie-ins, we'd be subject to some crazy arrangements at season's end. If the system is already shipping BCS-quality teams to Vegas, what do you think it would do to an 8-4ish UConn?...

 

[Da_Aisijimo_Gou]

Actually we were 9-3 that season, and politics kept us out. Big Lew had an opportunity to throw us a bone and have Kansas accept a bowl in TX instead of one in FL which could've taken us, and for whatever reason he dissed us and snagged the FL bowl anyway.

In that specific instrance as KU AD, how did Perkins "diss us"? At that point, the Jayhawks played at least one if not 2 games per season in Texas. Florida? Not so often, and Perkins was all about fundraising. Maybe he was looking out for KU, a more attractive ball location, and the potential for KU alumni/fan fundraising among Kansas snow birds.

 

[mattp]

we were kept out at 9-3, but i think if we were 9-3 as an independent today we'd get a bowl. at that time we were barely 1A, i think we've established ourselves a bit more now. we would definitely have to schedule to win 9-10/year, with 7-8 wins being a bad year, which means our schedule would have a lot of fluff, but if we had 6-7 MAC/CUSA teams along 3-4 lousy BCS teams a la Duke or Cuse, and two heavyweights i think we could be successful. we would basically have to schedule a MWC or CUSA type schedule overall