30 for 30....Requiem for the Big East

[whaler11]

UConn should have let it die in 1993. It would have focused minds about football. They would have been ready to play in 1996.

We often disagree UpSt. but you get that UConn and Notre Dame were the two biggest supporters of the ridiculous hybrid - which is a core concept few understand.

 

[upstater]

We often disagree UpSt. but you get that UConn and Notre Dame were the two biggest supporters of the ridiculous hybrid - which is a core concept few understand.

The Courant reported that back in 1993. The Catholics had enough votes to split, but Harry Hartley peeled off a few of the Catholics by putting forth an amendment that said any league decision would require 75% of the vote (which took power away from the football schools). This was enough for UConn and Tranghese/Gavitt faction to box-in Georgetown, St. John's and Seton Hall who were looking to end the BE. UConn carried the day with a 7-3 vote. Villanova and Providence voted with UConn and the football side (Syracuse, BC, Pitt, Miami).

 

[whaler11]

And it went on long after that.

 

[IMind]

The ironic part is that if the split had occurred in 1993 we wouldn't be worrying about our football program being in a P5.

 

[upstater]

The ironic part is that if the split had occurred in 1993 we wouldn't be worrying about our football program being in a P5.

I would not be so sure. Remember, Perkins was pushing for a stadium in 1990-1991. They thought they had the stadium on campus solved in 1993. That's when they got political blowback that set the plans back 4 or 5 years. If the league split up in 1994 (1993 was the plans for a split, vote didn't come until 1994) then it might have focused minds for a stadium much sooner.

 

[IMind]

I would not be so sure. Remember, Perkins was pushing for a stadium in 1990-1991. They thought they had the stadium on campus solved in 1993. That's when they got political blowback that set the plans back 4 or 5 years. If the league split up in 1994 (1993 was the plans for a split, vote didn't come until 1994) then it might have focused minds for a stadium much sooner.

I think that's possible, but it could also have had a chilling effect.. I'm definitely glad, all things considered, that things happened they way they did for us. I still think we're in a far better position than if we had a CAA football team and were playing Butler, Creighton, PC, and DePaul regularly in basketball.