Basketball schools don't want expansion?

[SAMCRO]

If I were the BB schools I'd leverage a much larger exit fee and notice time from the FB schools before voting to add teams to the league. If I was a team being considered for an invite I'd want to see bigger exit fees too.

My sense is that if the 6 remaining FB schools fully committed to rebuilding the BE and didn't have 1 foot out the door, the BB schools would vote in the schools the FB side wanted. This would require the FB schools agreeing to stiffer exit terms. The reality is 4 or 5 of the 6 remaining FB schools have 1 foot out the door, so the BB's are never (and should never) bend over to put a band aid on the BE. What they're saying is either be all in or FB is all over in the BE. I can't blame them. I don't like it, but I get it from their p.o.v.

 

[HartbeatHusky]

Solution is to evolve the BE Football Conference into a single sports alliance (kind of like Hockey East in Ice Hockey) and give out invites to the best football programs out there. I think it might just work.

I agree with this completely and it seems with some of the two leagues one umbrella ideas that the league is actually considering this sort of structure. They are talking about a seperate commissioner for football and everything so that is pretty much what that would be. A single sport alliance. I say we go for it, add 4 teams for football like UCF, ECU, Houston, and SMU and enter into partnership with the MWC conference who is currently looking at the football alliance with CUSA anyway. That would be a much more attractive football partner for the MWC. Temple won't be included because I honestly don't think it would work for them for just football. Joining the Big East in all sports I think could do wonders for fan support and overall presence in their market but since Nova is blocking them it's just not going to happen.

 

[06029]

L
Villanova is being childish.

Villanova is doing what they believe to be in their best interest, no different than any other school in the BE, ACC, SEC, Big 12..... They currently have the Philadelphia monopoly for the best college BB. Adding Temple or St. Joes is not in their best interest from so many different angles. And until the 4 FB schools that6 are looking to jump at the first good offer make some reasonable commitment to the BE, why should Nova or any BB school be willing to compromise. Your position, I believe, is to rebuild the BE. If that is the case, then the BB schools that are being childish seem to be the schools that want to rebuild for a long term. They understand the implications of a band aid approach that will leave them stuck with schools they do not want as long term partners. They understand the implications of travel costs is you have full members that span the country from NM and Boise to Providence. They understand what the last round of expansion led to for them. This is a giant cluster mess. Maybe the best thing that will happen out of it will be a split of the conference with some guaranteed home and homes for 15 to 20 years in BB with St. Johns, Gtown and Nova for Uconn..

 

[ArthurP]

Some of the earlier comments about BB schools not getting "it" are a bit silly. You can read the message boards of Marquette, Villanova, Gtown, etc. They mostly hate the idea of CYO; the only argument in favor of it that I've seen is that it allows those schools to take control of their destiny. But, they also realize: loss of larger fan-base that most FB schools have, loss of clout in TV contract negotiations, loss of conference prestige in becoming a BB conference, etc. would all hurt them. The public statements by BB schools presidents have been decidedly more firm in their commitment to the Big East than what I've seen from the FB schools' presidents.

 

[HartbeatHusky]

Some of the earlier comments about BB schools not getting "it" are a bit silly. You can read the message boards of Marquette, Villanova, Gtown, etc. They mostly hate the idea of CYO; the only argument in favor of it that I've seen is that it allows those schools to take control of their destiny. But, they also realize: loss of larger fan-base that most FB schools have, loss of clout in TV contract negotiations, loss of conference prestige in becoming a BB conference, etc. would all hurt them. The public statements by BB schools presidents have been decidedly more firm in their commitment to the Big East than what I've seen from the FB schools' presidents.

As they should be. As a basketball conference it's perfectly viable as a football conference it's questionable. I'm not sure how anyone expects the football schools to completely commit right now. I say that there should maybe be a trigger that if so many of the current Big East football schools end up leaving that the basketball schools can walk away with the Big East name and not get stuck with any of the additions they don't want to get stuck with. I think that is a reasonable enough middle ground.

 

[Mots010]

And this may be the death of Big East football. The ACC wont have to take any more teams. If the bball schools dont want to bite, that puts Uconn in a interesting situation. Do we move to an all sports conference with RU/Louisville/Houston/Cincy/USF/WVU etc and risk putting the basketball team in a completely irrelevant basketball conference? Any one of the remaining 6 would leave that conference at the first offer.

 

[freescooter]

And this may be the death of Big East football. The ACC wont have to take any more teams. If the bball schools dont want to bite, that puts Uconn in a interesting situation. Do we move to an all sports conference with RU/Louisville/Houston/Cincy/USF/WVU etc and risk putting the basketball team in a completely irrelevant basketball conference? Any one of the remaining 6 would leave that conference at the first offer.

Except that a basketball league with UCONN, Louisville, Cincinatti and West Virginia is probably still going to be among the top 3 in the country...if, say Houston, moves to something like its old self, suddenly it is in the running to be the best.

 

[HartbeatHusky]

Except that a basketball league with UCONN, Louisville, Cincinatti and West Virginia is probably still going to be among the top 3 in the country...if, say Houston, moves to something like its old self, suddenly it is in the running to be the best.

Exactly add in Temple, UMass, and Memphis and football aside, that is a good bball league. If this were the old days before the BCS it would clearly be time to simply move on and create a new conference for all sports.

 

[HuskyHawk]

If the BE stays together, I think we add no additional all sports teams. We do as was suggested above, create a "Hockey East" for football. Every member is a football only member. I'd change to the name to something else to differentiate it. "Football America Conference" perhaps. Disconnect it from the BE entirely.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

The discussion in the press is following a fairly predictable trajectory of the negotiations behind the scenes. The early reports from Lucci (Rutgers) and Conner (UConn) reflected the position of the schools leaking information to them, which was essentially "we are so wonderful that everyone will bend over backwards to please us and create a situation where they take risks and we have options". Not surprisingly, the basketball schools and potential new additions have a somewhat different perspective, as evidenced by Blaudschon (Providence) and Bianchi (UCF).

There is a deal to be made here, but there are no free options.

 

[Waquoit]

It's a bad joke to call the dregs like PC "basketball schools". It would be more accurate to call them the "non-football" schools. The football schools are the one carrying the basketball league. Take this year as the latest example, the only non-football school that looks to get a sniff of the Big Dance is Nova; while at least 7 football schools will dance.

 

[HuskyHawk]

The discussion in the press is following a fairly predictable trajectory of the negotiations behind the scenes. The early reports from Lucci (Rutgers) and Conner (UConn) reflected the position of the schools leaking information to them, which was essentially "we are so wonderful that everyone will bend over backwards to please us and create a situation where they take risks and we have options". Not surprisingly, the basketball schools and potential new additions have a somewhat different perspective, as evidenced by Blaudschon (Providence) and Bianchi (UCF).

There is a deal to be made here, but there are no free options.

Here's why I think the Hockey East approach works. The BB schools don't want to accept any dilution. I don't blame them. The Football schools don't want to commit, as they may get an offer from a more attractive all sports league. So by freezing the Big East as is, but moving football out of the conference you solve both concerns. The BB schools still have some great FBS playing members, and some of those members are a part of a strong hoops league, with local Olympic sports games that don't kill travel budgets. Ideally USF would leave the BE except for football.

The new football conference can invite anyone who would join. Those schools just need to be able to find a conference for their Olympic sports. That's probably the biggest challenge, but it wouldn't be for Army, Navy or likely even .

 

[jrazz12]

Here's why I think the Hockey East approach works. The BB schools don't want to accept any dilution. I don't blame them. The Football schools don't want to commit, as they may get an offer from a more attractive all sports league. So by freezing the Big East as is, but moving football out of the conference you solve both concerns. The BB schools still have some great FBS playing members, and some of those members are a part of a strong hoops league, with local Olympic sports games that don't kill travel budgets. Ideally USF would leave the BE except for football.

The new football conference can invite anyone who would join. Those schools just need to be able to find a conference for their Olympic sports. That's probably the biggest challenge, but it wouldn't be for Army, Navy or likely even .

I really like this idea going forward for the near future. I feel like this should be what we push for now until the next round of expansion (like next week).

 

[HuskyHawk]

It's a bad joke to call the dregs like PC "basketball schools". It would be more accurate to call them the "non-football" schools. The football schools are the one carrying the basketball league. Take this year as the latest example, the only non-football school that looks to get a sniff of the Big Dance is Nova; while at least 7 football schools will dance.

Marquette, Nova, St. Johns and ND are all going to be good. Georgetown doesn't look great, but neither did UConn heading to Maui last year, as the Hoyas do this year.