Comparing the exiting / entering BE teams

[junglehusky]

This is from Dennis Dodd... it's apples to oranges to compare BCS bowl appearances for non-AQ schools to current (soon to be ex-) Big East schools, but still...

The skinny on new teams
Average stay in current conference: 8.4 years
Average age of new programs at highest level of football: 29.8 years
Total seasons in the BCS era that ended with a ranking: Nine (average of 1.8 times per school)
Average length of time, in years, since last end-of-season ranking: 16.4 years
Last season ranked at the end of the season: Boise, 2011
Total BCS bowls: Two.

The skinny on departing teams (West Virginia, Pittsburgh, Syracuse)
Average stay in current conference: 20 years (Each year was a charter member in football.)
Average age of programs playing at the highest level of football: 39
Total seasons in the BCS era that ended with a ranking: 12 (average of four times per school)
Average length of time, in years, since last end-of-season ranking: four
Last season ranked at end of the season: 2011 (West Virginia)
Total BCS bowls: 5

 

[Fishy]

Basically, they've brought in Boise to hopefully be the flagship that West Virginia occasionally was.

Syracuse and Pittsburgh were nothing of note on the football field, but they sure as hell look better than SMU, UCF or SDSU on the schedule. You know who is gonna love those Central Florida-San Diego State games? No one.

It would have been one thing if they had brought in BYU, Air Force, Navy, Boise and UCF - crazy enough, that's actually a better conference than what we have now.

But they didn't. And we will lose Louisville in fairly short order.

 

[zls44]

http://www.uconnhuskies.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/120711aaa.html

Boise State is the largest university in Idaho with an enrollment of 19,664. The campus is home of 11 Idaho Professor of the Year honorees since 1990 and the 2011 national champion debate and speech team.

That's the kind of quote you proooobably don't see in press releases about additions to other BCS conferences. What a pile of this is.

 

[freescooter]

It is not only apples-oranges, it is downright misleading. For non-BCS teams to have any BCS bowls is pretty incredible. In terms of rankings, UH, and Boise are both ranked higher than WestVirginia.

 

[mets1090]

Houston and Boise would probably finish as 2 of the top 3 schools in the conference this year. Not sure what to expect of them after they both lose their marquee QBs though. I know they have had success before them but it is always a question mark when you bring in a new QB.

 

[gars44]

Basically, they've brought in Boise to hopefully be the flagship that West Virginia occasionally was.

Syracuse and Pittsburgh were nothing of note on the football field, but they sure as hell look better than SMU, UCF or SDSU on the schedule. You know who is gonna love those Central Florida-San Diego State games? No one.

It would have been one thing if they had brought in BYU, Air Force, Navy, Boise and UCF - crazy enough, that's actually a better conference than what we have now.

But they didn't. And we will lose Louisville in fairly short order.

Fishy, you know I respect you greatly, well . . . . somewhat anyway, you know, a little, but what's with all the endless wailing, moaning and gnashing of teeth? You can talk about San Diego Central Fl, but who watches any of these outlier games anyway? Was anyone watching Uconn-Pittsburg, or Syracuse-USF or Syracuse - anyone, or Uconn - anyone? Or Pittsburgh - anyone? The Pittsburg Virginia game has no cache. The Syracuse NC State game is not going to be watched on TV by mobs of fans. The BE after the first raid was never good. It's not good now. No sense crying over it. And if we can somehow convince Navy and Air Force to come aboard, great. They have contracts running through 2015 and it only makes sense for them to take a look at the new BCS contracts for 2014. What's the rush? BYU may have a change of heart in time. But Uconn never cared about football before a few years ago. We never even cared about basketball before Jim Calhoun changed all that. Why all of a sudden is this such a catastrophe? We will be fine. We have to win football games and stop hoping to be a tag a long into some established conference. We're not butt boys here. We can win our way into acceptance. If we lose Louisville, so be it. These "power" conferences aren't going to change in character one bit. There is a top, a middle and a bottom. There is no one changing that.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

People cared about the Big East from 2006 through 2009 because the Big East was good those years. The last two years the Big East sucked, so no one cared. The same goes for all but about 10-12 programs in the country, and even those... Who was talking about Ohio State until Meyer showed up?

 

[UCHuskies08]

Basically, they've brought in Boise to hopefully be the flagship that West Virginia occasionally was.

Syracuse and Pittsburgh were nothing of note on the football field, but they sure as hell look better than SMU, UCF or SDSU on the schedule. You know who is gonna love those Central Florida-San Diego State games? No one.

It would have been one thing if they had brought in BYU, Air Force, Navy, Boise and UCF - crazy enough, that's actually a better conference than what we have now.

But they didn't. And we will lose Louisville in fairly short order.

Gars mentioned it, but UCF-SDSU is about as appealing as USF-Syracuse ever was.

I think people are overestimating what we lose compared to what we're getting back.

The only difference now is the geography doesn't make sense. Sure, that is a negative, but given the situation, and the alternatives, it's not so bad I don't think.

I think we should wait for the TV contract to freak out.

 

[sportsart]

Does anyone have any idea how many games we will play vs the West each year?

 

[Fishy]

You're welcome to wait for the television contract to freak out.

It'll give you time to practice for the inevitable.

 

[VAHuskyFan]

Does anyone have any idea how many games we will play vs the West each year?

Don't think there will be divisions unless we go to 12, so we'll play everybody each year.

As to the geography not making sense - the geography actually does make sense in that we now essentially have 5 "paired" teams in different regions:

NY Metro Region: UConn / Rutgers
Bluegrass Region: Louisville / Cincinnati
Florida Region: USF / UCF
Lone Star Region: Houston / SMU
West Region: Boise St. / SDSU

Okay . . . so the last pairing is a bit of a stretch, but close enough.

I see this as a positive for recruiting because we will play a game in Florida and Texas every year. And the geographic reach is a point in our favor in looking to our next TV contract because it allows us a chance to offer one-stop shopping for full-day Saturday content to a network like NBC (where I think we will likely end up).

 

[junglehusky]

It's the same crappy football, just spread over a wider geographical area and with no tradition or regional identity.

 

[sportsart]

It's the same crappy football, just spread over a wider geographical area and with no tradition or regional identity.

It's bad enough the talking heads are gonna bash us everyday. If you think it's so bad go watch basketball.

It is what it is.

I for one am looking forward to playing Houston, SMU and Boise. No reason they can't be at least as good as Pitt, SU and WVU. Oh wait....Boise and Houston already are.

 

[Nostical]

Okay, here's another take on the transition. Each year we go to several away games. After reading about the new Big East my wife says, "Wow, so now we get to visit sunny San Diego instead of drab gray Pittsburgh? Metroplex Dallas instead of grimy Syracuse? Magical Orlando instead of moronic Morgantown? I love this!!!"

 

[zls44]

I'm conflicted, I guess.

On one hand, it's putting lipstick on a pig. It sucks. It just does. You can talk it up all you want, but the number of qualifiers needed to say how this works shows how unlikely it is to do so.

On the other hand, what the hell was the Big East supposed to do? I ask that to the bashers: what were they supposed to do, just die?

 

[IMind]

The whole situation just stinks... the dumbest critique though is the one making fun of the geography of the whole deal... so The Big East should have just accepted it's lot in life, added Temple, Memphis, ECU, UCF, and UMass and became the Sun Belt north? At least by grabbing programs like Boise, Houston, and even SDSU and making runs at Navy, Air Force, and BYU you are saying that you wont accept a roll as the non-AQ scheduling partner for the ACC.