More BE Change?

[ctchamps]

BB only schools met and set a time line in which they might leave BE and form their own league!
http://ajerseyguy.com/?p=4188

 

[Kibitzer]

Take the Big East off life support and embalm the corpse for the wake.

This proposed exodus certainly makes sense from the perspective of these seven Catholic schools.

If it were to happen, it makes me dizzy trying to keep track of what the (deceased or mid-major) Big East could look like, strictly from a wcbb perspective. If I missed any, please take note and correct my lineups. Here we go.

1. Gone or one foot out the door: Notre Dame, Boston College, Pitt, West Virginia, Louisville, Miami, and Rutgers.

2. Reportedly ready to convert to a new faith and take their vows (and teams) to a new diocese: Georgetown, Villanova, Providence, St. John's, Marquette, DePaul, and Seton Hall.

3. Replacements (certainly not reinforcements) on the way: SMU, Houston, Central Florida, Memphis, and Temple.

4. Hangers-on, waiting for the phone to ring: UConn, Cincinnati, and South Florida.

5. The projected UConn wcbb schedule (possibly in 2013-2014): (1) home/away vs. Cincinnati, South Florida, Temple, Memphis, SMU, Houston, and Central Florida; (2) single (thanks, ESPN) games with some (not all) old friends/rivals like Stanford, Duke, Notre Dame, Penn State, Baylor, DePaul, Villanova, Maryland, Rutgers, Hartford, and Holy Cross; (3) maybe Tennessee again; (4) a three-game tournament somewhere; and (5) a few schools with masochistic ADs like Charleston, Holy Family, Army, Oakland, or Colgate.

The reason I am posting this at 3:00 a.m. is that as soon as I go to bed I'll have nightmares.

 

[Icebear]

Well said, Kib.

 

[Wiltonian]

If it were to happen, it makes me dizzy trying to keep track of what the (deceased or mid-major) Big East could look like, strictly from a wcbb perspective. If I missed any, please take note and correct my lineups. Here we go.

1. Gone or one foot out the door: Notre Dame, Boston College, Pitt, West Virginia, Louisville, Miami, and Rutgers.

The reason I am posting this at 3:00 a.m. is that as soon as I go to bed I'll have nightmares.

Kib, if you go back to BC, then Virginia Tech should also be in your "lineups".

 

[Icebear]

Adding from Dayton, St. Louis, George Mason, St. Bonavevture, St. Joe's, LaSalle, Loyola, Holycross, Fordham or Xavier would give them a wonderful collegiate level CYO league.

Get San Francisco, Gonzaga, University of Portland, Santa Clara, and Creighton signed on and you have the start of a western division.

 

[jdubct]

Will all the basketball schools that leave the conference have to pay the $10 million exit fee?

 

[HuskyNan]

Will all the basketball schools that leave the conference have to pay the $10 million exit fee?

I suspect that will be the end of the Big East, or at least UConn's participation in it. The BE was started as a basketball conference with Providence, St. John's, Georgetown, Syracuse, Seton Hall, UConn and BC, with Villanova a year later. As most of those basketball-only schools were the Big East, they probably get to keep the name. Just my guess.

 

[Icebear]

Where is jplot today.

 

[Phil]

I don't know how the bylaws work, can the conference expel members? In other words, rather than break-away, what if the seven Catholics voted to expel the football schools? My guess is that they need 2/3, or some other super-majority, but that would be one way to avoid the exit fee (and keep the name)

 

[Blakeon18]

What a mess! Idle thought: UConn goes with the basketball schools for all sports excluding football. They obviously keep working behind the scenes for ACC or Big 10 inclusion.
The football program joins the MAC conference. If the MAC requires UConn to play a selected number of basketball games [women and men] against MAC teams...fine.

Extremely idle thought: UConn joins the MAC in all sports except basketball....UConn becomes [the only] independent in hoops...playing a few MAC schools [like ND does in football in the ACC] but touts itself as a Hoops #1 school....playing a dynamite national schedule men and women. All the while still working the back channels with the ACC and the Big 10.

 

[Icebear]

Nope, time to be done with the Big East and force the hand of moving on.

 

[EricLA]

What a mess! Idle thought: UConn goes with the basketball schools for all sports excluding football. They obviously keep working behind the scenes for ACC or Big 10 inclusion.
The football program joins the MAC conference. If the MAC requires UConn to play a selected number of basketball games [women and men] against MAC teams...fine.

Extremely idle thought: UConn joins the MAC in all sports except basketball....UConn becomes [the only] independent in hoops...playing a few MAC schools [like ND does in football in the ACC] but touts itself as a Hoops #1 school....playing a dynamite national schedule men and women. All the while still working the back channels with the ACC and the Big 10.

May end up being a possibility if UCONN doesn't end up in a power conference. I'm sure no one in Storrs wants to entertain the notion that we end up as the odd man out. Hopefully the ACC decides to add us.

No sure what the best case scenario is, but it seems that schools like FSU and not sure who else in the ACC might be possibilities for poaching from the other conferences. It seems the ACC will be the weakest of the power conferences, but who knows how it will all shake out.

I also read somewhere (major grain of salt) that one of them (Big 10 or Big 12 forget which) are considering poaching Duke and UNC.

Maybe when all is said and done the ACC will resemble the old BE. They might end up having to add UCONN, Cinci and USF. That would be kinda funny to see them in the ACC again with L'ville, Pitt and Syracuse.

 

[HuskyNan]

Extremely idle thought: UConn joins the MAC in all sports except basketball....UConn becomes [the only] independent in hoops...playing a few MAC schools [like ND does in football in the ACC] but touts itself as a Hoops #1 school....playing a dynamite national schedule men and women. All the while still working the back channels with the ACC and the Big 10.

Sorry, but there's no revenue for the Athletic Department in that scenario. The MAC is a mid-major conference with no BCS tie-ins to generate the big payoff at the end of the season. Football needs to be in a major conference and that's all there is to it.

 

[hoopsdiva]

Mid major might look real good, if the rest of the BB only schools take off for the A-10.

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-bas...ll-schools-creating-21-team-conference-source

Sigh.

 

[Blakeon18]

But they need an invitation from a power conference...which they don't have. Staying in the BE....ever-changing to the point of ridiculousness...isn't the way to go...imo.

 

[Zorro]

Wasn't the big payoff for the Fiesta Bowl about $1.6 mil?

 

[zls44]

Big East will dissolve.

UConn has a few options, all of them awful.

1. Form an all-sports conference with the remaining dreck. This will require a petition and an NCAA waiver to receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The makeup of the conference will violate each rule to gain an autobid, but I expect the NCAA would grant it. Without it, UConn would have to make the tournament in any sport as an at-large. I think WBB could manage that.

2. Join Conference USA. This would be messy, especially since the Conference size could be ginormous.

3. Join the MAC. Smaller conference, but longer travel in the sense that there are NO nearby schools.

4. Join the reformed Big East as an associate member. I doubt this would even be an option. And it doesn't solve the football problem.

People have discussed worst-case scenarios. This is worse than all of them. This fundamentally threatens UConn's future as a powerhouse in any sport. Including WCBB. Think Louisiana Tech or ODU.

 

[zls44]

Oh, option 5: join the Atlantic-10. Leaves the issue of having to settle football.