Okay - I didn't want to but I must respond to this drivel... In point of fact, the ACC was playing chess and the Big East and their PC overlords were playing checkers. Marinatto (RIP) was totally out flanked by Swofford and ESPN. Being a product of the PC athletic department, he had zero interest or experience with football. There was no recognition regarding the supremacy of football and how that impacted TV deals. But, how could there be? Marinatto was third straight PC guy at the helm of the conference. Sadly, He was clueless and as a result the BE imploded.
Tranghese (my current avatar) was the culprit and the punchline was that he was the moron who gave the ACC the idea.
He called a meeting with the heads of a few BE schools, ACC schools and Swofford (either the summer of 2020 or summer of 2021) to discuss the idea of the two conferences '
partnering' for the benefit of football. His idea was that the schools in each conference that '
cared' about football (FSU, Clemson, Miami, Va Tech, I'm guessing whoever else may have been pretty good at that time) form one football conference and the schools that '
didn't care' about football (Duke, Temple, Wake, UConn, whoever else looked like they wouldn't be good) form another conference.
This offended and insulted a number of schools. Tell me, how do you think PC would have reacted in say 2008 if someone suggested the then 16 member Big East field two basketball conferences, one with schools who cared about winning, one with PC and other schools that didn't care?
That some of these schools weren't achieving the results that others were, and that it is unlikely that all but a few would ever be able to field teams capable of making a run at a title does not mean they don't care. Additionally, he made it abundantly clear that the conference did not view football as an important part of the conference, rather something that some members found somewhat important so to pacify those members, they would hold their nose and allow a collection of schools to field a football conference with the BE name. Finally, while the conference was making it clear that the leadership had little understanding of (or desire to understand) football, they would think as far outside if the box as necessary to benefit the non-football members.
He told the leadership of the ACC and the leadership of the better football schools in both conferences that the Big East was ripe to be raided, which is what led the the discussions that resulted in the first raid.
