I've been saying that in about 10 years, when everyone starts re-evaluating this conference realignment stuff, people will be saying, "What the hell were we thinking?"
These moves are relatively short term money grabs and to make it worse traditional rivalries are being scuttled by morally/etically questionable back room deals.
Long post coming......then I'm gone for today. BTW: i'm very pleased with the new AD. A guy that understands football, and that if basketball at UCONN is going to continue to be top notch, in the future, we're goign to need football along for the ride (sitting in the driver's seat)
When you look at the list of programs that will compromise the big east in the future, there's not choice but to ask yourself...."WTF is this?".
THe people that stop there, simply conclude - this will never work, based on looking at the structure. But when you dig deep. When you study the past, and understand history, to try to prevent future mistakes, and look how things have been handled now.
Well, the answer to the "WTF is this?" quesion, is simply - the answer, you just wrote. Short term money grab deals driven by morally/ethically questionable back room deals.
But the conclusion - "This will never work." Can't be further from true. It all comes down to basic priorities and economics in intercollegiate athletics. The big East valueing football.
it was noted in that very first report by the SEC commissioner that I talked about a week or two ago. The former SEC commissioner, the same guy that was instruemental in the creation of the BCS system, to guarantee the major conferences a seat at the table for big time post season cash flow....
was charged with writing the upgrade plan for UConn to 1-A football, and presented his report to the UCONN Board of Trustees in 1996. In that report by Roy Kramer, he clearly notes his conclusion, that UConn is one of the few instances where a 1-A upgrade is completely in the best interest, but also clearly notes his opinon that the future of the big east conference, and it's success will be hinged on the membership to recognize the importance of football as an economic force and decision making motivation. Stated clearly to the UConn BOT in 1996, in writing.
It took until 2011, and a brand new president, with no acting AD, to make it clear to the Big East, that this is what we need to do as a conference moving forward.
The big east conference, in the late 1990s, terrified the SEC. If there was a home for Notre Dame, it would have been the Big East. We put programs in the first 4 BCS national championship games, that Roy Kramer had been instrumental in creating.
Because they knew down south, that if the leadership got behind football, the Big East would be the #1 conference in the entire country, with both basketball and football.
But by 2002, the leadership (at the university levels and conference commissioner level) hadn't changed, and the very real thing, the Big East confernce with reigning national champions in both basketball and football, and regular competiting for both......was gone.
THey get it now. Everybody in the Big East gets it now.
The deeper you look though, the more clear it becomse that the conference expansion that the big east has done in 2011-2012, has been done with a major, major point of emphasis on financial stability and funding, OTHER THAN TV MONEY, athletic department interests regarding travel, and the thing that's lost in all of it, scheduling. I'll keep saying it till I'm blue in the face, the larger a conference gets, the harder it gets to schedule the events on TV that actually bring in the TV money.
THe funny thing, and this where all the people out there wil most definitely call me crazy, is that in 10 years time, my crystal ball says that the league that has the most chance right now of still being stable, is the Big East. It all comes from having your priorities in line (valuing football as the primary economic/financial force in intercollegiate athletics)....AND - having broadcastingn rights freedoms and in a chaotic landscape, having a hybrid sports conference with a strong enough structure to absorb and lose football programs from coast to coast? A major weakness can be turned into a strength. It all comes down to having priorities in line.
The worst thing that the big east can do at this point, once contracts are up with ESPN/ABC and CBS in 2013, is negotiate a deal for broadcasting rights that is all encompassing, much like ESPN has with the ACC, and with Texas.
I highly doubt that when the new deals are done, that it will be an all-inclusive deal for any single network. That's just dumb......hello ACC.
