Per Blaudschun....new BE commish to be named Tuesday

[huskyjawz]

You know, bl, the Big East as originally created was really meant to be "just" a basketball conference. That was the basic plan. It didn't expand to encompass other sports until later. The league was created in 1979, but women's basketball didn't compete until 1982, Big East baseball came into existence in 1985, soccer around the same time. Around that point the NCAA began encouraging teams to compete in conferences for all sports and simultaneoulsy, encouraging the elimination of single sport conferences. So when UConn for example, joined the Big East it really did do so as a basketball league. Rutgers and Pitt not quite so much, but at that point, again the NCAA was trying to encourage leagues, BC, Syracuse were looking for football partners. What made sense in 1980 or 1991, though might not make as much or any sense in 2012. Indeed, I think one could argue pretty strongly that it does not, given that BC, Syracuse,Pitt, Miami, West virginia and Virginia Tech, all members of the original big East football conference, have left for different conferences. UConn, Rutgers and probably most of the others would do the same thing if they could.

Not sure why you're grouping Rutgers and Pitt. Pitt joined in 82, when it was still basketball, only.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Nah. We voluntarily, with no one making us, joined a basketball conference with a majority of members who did not play big time football. So did Pitt. Later, WVU and Rutgers joined a conference where power was shared between schools that played football and schools that didn't. And they joined voluntarily. You don't go to the opera and then complain that the opera isn't a comedic play. And, we are in a part of the country that walked away from big time football when the Ivies and Service Academies deemphasized football.

The problems stem almost entirely from those two factors. There is very little, if any, evidence that UConn or its peers were at any point prior to the last go around dissatisfied with its Providence based leadership. And, I'm not at all convinced that they were nearly as upset with the last Commissioner even now as they were needing a scapegoat to deal with fan pressure that wanted to personalize the realities of the situation.

But it's all been said before, and feel free to go on and tell me why I'm wrong but I have no interest continuing a dialogue on it, because I know I'm not convincing anyone who isn't already convinced.

Nice summary BL. Very nice. Time to move on. Opening day for Big East conference business isn't too far away.

In other news, 14 days until kickoff.