omnicarrier Wrote:It was a 'rumor' I had heard a while ago and reported on this board. I recently brought the topic up again when both UCF and Memphis in recent public proclamations made statements that their athetic budgets would be in excess of $35 million, the figure the rumor had as being the minima for the football schools.

Whether it is a minima for the football schools when they split, whether it is only applied to new members, or whether it is on the backburner for the conference as a whole, we simply do not know.

But I find it strange that two of the three prominent contenders for football expansion want it known how much they are investing in their sports program while at the same time, one of the schools spending below what was the reported minima for the bb schools made the commitment to fully fund lacrosse and have upgraded their bb coach (though not sure if Davis is getting as much as Welch was) as well.

From my vantage point, it seems like this rumor might have legs to it - or at least did prior to Mikey T's retirement. Maybe a new regime will be kinder and gentler, or maybe Mikey T saw the handwriting on the wall and didn't want to stick around for a different type of split?

Cheers,
Neil

I don't think the Big East had anything to do with UCF's current budget. We were at $29+ million last year. Some season ticket holders locked in a year early for near 1/2 price tickets last season. This year they are paying full price plus our booster fees went up for new members that want to sit on the sidelines. We also we added a few more thousand students which adds more to the budget.