(04-11-2011 11:30 AM)Wilkie01 Wrote:  

(04-11-2011 10:47 AM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  

(04-11-2011 10:42 AM)Wilkie01 Wrote:  We all know unless Notre Dame helps get the football to 12 teams or DePaul, Seton Hall and Providence are canned, we will split soon than later.

Putting aside opinions of DePaul and Seton Hall, Providence will get canned by the Big East around the same time that Duke and UNC get canned by the ACC.

Frank, no dis-respect, but dude you do not know what all the schools are thinking. The divide between the eight all-sport football schools + TCU and Notre Dame and the "seven dwarfs" is widening into the Grand Canyon. The football schools are going to 12 members. I think 12/20 is to large, so the split has been delayed so far, but it is coming, unless the dead weight is jettisoned.

Why is that divide widening? Because you wish that to be the case? The Catholic schools actually provided a fairly big give by voting for all-sports membership for TCU, which ONLY helps the football side and will dilute basketball revenue. The BE schools could have split for many years. What's the compelling reason to do so now when the basketball league is at the peak of its powers (including a resurgent St. John's that's invaluable to the NYC market) and the football league is in a down-cycle? How does that make sense? Why does that make more revenue on a per-school basis when BB TV revenue is higher in the BE? What ESPN or CBS or Fox or Comcast executive is going to pay a premium for UCF or Houston football when they aren't paying a premium for way more established West Virginia and Pitt football programs? No one ever comes up with reasonable explanations for this to financially support a split.

Mostly what I see are more emotionally-based arguments, such as "THE BIG EAST ONLY CARES ABOUT BASKETBALL AND THROWING FOOTBALL UNDER THE BUS!!!" To be sure, the BE leadership might not be composed of the sharpest tools in the box, but if they could've built an SEC football-type powerhouse by splitting, then they would've done it 5 years ago. The point is that this was never realistic and they have had to work with what they have. There seems to be this notion among a lot of FB fans that basketball is somehow holding back football in the Big East. In reality, the only freaking reason why BE FB even got ANY TV deal with ESPN after the ACC raid was the strength of BE basketball.

If splitting meant that Notre Dame or Penn State were signing up, then that's one thing. However, that's not happening. Instead, the split proponents want to give up the best BB league in the country with direct connections to the nation's largest TV markets East of the Mississippi in order to add some members in football that may not add a single dime in TV revenue and provide little national cachet. It continues to perplex as to how so many fans think this is a good deal.

Here's where I think the disconnect is: I agree that an *ideal* conference situation is to have football bring in gazillions of dollars like the Big Ten and SEC as opposed to basketball. So, I think a lot of BE FB fans believe that since the BE isn't in an ideal situation, then it must be the wrong situation. However, that's not necessarily true for the BE *itself*, as having the hybrid has shown to be the revenue maximizing model for its members. The BE won't be the SEC or maybe even the ACC in terms of revenue, but that doesn't mean you take a sledgehammer to the league's greatest strength.