The Big East is looking for two more high impact football-only members first (and by that I mean: solid performance or rank, solid national appeal and/or quality television market) -- I wouldn't count out BYU, another low profile bowl for them again this year. Then they'll add two more, that'll be all-sport programs like a Memphis (a bad footballer, but decent television market, good travel stop between northern/Texan Olympic sports teams, and will make the bballers happy!). I also like ECU, I think from a conference wide perspective they make sense... they ease travel - a stop between the northern/Floridan teams especially for the Olympic sports, they do have a rabid fan-base, are on television statewide, plus offer an in-road into the Carolinas where basketball is king (and you remember the Big East has 6-non-football schools who get to vote on expansion and kept happy). Now Greenville, NC is not a large market (at #99 out of 210), but that's not much worse than #84 Syracuse -- Top 100 get overnight rated which is important. To clarify a lot of the confusion about market sizes in this thred; the only numbers that matter are the Nielsen market ranks (available at the following link, which I tinyurl'd) http://tinyurl.com/445875z

(12-10-2011 11:53 AM)Captain Bearcat Wrote:  

(12-09-2011 05:36 AM)Oh Really? Wrote:  

(12-09-2011 12:57 AM)TOGC Wrote:  

(12-08-2011 11:45 PM)jvllepirate Wrote:  who cares if its 7.5 million ACC fans. San diego state is surrounded by Pac12 fans. Memphis is surrounded by SEC fans. UCF is surrounded by SEC and ACC fans. Houston and SMU are surrounded by big 12 fans. Temple is surrounded by Eagle fans. None of the expansion candidates are their states main school however schools like ECU and Southern Miss are in states where the BCS schools are not all that great while both schools have large regional followings.

Yeah, but you're in the middle of nowhere. Memphis, Temple, UCF, Houston, and SMU are in large metopolitan areas. You're not.

Memphis is a large ghetto. ECU puts more fans in the seats IN MEMPHIS
in 20 degree weather than Memphis does on opening day. Their whole football fan base is the opposing team's fans.
ECU helped save a dying Liberty Bowl in the mid 1990's and Memphis thanked ECU greatly for the help. Go ask Silky if that isn't the truth.
I've seen every excuse in the book.
The league can take who it wants but it won't be because ECU has no market. They outdraw every team in the new Big East.
Every single one of them.
So naturally all detractors can do is paint them as small market when the school actually hosts SEC, ACC and BE teams in Charlotte four hours away and played home and homes with most of them over the past 30 years. WVU and Syracuse played ECU home and home even in the 1980's
and 1990's. So did Miami and Virginia Tech who ECU basically grew up with. Tech got a bid to the Big East and grew and ECU did not and still grew to be the biggest non AQ east of Provo in attendance.
If that doesn't show market I don't know what does.
Besides, this whole process of trying to eliminate schools and conferences from the face of the earth is going to backfire. It's wrong, it's mean spirited and it harms college athletics. It harms the economies of these cities to leave any entity out who is doing well in attendance and growth.
Is that the only way the Big East can win?
Nobody respects that.

East Carolina has finished the season ranked exactly 3 times in its history, none in the past 15 years:
1981 (#20 in AP, NR in Coaches)
1991 (#9 in AP, #9 in Coaches)
1995 (NR in AP, #23 in Coaches)

This is why larger conferences are not interested in ECU. Houston and SMU have more impressive histories (finished 15 and 12 seasons ranked, respectively) and UCF was ranked at the end of last year. Even SDSU has finished more seasons ranked (4) than ECU.

Perhaps if ECU had some other advantage over the schools that got invited, like a large market, great academics, or a good basketball team, they'd be given some slack. But they don't, so they have to earn it on the field, like Boise did.

The reason ECU hasn't been added to a new conference really is as simple as "performance on the field."

I guess the fact that ECU is

12-5 versus Cincinnati
9-2 versus UCF
6-4 versus Houston
2-2 versus SMU
1-0 versus Boise State
4-6 versus Louisville

doesn't count as "performance on the field".

(12-12-2011 04:06 AM)ECUPirated Wrote:  I guess the fact that ECU is

12-5 versus Cincinnati
9-2 versus UCF
6-4 versus Houston
2-2 versus SMU
1-0 versus Boise State
4-6 versus Louisville

doesn't count as "performance on the field".

No - they're looking for BCS improvement - not record against member schools! The Big East is looking for TWO FOOTBALL-ONLY invites first -- then they'll fill in the holes, as I'd assume ECU would be an all-sport member if invited.

(12-07-2011 07:31 PM)army56mike Wrote:  Granted competitively Fresno St. is pretty good. But based on what the commish has said...

San Jose - 945,942 - 10th largest city
Memphis - 646,889 - 20th largest city
UNLV - 583,756 - 30th largest city
New Mexico - 545,852 - 32nd largest city

Fresno St. - 494,665 - 34th largest city

Now look at the annual athletic budgets and academic endowments for those universities.