tigersharktwo Wrote:The marketplace of New Jersey where Seton Hall is located(northeatern NJ is clearly superior to either ecu or memphis(size,average income,compactness).The city of Providence and its environment is a compact market area with its own broadcast stations and is located in the state capitol of RI.While memphis may have a better marketplace it is totally disconnected with the vast majority of the BE.Your question deals only with a tangential fashion the current BE topic of expanding the football membership.If I was trying to expand the BE for football in the year 2007 I would not not consider either ecu or memphis,but psu,umd ,uk or bc.Thus your question is related to the 2003 question did you want to merge the remaing football schools of the BE and cusa (including memphis and ecu).The answer to that question was clearly no.

So now COMPACTNESS is a market requirement??

New Jersey is a Pro sports state with (now) some interest in Rutgers. It took a lot for Rutgers to get that attention.

As far as Providence. Eastern North Carolina has 2X the number of people as the entire state of Rhode Island. Of course we will have to work on the COMPACTNESS?!?! I am not sure but I think most people prefer not being so COMPACT. A little open space is good.

I Googled "Market Compactness" and did not get any hits.

Correction, I meant a lot of the ATLANTIC 10 were itching to get rid of bottomfeeders, not the Big East.

Topcard91 Wrote:

CatsClaw Wrote:

Hummell Wrote:

st932253 Wrote:

ecu92 Wrote:

South Tampa Knight Wrote:Sounds like a slap at ECU.

As if UCF wouldn't also bolt for the BE for a football-only membership.

Cuban is right - NEITHER UCF or ECU would go for it. The only difference is that you guys have a sportswriter that doesn't shut up when it comes to the topic and we have a moron who believes he has pull in your athletic department.

I can't speak for UCF, but I can tell you right now, ECU would be in the Big East tomorrow if offered a football only invite.

I remember hearing that after USF was announced as the 3rd invite ECU pushed for a football-only membership. I then heard later that Holland has continually told the Big East that ECU would be interested in a football-only membership. Interesting stuff.

All of this stuff you heard was from the reliable, NEVER wrong mesage boards. Nobody ever heard Terry Holland, Chancellor Ballard, Govenor Easley or ANYONE else in a position of authority say this.

Maybe Holland did, maybe he did not.....but the simple fact is that message board speculation has, in many people's eyes, become fact!

Ummm, no it wasn't heard from message boards. Terry Holland has said he would do anything to get ECU into the Big East, even when people asked him about it. He knows that the Big East isn't going to split soon yet he has pushed for inclusion the last few years. You draw the conclusion.

(singing softly in the background) :band:
And the beat goes on,
and the beat goes on...

KNIGHTTIME Wrote:Why would the A10 agree to go to an unbalanced league for a team that would likely bolt when the Big East offers an all sports offer? It isn't going to happen. I see nothing happening for a long time...

How about this:

If the BEF schools are as desperate for a 9th fb only as this board believes, I bet they could work it out to get ECU.

First they could go to the BEB schools and say we want the 16 team conference to work out, but we need your help. The BEB schools will say yes sir, whatever you want sir. Then Traingreasy could aproach Bruno and say we need you to us a favor. We need you to adopt ECU. ECU won't cost you a penny and won't accept conference payout from TV and NCAA credits, but they will pay you a full entrance fee. In return, we will offer you basketball scheduling preferences with guaranteed home and homes including the BEB schhols and the BEF schools.

Everybody wins here. The A10 will get some much needed exposure and it won't cost them a penny. ECU will get in a BCS conference and have an acceptable home for it's other sports. The BEF schools will have the schudling rpoblem fixed and the BEB schools will still be associated with the BCS schools.

Topcard:Compactness certainly is a wise move for a conference.Should La Tech be in the WAC?Certainly not.Traveling is certainly a large cost to a university sports program.Traditional geographic rivals enhance a conference like usc vs ucla.Compactness is just one factor.There are of course many others.But ,the question I answered does not deal with question of a 9th football member for the BE,since it compared two non bcs schools with two non football schools.The answer memphis state got from the BE concerning membership, that it was not in the BE footprint.(compactness)

(singing softly in the background) :band:
And the beat goes on,
and the beat goes on...

tigersharktwo Wrote:The marketplace of New Jersey where Seton Hall is located(northeatern NJ is clearly superior to either ecu or memphis(size,average income,compactness).The city of Providence and its environment is a compact market area with its own broadcast stations and is located in the state capitol of RI.While memphis may have a better marketplace it is totally disconnected with the vast majority of the BE.Your question deals only with a tangential fashion the current BE topic of expanding the football membership.If I was trying to expand the BE for football in the year 2007 I would not not consider either ecu or memphis,but psu,umd ,uk or bc.Thus your question is related to the 2003 question did you want to merge the remaing football schools of the BE and cusa (including memphis and ecu).The answer to that question was clearly no.

We don't need CUSA teams like Memphis who would bring the Liberty bowl and great basketball to the BE. We have Temple. Bring back Temple for COMPACTNESS. Putting Temple right in the middle of Cuse, Pitt, WV, Rutgers, and Conn would give us really good COMPACTNESS. We'll be tight - really, really tight with all that COMPACTNESS:nutkick:We can have a really, really good group hug then too with all that COMPACTNESS.

(singing softly in the background) :band:
And the beat goes on,
and the beat goes on...

Here SHOULD be the 12-Team Big East in Football (my opinion):

NORTHEAST DIVISION
Cincinnati
Connecticut
Pittsburgh
Rutgers
Syracuse
West Virginia

SOUTHEAST DIVISION
Central Florida
East Carolina
Louisville
Marshall
Memphis
South Florida

POSSIBLE BIG EAST CHAMPIONSHIP GAME SITES:
FedEx Field - Washington, DC area
Bank of America Stadium - Charlotte, NC
Lincoln Financial Field - Philadelphia, PA
The Meadowlands - East Rutherford, NJ

tigersharktwo Wrote:The answer memphis state got from the BE concerning membership, that it was not in the BE footprint.(compactness)

Please explain once again how Chicago, Milwaukee and Tampa are "compact", but Memphis isn't. I seems that our proximity and rivalry with Louisville counts for very little.

Gray Avenger Wrote:

tigersharktwo Wrote:The answer memphis state got from the BE concerning membership, that it was not in the BE footprint.(compactness)

Please explain once again how Chicago, Milwaukee and Tampa are "compact", but Memphis isn't.

Omni, putting on the popcorn, and waiting for the TS2 tap-dancing show/response to begin.

Cheers,
Neil

(singing softly in the background) :band:
And the beat goes on,
and the beat goes on...

In 2003 the BE was in a totally different situation than it currently is in today.It needed a replacement for bc.The selection was usfla.memphis state was told it was not in the footprint that the BE wanted.The BE thought the tampa/stpete market is clearly superior to southwestern tenn market.The BE had been in florida with miami and wanted to stay there for many reasons(recruiting ,bowls etc).memphis st is clearly and totally in an sec market place.

After what Terry Holland was saying yesterday I do not think ECU will be in the Big East in any capacity.

Football....Full member...Scheduling partner.....NOTHING!!!

Whether that decision was by the Big East or ECU...I do not know.....and nobody here does know.....But it sounds like he is looking for a C-USA "light" situation.

If you look on a map, my 12 team conference is pretty compact. It's about as compact as the SEC, if you consider it compact. The only Beast teams that is remote would be USF.

The B*E*A*S*T

East
UMass
UConn
Cuse
Rutgers
ECU
USF

West
Pitt
WVU
Cincy
ND
The Ville
Memphis

tigersharktwo Wrote:In 2003 the BE was in a totally different situation than it currently is in today.It needed a replacement for bc.The selection was usfla.memphis state was told it was not in the footprint that the BE wanted.The BE thought the tampa/stpete market is clearly superior to southwestern tenn market.The BE had been in florida with miami and wanted to stay there for many reasons(recruiting ,bowls etc).memphis st is clearly and totally in an sec market place.

As you so clearly state 2003 and 2007 are two complete different sceneraios. The fears that led to stick together are no longer there.

A working bcs conference is better than a mistake offering nothing of significant value..Thats the policy of BE as expressed by MT,not by me.

tigersharktwo Wrote:A working bcs conference is better than a mistake offering nothing of significant value..Thats the policy of BE as expressed by MT,not by me.

And since MT has to speak 'the company line', if a small minority of schools are preventing the league from going in a certain direction then that direction (being determined by the minority) becomes the company line.

Or hasn't that occured to you, yet?

And no, I'm not saying that it is a small minority that is preventing expansion. I can't say that. Anymore than you can say that the majority do not want expansion and that this is obvious because of thoughts expressed by MT.

We'll all know more as the deadline gets closer.

Cheers,
Neil

Topcard91 Wrote:After what Terry Holland was saying yesterday I do not think ECU will be in the Big East in any capacity.

Football....Full member...Scheduling partner.....NOTHING!!!

Whether that decision was by the Big East or ECU...I do not know.....and nobody here does know.....But it sounds like he is looking for a C-USA "light" situation.

He is looking at the Big East, full member or football-only.