Big East Looking To Add 9th Football Team

Published: Jul 17, 2007

NEWPORT, R.I. - Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese said that although his league is interested in adding a ninth football-only member, there isn't a viable option available.

Tranghese said his league has had recent discussions with Army and Navy, but "there just isn't any interest on the other side."

"We've talked about a ninth member," Tranghese said. "I think our league members would strongly consider it if there was a ninth team that would make us better. But we don't see it out there right now."

The Big East's dream team, of course, is Notre Dame. But the Fighting Irish, who are Big East members in all other sports, remain content as an independent.

DAVID VS. GOLIATH: Every Big East team except Syracuse and West Virginia will play a Division I-AA team this year. Because league teams need five non-conference games, Tranghese said he doesn't have a problem with league members scheduling I-AAs.

"People are playing I-AA teams because they can't fill their schedules out," Tranghese said. "I'm hoping our schools will schedule some quality non-conference games."

This is the sixth consecutive season Syracuse has not scheduled a I-AA team. Of the six BCS conferences, the Pac-10 has the fewest games against I-AA teams (one), while the SEC and Big 12 (eight each) have the most.

Here is the breakdown, by percentage, of the number of teams in each BCS league with scheduled games against I-AA: Pac 10 (one team, 10 percent), ACC (six teams, 50 percent), Big Ten (seven teams, 64 percent), Big East (six teams, 75 percent), Big 12 (eight teams, 75 percent) and SEC (eight teams, 75 percent).

ODDS AND ENDS: Tranghese said he has no opinion on USF's decision to discontinue the UCF series and said it's USF's call to make. "That's up to the institution to decide what's best for them," Tranghese said. … Louisville's Tom Jurich was recently named national athletic director of the year by Street & Smith's Sports Business Journal. The Cardinals, who had nine teams reach the NCAA tournament in 2006-07, and Florida are the only schools to play in the College World Series, a BCS bowl game and the Final Four in the past three seasons. … Here are the final standings in the U.S. Sports Academy Directors' Cup all-sports standings for the 2006-07 school year for the Big East's 16 members: 22. Notre Dame; 28. Louisville; 54. Rutgers; 57. West Virginia; 71. Pittsburgh; 75. Providence; 76. Georgetown; 82. UConn; 85. St. John's; 110. Syracuse; 127. Marquette; 132. USF and Villanova; 153. DePaul; 196. Cincinnati; and 289. Seton Hall.

Brett McMurphy

My take on this:
There is a push to add a 9th football member, so obviously the current 8 membership is NOT happy with the unbalanced schjedule as some have stated.

There is no one outthere that will take football only membership that is worthwhile. Well that really doesnt exclude anyone because the candidates spoken on this board will NOT accept a football only deal.

So the question ithat should had been asked was, Are there any football worthy schools outthere that woukl take an all sports bid? Of course MT wont answer that one because that would mean splitsville

"NO ONE WORTHWHILE"That puts an end to cusa leftovers.No interest from ND or Army or Navy.Whats left?No one.If one BE school suggest sa need,it is considered. But there are certainly not 6 out of 8 schools favoring anyone other than Army,Navy or ND.And these 3 want no part of it.

Wrong
There is no viable FOOTBALL-ONLY addition.
None of the CUSA teams would come for football only.
I guess we all read what we want to see in it.

The bottomline is that schools are NOT happy playing 7 conference games and that it will be continued to be looked at. Maybe a FOOTBALL-ONLY is NOT the answer.

tigersharktwo Wrote:"NO ONE WORTHWHILE"That puts an end to cusa leftovers.No interest from ND or Army or Navy.Whats left?No one.If one BE school suggest sa need,it is considered. But there are certainly not 6 out of 8 schools favoring anyone other than Army,Navy or ND.And these 3 want no part of it.

No one worthwhile who is willing to take a football only.

Which means there could be candidates who are worthwhile but there simply is no room at the inn.

Nothing is etched in stone at the moment. Sit back. Relax. It's going to be a very interesting two years.

Cheers,
Neil

Sounds like a slap at ECU.

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

Looks like Temple is coming back split or no split for the Philly market

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

...or perhaps it means something along the lines of that possible football-only schools haven't finalized plans for their other sports yet, meaning that they're not actually even on the table yet....

Who knows....time will tell.....

I think folks are confusing facts.

ECU has never said they would want a football only invite. You all have seen some folks come over on a meassage board and say "ECU will take it".

The reality is it is a crap offer that offers nothing for the future of ECU, Army, Navy or any other team who may be considered. A 9th "member" would not be a member. They would be nothing more than a scheduling partner who would have a non-voting position in the league. PLUS in the process, in ECU's case, you would have 18 other sports die in some pitiful little D1AA level league.

Bottom line is that it would bring in about $1-2 million more a year for ECU BUT at the expense of any sort of conference identity and at the expense of every other one of our sports. As the other sports dies we would lose more than $1-2 million in donations.

You can slam ECU all you want but simple fact is we are doing just fine where we are now. We have access to numerous bowl games, we are setting records for Pirate Club donations, membership and season ticket sales, plus a $100,000,000 expansion. Plus it is apparent that we do not need to be in the Big East to be on TV. Since we have all 12 of our games on TV. Including 3 on MASN right in the heart of "Big East Country".

The Big East is a fine conference, better overall than C-USA, but a football only "member" of the Big East is not better than being in C-USA.

I would imagine that Temple would be the only team interested. They are not "viable".

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

Possibly....

ECU really screwed up with Hamrick (former AD), firing Steve Logan, and having a difficult time building a basketball program.

Terry Holland is building the right type of athletic program. If the basketball program can revive itself from "nothing", ECU may be able to sneak in (with a number of other factors contributing).

ECU's (and every other non-BCS school) goal is to position themselves to win a national championship. If Louisville can build it, any school can.

Nowhere in that article did I read anything about ECU.

bearcatfan Wrote:Nowhere in that article did I read anything about ECU.

Ding, Ding, Ding. People on this board are reading what their agenda wants them to read into it.

Quote:NEWPORT, R.I. - Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese said that although his league is interested in adding a ninth football-only member, there isn't a viable option available.

Tranghese said his league has had recent discussions with Army and Navy, but "there just isn't any interest on the other side."

"We've talked about a ninth member," Tranghese said. "I think our league members would strongly consider it if there was a ninth team that would make us better. But we don't see it out there right now."

Tranghese wants a 9th Football only member. Now, who would take that deal with no guarantees for future Full Time membership that would make the league better. Just name 1 school, not even Army/Navy would bite at such an idea in which I am thankful.

How many of the 8 I-A football-playing schools would have to vote for a split to take place? Would it have to be unanimous? How do you think the voting, by school president, stands at this point? I can see Louisville, Cincy, USF, WVU, and Rutgers wanting to split, but is there this same support at UConn, Syracuse, and Pitt? A better question to ask might be 'what does ESPN want to happen?' Does ESPN make more or less money from a BE split? And of course, where does Notre Dame factor in?

The question is, Why is MT looking for a 9th football only addition?

The reason: It is obvious that the football schools have made it clear that they need/want a 9th school to even their conference schedule and help with OCC.

So the next question is, If there are no viable football-only additions, is that the end of the discusion OR do the football schools press for another answer, an ALL-Sports addition?

I don't see all 8 of your all-sports schools voting for a split.

If BE was interested in a scheduling alliance with Navy/Army, why not a scheduling alliance with existing CUSA schools? Hey! I am not going to make any claims how great CUSA football is...but wouldn't a CUSA school be better than I-AA? (I just now set myself up for a flame with this question...and I know who will do it!!!)

It is pretty clear that the Big East will stay at 8 teams for years. It doesn't make sense to add another member for all sports when the league is already very large. I don't see a split until the BCS requires conferences have at least 10 members to get the auto-bid. Who knows if that will even happen...

Maize Wrote:

bearcatfan Wrote:Nowhere in that article did I read anything about ECU.

Ding, Ding, Ding. People on this board are reading what their agenda wants them to read into it.

Quote:NEWPORT, R.I. - Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese said that although his league is interested in adding a ninth football-only member, there isn't a viable option available.

Tranghese said his league has had recent discussions with Army and Navy, but "there just isn't any interest on the other side."

"We've talked about a ninth member," Tranghese said. "I think our league members would strongly consider it if there was a ninth team that would make us better. But we don't see it out there right now."

Tranghese wants a 9th Football only member. Now, who would take that deal with no guarantees for future Full Time membership that would make the league better. Just name 1 school, not even Army/Navy would bite at such an idea in which I am thankful.

I don't think Tranghese wants a 9th football only member, I think the coaches and AD's want a 9th member and as a compromise MT agreed to seek out a football only member. IMO this is kind of funny, MT has been preaching for two years that the league wants a football only member but we all know that no decent program will accept that deal. This works out perfect for MT, he tells the football schools what they want to hear but he knows that nothing is going to change.

If adding a football only member is not possible then they need to change the strategy to attract a decent program.

By the way, the Temple situation is one of the big reasons no program will accept a partial membership. I know Temple pretty much squandered their chance when they were in the league but their affiliation with the BE did absolutely nothing for their athletic department and when the BE decided they didn't need them any more they voted them out...what program wants to set themselves up for that.

RUmojo Wrote:By the way, the Temple situation is one of the big reasons no program will accept a partial membership. I know Temple pretty much squandered their chance when they were in the league but their affiliation with the BE did absolutely nothing for their athletic department and when the BE decided they didn't need them any more they voted them out...what program wants to set themselves up for that.

On the flip side, a FB only membership worked out pretty well for Virginia Tech.

3601 Wrote:

RUmojo Wrote:By the way, the Temple situation is one of the big reasons no program will accept a partial membership. I know Temple pretty much squandered their chance when they were in the league but their affiliation with the BE did absolutely nothing for their athletic department and when the BE decided they didn't need them any more they voted them out...what program wants to set themselves up for that.

On the flip side, a FB only membership worked out pretty well for Virginia Tech.

Virginia Tech got full membership.