here is one to track - possiblity of UCF joining the Big East as a football-only member and then taking their other sports back to the Atlantic Sun. Wouldn't that be interesting

What are your sources?

Details?

Big East adds TCU and Houston. puts them at 10 fb playing institutions. if villanova moves up in fb, puts them at 11 and the big east then adds UCF in fb only. if villanova does not move up, they add UCF and ECU in fb-only to get to 12 (allows them to start a fb championship game).

Yeah that's great...is it just a theory of yours or is there a legitimate source as to the possibility of this becoming reality?

based on info this afternoon - big east is tracking toward going to 10 football playing teams. thus - need to watch if villanova goes to FBS with its football. if it does, then obvious target is TCU. if villanova does not go up - then the likely targest are TCU, UCF, Houston.

Several of the teams in the football CAA (includes Villanova) seem ready to play at the division I / FBS level. In fact Jeff Sagarin rates the CAA ahead of the FBS Mid-American and Sun Belt conferences. He also rates SoCon football ahead of the Sun Belt and it's not even close.

Iliana Limón
Orlando Sentinel
3 November 2010


The Big East’s announcement Tuesday indicated the league plans to expand to 10 football members. It’s noteworthy that the news release did not list expansion to 18 total members. The Big East basketball schools have long argued they cannot expand beyond an already loaded 16-team conference.

TCU, Villanova and UCF have been widely reported as the top Big East expansion candidates.

UCF Athletics officials released a statement Wednesday that said, “There has been no contact between UCF and the Big East Conference. We continue to be a proud member of Conference USA.”

TCU officials also told the Dallas Morning News the school had not been contacted by the Big East.

The Big East has tried to keep a low profile throughout the past year of college football conference realignment, declining to address persistent expansion rumors.

Despite the silence, it’s clear TCU, Villanova and UCF are still in the mix for Big East football invitations.

Should UCF should accept a potential football-only invitation to the Big East?
It’s a tough question for UCF, which has a history of struggling when it separated its football team from its other sports. During the last round of Big East expansion, UCF lost out to schools such as USF because football was in the Mid-American Conference and its other sports were stuck in the Atlantic Sun. It seemed impossible for those sports to compete at the Big East level, so UCF’s administration campaigned to be added to the Big East as a football-only member. The Big East ultimately decided to add USF in all sports instead.

Twice during the past year, I asked UCF Athletic Director Keith Tribble whether he thought UCF should accept a football-only invitation to a Bowl Championship Series conference.

He made it clear the decision would be made by UCF President John Hitt and the UCF Athletics Association board of directors, but Tribble added it wasn’t a plan he endorsed.

“I think it’s in our best interest to be all in one conference,” Tribble told the Sentinel in May. “We’ve stressed to our student athletes the ability for championships at the highest level. I think to have a separation of a football in one league and all the other sports in another league is something I’m not willing to consider. Now obviously that’s a decision that will be made by Dr. Hitt and our board, but in my conversations with him in the past it’s something that we wouldn’t want to entertain. We want to be in one conference all the time.”

If UCF did accept a football-only bid, it’s other sports would most likely not be welcome in Conference USA. UCF’s best options would likely include the Atlantic Sun, Sun Belt or Atlantic 10 conferences.

What do you think? Do you think UCF should accept a football-only bid to the Big East if it is offered?

(11-04-2010 06:21 AM)silence dogood Wrote:  Iliana Limón
Orlando Sentinel
3 November 2010


The Big East’s announcement Tuesday indicated the league plans to expand to 10 football members. It’s noteworthy that the news release did not list expansion to 18 total members. The Big East basketball schools have long argued they cannot expand beyond an already loaded 16-team conference.

TCU, Villanova and UCF have been widely reported as the top Big East expansion candidates.

UCF Athletics officials released a statement Wednesday that said, “There has been no contact between UCF and the Big East Conference. We continue to be a proud member of Conference USA.”

TCU officials also told the Dallas Morning News the school had not been contacted by the Big East.

The Big East has tried to keep a low profile throughout the past year of college football conference realignment, declining to address persistent expansion rumors.

Despite the silence, it’s clear TCU, Villanova and UCF are still in the mix for Big East football invitations.

Should UCF should accept a potential football-only invitation to the Big East?
It’s a tough question for UCF, which has a history of struggling when it separated its football team from its other sports. During the last round of Big East expansion, UCF lost out to schools such as USF because football was in the Mid-American Conference and its other sports were stuck in the Atlantic Sun. It seemed impossible for those sports to compete at the Big East level, so UCF’s administration campaigned to be added to the Big East as a football-only member. The Big East ultimately decided to add USF in all sports instead.

Twice during the past year, I asked UCF Athletic Director Keith Tribble whether he thought UCF should accept a football-only invitation to a Bowl Championship Series conference.

He made it clear the decision would be made by UCF President John Hitt and the UCF Athletics Association board of directors, but Tribble added it wasn’t a plan he endorsed.

“I think it’s in our best interest to be all in one conference,” Tribble told the Sentinel in May. “We’ve stressed to our student athletes the ability for championships at the highest level. I think to have a separation of a football in one league and all the other sports in another league is something I’m not willing to consider. Now obviously that’s a decision that will be made by Dr. Hitt and our board, but in my conversations with him in the past it’s something that we wouldn’t want to entertain. We want to be in one conference all the time.”

If UCF did accept a football-only bid, it’s other sports would most likely not be welcome in Conference USA. UCF’s best options would likely include the Atlantic Sun, Sun Belt or Atlantic 10 conferences.

What do you think? Do you think UCF should accept a football-only bid to the Big East if it is offered?

Did you noticed they used the phrase "stuck in the Atlantic Sun"???

I think the Big East goes after UCF as a last resort, UCF's finances are not the best and the profile they give in the Florida market still isn't as a top tier program. They want TCU in order to salvage the smallest appearance that they are deserving of a BCS Bowl Bid and the money associated. I think most people see the Big East as on it's last breath and that they may or may not survive these realignments. IF TCU takes the bait, the conference might make it as long as TCU has an argument about playing in the National Championship.

I see CUSA sweetening things up a bit to keep schools that financially can't move up to the true BCS level of spending that the ACC/SEC, etc. require. CUSA might position itself to have more of a "like minded" institutional profile which realistically could include App State.

I still think we'll see two things: 1) the creation of mega BCS football alliances (conferences, if you will) that will in essence screw everyone else out of any type of television money; 2) the creation of a new "east coast" FBS conference that will assemble FCS and former FCS schools to create bowl alliances with other "mid major" conferences.

ETSU??? Might be lucky enough to get a Sunbelt spot, but that conference is really an after-thought now on the college athletics horizon.

I could believe UCF moving to the Big East for football but I cannot see them moving other sports to the A-Sun. There is only one school that I know of that actually moved downward to the A-Sun from a better conference. I do not think UCF is that stupid.

The one argument that UCF could bring to the table: When was the last time UCF basketball was relevant in March? Their last several years in the Atlantic Sun. They went to the NCAA's several times and took teams to the wire.

It's the long argued question: Does the basketball team benefit from being in C-USA (and still not making any national waves), or in the ASUN where it had much success? An NCAA upset cannot happen if you aren't there... and if you don't improve you're just 'lost' in a better conference.

Also with ETSU in the mix, and other programs on the rise -- the ASUN would look a lot better with UCF back in the fold.

I know it's a long shot, but fun to discuss.

TCU has announced that they are all or nothing. I could see UCF MAYBE doing that because the non-revenue sports could still win and it would give them a chance in basketball. As long as Memphis is C-USA, UCF will never have a shot.