I don't know if this has been addressed. Let's say ECU receives a football only invitation to join the Big East. I understand that the Big East doesn't want to upset the basketball setup, but what about a sport like baseball? I guess if ECU were to have to park the other sports in another conference, that conference would likely want ECU baseball, but if it didn't, would the Big East want ECU's baseball program?

I thought it was hinted at that the Big East would invite all sports but basketball.

I was thinking All-Sports (minus Basketball), and then the football-playing teams could schedule an "Out of Conference" home&away game with those schools to give them a full schedule (16 games + normal OOC).

(11-10-2010 04:43 PM)saxamoophone Wrote:  I was thinking All-Sports (minus Basketball), and then the football-playing teams could schedule an "Out of Conference" home&away game with those schools to give them a full schedule (16 games + normal OOC).

I'm like 99% sure the NCAA doesn't allow schools to pick and choose like that unless it's a sport the conference doesn't offer like hockey, lacrosse, etc.

(11-10-2010 05:23 PM)JHG722 Wrote:  I'm like 99% sure the NCAA doesn't allow schools to pick and choose like that unless it's a sport the conference doesn't offer like hockey, lacrosse, etc.

Why would the NCAA care ? Beneath the FBS, conferences memberships are all messed up.

Why would they care? Because cherry picking your best sports and putting your weaker sports in another conference is ridiculous?

It's the same as the Notre Dame situation with the Big East, or what BYU was ready to do with the WAC. It's only possible if basketball was independent. I suppose the same applied back in the day when Miami was in the Big East, but chose to leave their baseball program independent.

(11-10-2010 11:49 PM)Pumpkin Man Wrote:  It's the same as the Notre Dame situation with the Big East, or what BYU was ready to do with the WAC. It's only possible if basketball was independent. I suppose the same applied back in the day when Miami was in the Big East, but chose to leave their baseball program independent.

The BYU and Notre Dame issues are apples and oranges compared to forcing a school to join in every sport but basketball.

I guess I interpreted the BE announcement differently than the rest of ya'll. It really didn't hint at FB only or all sports. They just said that we're looking to go to 10 football schools but didn't mention anything at all. I guess it could be interpreted as FB only's but the Big East wasn't really clear either way.

I dont think you can split your sports up like that unless a conference doesnt offer that sport

Didn't ECU join CUSA as football only?

(11-11-2010 02:06 AM)ConanX Wrote:  Didn't ECU join CUSA as football only?

Yes originally we were football only and didn't become full C-USA members until I believe 2001. The rest of our sports were in the CAA. My guess is if we ever did receive a football only invite we would probably try to get our other sports back in the CAA. We have a lot of history with those schools, and probably our biggest non-football rival, UNCW, is there.

(11-11-2010 08:52 AM)ConanX Wrote:  Didn't ECU join CUSA as football only?

Yep.

ECU joined the CAA in 1985 while remaining independent in football. In 1996, ECU Softball joined the Big South. In 1997, ECU Football joins Conference USA as a football-only member. In 2001, ECU joined C-USA for all sports.

So it looks like at one point we were in three different conferences (CAA, Big South and C-USA)

One of our top Assoc AD's just got the AD job at UNC-Wilmington, which will be a big ally if we ever need to return to the CAA.