We're all familiar with the usual cast of characters for BE expansion. UCF, Houston, etc., but they all make me yawn. Kansas, K-State & Mizzou would be great, but that's not happening.
What if the BE went in a different direction...trying to further improve b-ball as a means of improving the value of its upcoming TV contract? From what I've read lately, the new BE deal will reportedly come close to, but not surpass, the current ACC deal. If the BE went to ESPN, Fox, Comcast & whoever with the following conference lineup...
...separate the current 8 f-ball schools from the b-ball schools, add TCU & Nova...plus Duke & UNC of the ACC. Would that increase the new BE's value beyond the current ACC deal, and if so, would that be enough incentive (i.e. $$$) to pry Duke & UNC away from the ACC?
I know Duke & UNC may still view the BE as too unstable, but they are b-ball first schools and may like the idea of being in the top b-ball conference.
For the BE, this does nothing to improve football, but even still, I believe Duke & UNC will do more for the $$$ value of the conference than UCF & Houston will. Also, the loss of G-town & ND would be more than made up for by adding Duke & UNC.
Best of all, this would be a great way for the BE to pay back the ACC for the 2004 raid!

Why settle for UNC and Duke? Why not get Florida, Texas, Ohio State and USC in on this deal? I bet it would make a crapload of money!

(04-22-2011 01:55 PM)jam2112 Wrote:  We're all familiar with the usual cast of characters for BE expansion. UCF, Houston, etc., but they all make me yawn. Kansas, K-State & Mizzou would be great, but that's not happening.
What if the BE went in a different direction...trying to further improve b-ball as a means of improving the value of its upcoming TV contract? From what I've read lately, the new BE deal will reportedly come close to, but not surpass, the current ACC deal. If the BE went to ESPN, Fox, Comcast & whoever with the following conference lineup...
...separate the current 8 f-ball schools from the b-ball schools, add TCU & Nova...plus Duke & UNC of the ACC. Would that increase the new BE's value beyond the current ACC deal, and if so, would that be enough incentive (i.e. $$$) to pry Duke & UNC away from the ACC?
I know Duke & UNC may still view the BE as too unstable, but they are b-ball first schools and may like the idea of being in the top b-ball conference.
For the BE, this does nothing to improve football, but even still, I believe Duke & UNC will do more for the $$$ value of the conference than UCF & Houston will. Also, the loss of G-town & ND would be more than made up for by adding Duke & UNC.
Best of all, this would be a great way for the BE to pay back the ACC for the 2004 raid!

I see where you are going with this but:

1- ACC per school revenue is likely going to beat the Big East. The BE will be doing well to match them.
2- UNC & Duke ARE the ACC and it would take a lot to make them consider moving, much less actually move.
3- Football was a smaller part of the last contract but I expect that to shift the other way with the prices networks are paying for football
4- Basketball is already about as maxed out as it gets. UNC and Duke aren't coming and no other hoops addition makes economic sense as they won't add enough marginal value to offset their share of hoops revenue. Also most of the good hoops schools would be a football drain.

Its a nice idea but there are a multitude of reasons why its not being approached that way.

(04-22-2011 01:55 PM)jam2112 Wrote:  We're all familiar with the usual cast of characters for BE expansion. UCF, Houston, etc., but they all make me yawn. Kansas, K-State & Mizzou would be great, but that's not happening.
What if the BE went in a different direction...trying to further improve b-ball as a means of improving the value of its upcoming TV contract? From what I've read lately, the new BE deal will reportedly come close to, but not surpass, the current ACC deal. If the BE went to ESPN, Fox, Comcast & whoever with the following conference lineup...
...separate the current 8 f-ball schools from the b-ball schools, add TCU & Nova...plus Duke & UNC of the ACC. Would that increase the new BE's value beyond the current ACC deal, and if so, would that be enough incentive (i.e. $$$) to pry Duke & UNC away from the ACC?
I know Duke & UNC may still view the BE as too unstable, but they are b-ball first schools and may like the idea of being in the top b-ball conference.
For the BE, this does nothing to improve football, but even still, I believe Duke & UNC will do more for the $$$ value of the conference than UCF & Houston will. Also, the loss of G-town & ND would be more than made up for by adding Duke & UNC.
Best of all, this would be a great way for the BE to pay back the ACC for the 2004 raid!

The BE has as much chance of coaxing UNC and Duke to join as it would trying to get PSU and ND to join the conference. Do you seriously believe this is possible or are you just bored?

He's just bored.

(04-22-2011 01:55 PM)jam2112 Wrote:  We're all familiar with the usual cast of characters for BE expansion. UCF, Houston, etc., but they all make me yawn. Kansas, K-State & Mizzou would be great, but that's not happening.
What if the BE went in a different direction...trying to further improve b-ball as a means of improving the value of its upcoming TV contract? From what I've read lately, the new BE deal will reportedly come close to, but not surpass, the current ACC deal. If the BE went to ESPN, Fox, Comcast & whoever with the following conference lineup...
...separate the current 8 f-ball schools from the b-ball schools, add TCU & Nova...plus Duke & UNC of the ACC. Would that increase the new BE's value beyond the current ACC deal, and if so, would that be enough incentive (i.e. $$$) to pry Duke & UNC away from the ACC?
I know Duke & UNC may still view the BE as too unstable, but they are b-ball first schools and may like the idea of being in the top b-ball conference.
For the BE, this does nothing to improve football, but even still, I believe Duke & UNC will do more for the $$$ value of the conference than UCF & Houston will. Also, the loss of G-town & ND would be more than made up for by adding Duke & UNC.
Best of all, this would be a great way for the BE to pay back the ACC for the 2004 raid!

As mentioned by others, you can't get UNC and Duke but there are plenty of good basketball schools available that the BE could get. Umass, Charlotte (soon), Temple and Memphis could all be full members but would bring down the football side. If the BE wanted to add some non-FBS playing members, there's tons of schools available. Butler, Xavier, Bradley, Dayton, St. Louis (not really good but another media market), GW, GMU, VCU, ODU, Richmond. Take your pick. It would seem to me the non-football members would need 8 members that are together for 5 years if there is going to be a split and if Nova moves up to FBS, they're going to need 1 more.

why does the BE need to worry about the basketball side of things? if we're not going to get the big bucks with the current BE line-up then we're never going to get them

The Big East stands a far greater chance of getting Kansas, K-State, and Mizzou than they do Duke and UNC. All three of those schools, new TV contract be damned, are displeased in the Big XII and would all three add value to basketball AND football.

Forget UNC and Duke. Just add the Miami Heat, New York Knicks, Boston Celtics and Chicago Bulls. Throw in Harlem Globetrotters as a backup plan if one says no.