(10-15-2011 02:39 PM)MikeRo72 Wrote:  I find it hard to believe that the BE would issue invites w/o getting assurances 1st from Boise, AFA, SMU, Navy, UCF and Houston. I think all these things are already decided on behind the scenes and its just a matter of logistics and legalities as to when the press is brought into the know. Dont see how the BE would offer invites even with the slightest chance a school would say no.

True under most circumstances, but again, the Big East is literally finished as a football conference if it doesn't get more teams from somewhere. If the choice is between being turned down and just closing up shop, at least the former allows you to say you tried.

(10-15-2011 12:58 AM)Oh Really? Wrote:  

(10-14-2011 11:48 PM)Blazer85 Wrote:  In case some folks forgot, the BE is still majority-led by the basketball schools. Most of the names being thrown around (UCF, SMU, Houston, Boise, ECU, etc) do not have great basketball. I know not all schools are being mentioned as all-sports, but some are. And you really think those basketball schools are going to approve of adding that many new basketball programs that are going to hurt the prestige of BE basketball??

Especially if you lose some of the football BE schools that also have good basketball (Louisville, WVU, Cincinnati, UConn), then you really water down the BE basketball talent. The remaining basketball powers are not going to be enthusiastic about adding some of the names thrown around as potential BE candidates.

Didn't ECU beat Memphis last year? And UCF three times? And Charlotte? Didn't ECU beat Dwayne Wade at Marquette TWICE including their final four year and Pitino once in Greenville? Then they can be developed.

Didn't ECU beat Rutgers in Raleigh in a tournament there with NC State even with their two best players out? Then they can be developed.
Didn't ECU win 18 games last year in Lebo's first year? They lost five more games by a total of 9 points combined.
Didn't ECU win two CUSA titles in the last three years and beat Boise State in Hawaii? Well then... If I'm not mistaken, ECU is the last nonAQ to beat Boise State sandwiched between several BCS bowls.
ECU is a program that can be cultivated. They would be the second biggest attendance in football in this whole league if they were in the Big East right now. You can put SMU and Houston's crowd together and they don't average that. BTW, ECU also beat Houston last year in basketball too and two years ago to win the CUSA football championship. They beat GW as well in hoops last season.

And one more thing, my friend from UAB....
ECU beat UAB in the Conference USA Tournament just last year in hoops and are 7-4 lifetime in football vs UAB. Three of those UAB wins came in Logan's last year before he was fired at 4-8 and in John Thompson's two disasterous years in 2001 and 2002. Since then ECU has gone to five straight bowls. They did what was asked of them. Win titles and fill the seats and build facilities. We go to WVU one week and play in front of 70,000 then the next week we go to Birmingham and UAB has less than a thousand in the seats for football. ECU also beat TCU during that 4-8 year in 1999 and TCU was ranked at the time. 2-1 lifetime vs TCU.
ECU has beaten UAB the last five straight times in football.

I'm getting a little weary of East Carolina being torched on this board.
They have more than earned an invite here with wins over Stanford in
the Liberty Bowl, Texas Tech in the inaugural Houston Bowl, opening three new bowls, playing in four Liberty Bowls, winning a Peach Bowl, having at least one top 9 finish nationally in football 20 years ago. ECU took 30,000 to bowls 20 YEARS ago on three separate occasions. One in Atlanta and two in Memphis in the early 1990's.

East Carolina has thousand of alumni in the Northeast and has paid their dues to the college football world. They more than deserve to be included. Here they give a full invite to UCF who ECU is 8-2 lifetime against, put Cincinnati in there who ECU has a 12-3 lifetime record with in football and two of those wins came vs John Thompson too with ECU's OL coach coaching for Cincinnati. ECU also beat UCF three times in basketball just last year. UCF has won two league titles too and I'm not saying they aren't deserving too, but leaving ECU out is ludicrous.
They'll even admit that.

If you read my post, it's not talking about football. Clearly ECU in the last couple years has been better than UAB football. However, UAB has beaten ECU several times as you noted (in football) including when ECU was #17. ECU has been good over the last few years, but it was not that long ago that you guys were struggling. UAB is struggling in football right now. But the potential is there. We've been in the BCS Top 25 before. It's been a while, but we were once at least pretty darn competitive in football. Things will improve. We're building a new stadium. We will almost assuredly be getting a new coach after this year.

With respect to basketball, you guys had probably your best team ever this past year. You guys beat us in the CUSA tournament. Congrats. But as my other UAB friend noted, that's LITERALLY your 2nd win against us in a decade. And it took OT to do it. Again, congrats. But we don't gauge the status of our basketball program on wins vs. ECU. We gauge our program on NCAA appearances and national rankings. We've been ranked in the Top 25 in basketball as recently as 2010 and were in our 14th NCAA tournament appearance this last year.

I like ECU okay. My point is about many of the supposed BE targets in CUSA are very... average at best in basketball. That's going to be a tough situation for the BE in basketball and really hurt their prestige to get those programs.