Thanks for the article, Jackson.
Mike T is obviously a brilliant man, yet he made so many mistakes over the years, he's probably the one most responsible for the football predicament we find ourselves in today. Imagine the things he could have and should have done differently over the years.
In 1980, he could have added Temple instead of Nova. St. Joe's was the other team in contention since the BE wanted a Philly connection. Temple would have brought fb.
In 1982, when asking Pitt to join, he could have asked Penn State also. At that time, pSU wanted to be in the BE.
In 1990, when takin Miami, he also could have taken Florida State who was looking for a conference also.
In 1998, when MT and Swofford met to discuss a football-only merger, they had to consumate a deal or not even think about it. A championship game might have swung that deal. It's interesting to note that those at the meeting included the Miami, Syracuse, and Florida State athletic directors. In 1999, Swofford's idea of expansion first surfaced. This meeting may have sown those seeds.
In 2003, when the acc made its move, Mike could have tried a countermove instead of a lawsuit. Why not take Florida State, Virginia, Maryland, and Louisville, while keeping our 4 to form our own megaconference. The acc was the one on the bcs ropes, and the Virginia governor would have pushed for UVA to be in a bcs conference.
Probably, the one thing that blocked most of these moves was the desire to protect the bb schools more than the fb schools. This is why the hybrid league can not continue to exist.
LOOKING BACK AT THE 2 PROPOSED CONFERENCES CONFERENCES IN THAT ARTICLE (neither one proposed by the BE), I THINK WE CAN SEE WHERE WE NEED TO GO. Both of them looked like pretty good conferences to me.
1. According to Penn State athletic official Frank Giardina in a recent written account for the Charleston Daily Mail, the composition of the all-sports league was to be made up of Penn State, Boston College, Pitt, Rutgers, Syracuse, Temple, West Virginia and possibly the two service academies, Army and Navy. At the time there was also some feeling that this conglomeration might have been able to convince Maryland to jump from the ACC to the potential new league.
2. in 1990 West Virginia was courted by the Metro in a plan that included a 16-team super conference made up of existing Metro schools and Eastern independents. Raycom, Inc., under the direction of Metro commissioner Ralph McFillen, presented a plan that would join West Virginia, Pitt, Boston College, East Carolina, Syracuse with Cincinnati, Florida State, Louisville, Memphis, South Carolina, Southern Mississippi, Tulane and Virginia Tech.
Now, let's look at which of those aforementioned schools are not presently in a bcs conference. TEMPLE, ARMY, NAVY from the 1st list and EAST CAROLINA, MEMPHIS, S MISS, AND TULANE in the second. That looks like our shopping list.
Frankly, my first choice would be to try to lure some of the bcs teams first: PENN STATE, BOSTON COLLEGE, VIRGINIA TECH.
My second option would be to take as many from the non-bcs list as we need. NAVY, ECU, MEMPHIS, AND S MISS are my present 4 favorites.
|
