RE: realignment what ifs: what if the BE decided not to go after football schools
The Metro Conference looked at sponsoring football in the early 1990's. According to Wikipedia, the proposed 16-team super conference looked as follows:
North Division - Boston College, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Syracuse, Temple, Virginia Tech, West Virginia
South Division - East Carolina, Florida State, Louisville, Memphis State, Miami, South Carolina, Southern Miss, Tulane
Florida State and South Carolina still would have left - the ACC and SEC were too tempting. However, with no Big East, there would remain a push for an eastern football conference. The Metro had football members with Cincinnati, Memphis, Tulane, Louisville, Virginia Tech, and Southern Miss. The Atlantic 10 had football members with Rutgers, West Virginia, and Temple. I'm going to guess that the Big East football members, given the choice, would decide to side with the Atlantic 10 football teams due to the old rivalries they have with those members. I'm probably giving the Atlantic 10 too much credit here, but I'm going on a limb and saying that they sponsor the football. The A10 adds Virginia Tech, Miami, and East Carolina to the nine remaining members (Penn State still leaves) to get to 12 basketball and 9 football (* denotes football only, ^ denotes basketball only):
Atlantic 12
Boston College*
Pittsburgh*
Syracuse*
West Virginia
Temple
Rutgers
Virginia Tech
Miami
East Carolina
George Washington^
UMass^
Duquesne^
Saint Boneventure^
Rhode Island^
St. Joseph's^
Oh look at that....an even split between football and basketball schools. I wonder how that will turn out.
The Metro splits up with the creation of the Great Midwest, then the eventual reunion with Conference USA.
UMass, as a I-AA in a I-A conference, studies and decides to make the move up make the conference 10 football members. Boston College is unable to block the move as a football-only, but this move has them looking again at moving to the ACC. Without an invite in hand, UConn may not move their football program to I-A until much later.
The Big East would have kept Syracuse, Pitt, and Boston College, while adding Notre Dame. That is until the ACC decided to raid for more football members. Does East Carolina have the same clout in their state that Virginia Tech has in their state to earn an invite - or at least block expansion - by putting pressure on UNC and NC State? This is a part where I'm not sure. Does the ACC go to 12 with VT and East Carolina, go to just 10 with Miami, or not expand at all?
If the conference is successfully raided by the ACC, infighting occurs between basketball and football members about the priority of the conference. Superconference scenario wins out again.
I guess what I'm saying is...inviting East Carolina to the Atlantic 10 / Big East football conference might have saved the Big East basketball conference? Whoa.
(This post was last modified: 03-17-2014 07:28 PM by BullsFanatic.)
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