To make the Big East viable...you reaffirm Boise State and SDSU (which has already happened reportedly) and then add four Mountain West schools to make a pretty viable football and basketball conference...
Current:
UConn
Cincinnati
South Florida
Boise State
Memphis
San Diego State
UCF
Houston
SMU
Temple
East Carolina
Tulane
Additions:
New Mexico
Fresno State
Air Force
Nevada
If Air Force won't join, then you add UNLV.
This would give you 7 teams that are consistently around the Top 25 in basketball and 5-6 top-25-type football programs.
It's not the former Big East, but if you can be flexible in travel scheduling, you have a very non-traditional, but potentially quality conference...
EAST
UConn
Cincy
Memphis
S. Florida
UCF
Temple
E. Carolina
Tulane
WEST
Boise State
San Diego State
Houston
SMU
New Mexico
Fresno State
Air Force/UNLV
Nevada
?
Memphis, Cincy, MTSU, AState, Southern Miss, UAB, La Tech, Western KY, ECU, Troy, USF, UCF
(12-14-2012 11:49 AM)Phillip26r Wrote: [ -> ]Memphis, Cincy, MTSU, AState, Southern Miss, UAB, La Tech, Western KY, ECU, Troy, USF, UCF
Oh hey, turns out this world we're in ISN'T the worst possible reality. Good to know.
(12-14-2012 01:17 PM)Psicosis Wrote: [ -> ] (12-14-2012 11:49 AM)Phillip26r Wrote: [ -> ]Memphis, Cincy, MTSU, AState, Southern Miss, UAB, La Tech, Western KY, ECU, Troy, USF, UCF
Oh hey, turns out this world we're in ISN'T the worst possible reality. Good to know.
Psicosis is hitting on all cylinders today. Good job!
(12-14-2012 01:17 PM)Psicosis Wrote: [ -> ] (12-14-2012 11:49 AM)Phillip26r Wrote: [ -> ]Memphis, Cincy, MTSU, AState, Southern Miss, UAB, La Tech, Western KY, ECU, Troy, USF, UCF
Oh hey, turns out this world we're in ISN'T the worst possible reality. Good to know.
That's just the eastern division.
(12-14-2012 11:49 AM)Phillip26r Wrote: [ -> ]Memphis, Cincy, MTSU, AState, Southern Miss, UAB, La Tech, Western KY, ECU, Troy, USF, UCF
Gross
EAST
Cincinnati
Connecticut
East Carolina
Memphis
Temple
UCF
USF
WEST
Boise State
Houston
San Diego State
SMU
Tulane
Tulsa
UNLV
(12-14-2012 11:49 AM)Phillip26r Wrote: [ -> ]Memphis, Cincy, MTSU, AState, Southern Miss, UAB, La Tech, Western KY, ECU, Troy, USF, UCF
IF this is the best all-sports conference we can get, then we need to put all sports but football in the new basketball league (G'town, Marq, etc) and go independent in football. I know some people will say that this will never work, but we could play a national schedule with 3-4 SEC teams, a couple of ACC teams (UL, Duke), along with 1 or 2 from the PAC-12 and BIG ???. Throw in a game or two with Southern Miss, ECU, Cincy, or UCF and we'd be set. Play one buy game away for a $1M each year and one home buy game against a lock 1-AA/FCS.
Sure, we wouldn't have a bowl tie-in, but what has that really done for us in CUSA (or a CUSA/SunBelt league like the one above.
This way, we would protect our greatest asset, men's basketball, and give our football program a chance to build by making a name for itself by playing top-level competition. Essentially, back to where we were in the early 90s with a great basketball conference (Great MidWest) and independent football with great schedules (go back and look at them).
Again, I would favor a good East/West all-sports conference, but if it turns out our best all-sports conference something like the one above, go to plan B (Basketball first!).
Can we please dump SMU and Tulane from all scenarios?
Unless it suddenly finds itself back to AQ status and we suddenly get a big AQ type of TV contract. There is no way in hell i would go near a nationwide all sports conference. We lose money on an all sports conference if we have to travel across the nation with our non revenue sports.
(12-15-2012 01:45 AM)ncrdbl1 Wrote: [ -> ]Unless it suddenly finds itself back to AQ status and we suddenly get a big AQ type of TV contract. There is no way in hell i would go near a nationwide all sports conference. We lose money on an all sports conference if we have to travel across the nation with our non revenue sports.
Actually, some talking head did a real-life comparison for Boise and their new travel expenses. Turns out the distances make VERY little difference in the overall air-fare costs for the year. Now we as fans would be screwed, but the article showed about $500,000 extra was all that was needed to make up the difference.... much less than the extra TV money, as little as that might ultimately turn out to be.