(08-14-2015 09:37 AM)Native Georgian Wrote:  

(08-13-2015 11:56 AM)Sam Minuteman Wrote:  They also finish with back to back road games at BYU & Hawaii which will fill in nicely as a pseudo bowl game for the most serious fans and boosters.

It will be interesting to see if the UMass team travels directly from Utah to Hawaii, without returning home in between. That would be the equivalent of a 10 day road trip, but the alternative (Amherst-to-Provo, then back to Amherst; followed by Amherst-to-Honolulu, then back to Amherst) is not much cheaper or easier.

I don't remember where I heard this but it has been said that the plan is to go from BYU directly to Hawaii. It makes the most sense logistically and the additional cost for the rooms and food will be offset by the savings of flying back to Amherst as well as cutting the flight from Amherst to Hawaii down. Not to mention the players will be more accustomed to the time zone and weather change, recruiting benefit, and fundraising benefits.

Regarding the Sunbelt comments above, conferences having odd numbers definitely helps independents with scheduling there is no doubt about it.

It would make a certain amount of sense ... if the Fall 2016 academic calendar is like the Fall 2015 one, they'd only miss three days of classes if they flew straight to Hawaii.

(08-14-2015 08:43 PM)Native Georgian Wrote:  

(08-14-2015 11:25 AM)Sam Minuteman Wrote:  Regarding the Sunbelt comments above, conferences having odd numbers definitely helps independents with scheduling there is no doubt about it.

C-USA will have 13 members until the 2018 season.

We are good through 2018 with 8 teams scheduled. It bothers me some we already have 5 games for 2019. Hoped we'd have a conference home by then.
FBSchedule UMass

(08-14-2015 10:00 PM)Steve1981 Wrote:  We are good through 2018 with 8 teams scheduled. It bothers me some we already have 5 games for 2019. Hoped we'd have a conference home by then.
FBSchedule UMass

There's likely a buy-out or move clause in the Maine contract.

(08-15-2015 08:41 AM)BruceMcF Wrote:  

(08-14-2015 10:00 PM)Steve1981 Wrote:  We are good through 2018 with 8 teams scheduled. It bothers me some we already have 5 games for 2019. Hoped we'd have a conference home by then.
FBSchedule UMass

There's likely a buy-out or move clause in the Maine contract.

Pretty sure there's one in the BYU contract, too. And I wouldn't be shocked if Army had one.

Heck, I could see an unofficial understanding that BYU & Army would play each other if UMass had to back out. It's a home game for Army & an away game for BYU.

Thinking about it on another thread what if......Temple was never invited to the BE back in March of 2012? Instead ECU was added FB only.

Temple may have stayed in the MAC for football, keeping the MAC-UMass deal intact. Leaving the A10 for the AAC wouldn't make sense at that point.

Don't remember ECU being football only

(08-15-2015 11:13 PM)Kittonhead Wrote:  Thinking about it on another thread what if......Temple was never invited to the BE back in March of 2012? Instead ECU was added FB only.

Temple may have stayed in the MAC for football, keeping the MAC-UMass deal intact. Leaving the A10 for the AAC wouldn't make sense at that point.

Yup, however Temple was invited and our fate was sealed. The bigger what if is about the C7 and if they never broke away.

It would have been nice to be playing Temple in the MAC for Football and in the A10 in BB. Both teams would have helped the MAC build an East Coast presence. With the MAC digging it's heals around the Great Lakes it will be interesting to see what could push the MAC back to the East Coast.

(08-15-2015 11:15 PM)Pony94 Wrote:  Don't remember ECU being football only

ECU was announced as FB-Only to the Big East right before the BE-AAC split. It was the addition of Tulane basketball that was the last straw for the C7.

An alternate history where the BE accepted ECU FB only instead of Temple might have yielded a different result for Temple. The C7 would have split before Temple joined the AAC instead of before.

The A10 of today with Temple would be the A10 of today minus Davidson. It would be slightly stronger today with Temple. Who knows though if Temple would have still taken an AAC invite a yaer later? My guess is probably.

(08-15-2015 11:33 PM)Steve1981 Wrote:  

(08-15-2015 11:13 PM)Kittonhead Wrote:  Thinking about it on another thread what if......Temple was never invited to the BE back in March of 2012? Instead ECU was added FB only.

Temple may have stayed in the MAC for football, keeping the MAC-UMass deal intact. Leaving the A10 for the AAC wouldn't make sense at that point.

Yup, however Temple was invited and our fate was sealed. The bigger what if is about the C7 and if they never broke away.

It would have been nice to be playing Temple in the MAC for Football and in the A10 in BB. Both teams would have helped the MAC build an East Coast presence. With the MAC digging it's heals around the Great Lakes it will be interesting to see what could push the MAC back to the East Coast.

Most likely the MAC will return East when there are openings.

In the meantime the MAC is benefiting from the decimation of other mid major conferences in its region.

Missouri Valley (lost Creighton)
Horizon (lost Butler, Loyola Chicago)
Summit (lost Oakland, Missouri-Kansas City)

Each conference took a qualitative hit with their losses while the MAC is slowly stepping up coaching pay in basketball.

If the following scenario played out for the MAC:

B12 (Houston, Cincinnati)
AAC (Northern Illinois, Toledo)

The MAC would go with Illinois State to replace NIU and James Madison in the East to replace Toledo, moving Bowling Green to the West.

There would be a net loss of zero markets for the MAC since Illinois State has as much of a presence in Chicago as NIU, BGSU is in the Toledo market. James Madison would add a new market to the MAC. In basketball (Illinois State) and baseball (James Madison) the MAC would be better off.

However the MVC (Illinois State) and CAA (James Madison) would be taking big hits loosing those two schools, further pushing them down the ladder.

(08-15-2015 11:15 PM)Pony94 Wrote:  Don't remember ECU being football only

They were originally given a football only invite at the same meeting where Tulane was offered a full invite. ECU's invite was later upgraded to an all sports invite after the C7 left. It was the C7 that had blocked an ECU all sports invite.

(08-15-2015 11:13 PM)Kittonhead Wrote:  Thinking about it on another thread what if......Temple was never invited to the BE back in March of 2012? Instead ECU was added FB only.

Temple may have stayed in the MAC for football, keeping the MAC-UMass deal intact. Leaving the A10 for the AAC wouldn't make sense at that point.

You want to play in that playground. instead of ECU go with Boise STate for 2012. The MWC had an (expensive) early-exit provision in their bylaws, and we could have just sent the bill to Morgantown.

Let's continue to ponder now...Temple had been floated as an 18th member of the MWC-CUSA alliance-thing, allowing UTEP to move east--but there was still no money in the alliance.

With Boise STate on board, and with 12 members projected when Navy joins
(UConn, Rutgers, Louisville, Cincy, USF, UCF, SMU, Houston, Memphis, BSU, SDSU, NAvy--yep, that's 12) there's less chatter about who Big East #14 is.

The project still founders on the reality that the money that everybody thought was there for the Tagliabue-Marinatto-Aresco Big East wasn't there. Which means the C7 splits, but instead of Tulane being the trigger it's bringing in Temple and ECU as full members.

Could Hair Thompson lure Boise STate back into the MWC fold after 2 years in the Big East? I'm not sure.

If ECU, UCF and Tulane all didn't have such historically weak basketball programs, there would have been a significantly greater chance of the C7 not leaving and starting a reconfigured Big East in 2013. Between those three additions, there was just a combined nine NCAA Tournament appearances in all of their respective program's history (ECU - 2, Tulane -3, UCF - 4). The C7 already had put up with USF, which just had one NCAA appearance while in the Big East (3 total NCAA appearances), and wasn't going to further drain the level of competition from the basketball side of things.

The C7 were genuinely excited about the prospects about playing Houston, Memphis and SMU. Houston and Memphis had terrific basketball history, tradition and NCAA Tournament success, and SMU, being a private university, was looking to pump more money into the basketball program (hiring Larry Brown and Tim Jankovic). Tulsa was added after the C7 defected, so there was never an thought with them (but, I would imagine they would have been excited to play them as well - 15 NCAA Tournament appearances, private school and a nice arena).

At the end of the day, both (new) conferences are extremely better off. Both get to focus on their institutional and athletic priorities, and a grouped with similar schools. It's amazing the Old Big East conference lasted as long as it did with the football/basketball dichotomy.

(08-16-2015 12:16 AM)Attackcoog Wrote:  

(08-15-2015 11:15 PM)Pony94 Wrote:  Don't remember ECU being football only

They were originally given a football only invite at the same meeting where Tulane was offered a full invite. ECU's invite was later upgraded to an all sports invite after the C7 left. It was the C7 that had blocked an ECU all sports invite.

Temple had to be invited all-sports because of the rule about FBS conferences needing 8 all-sports members. The Big East used 1 of the 2 grace years for the 2012-13 academic year while Temple was football only, but unless if other all sports members had committed prior to Temple being invited then the Big East had to add them.

(08-16-2015 12:55 PM)chargeradio Wrote:  

(08-16-2015 12:16 AM)Attackcoog Wrote:  

(08-15-2015 11:15 PM)Pony94 Wrote:  Don't remember ECU being football only

They were originally given a football only invite at the same meeting where Tulane was offered a full invite. ECU's invite was later upgraded to an all sports invite after the C7 left. It was the C7 that had blocked an ECU all sports invite.

Temple had to be invited all-sports because of the rule about FBS conferences needing 8 all-sports members. The Big East used 1 of the 2 grace years for the 2012-13 academic year while Temple was football only, but unless if other all sports members had committed prior to Temple being invited then the Big East had to add them.

UCF, SMU, Houston all signed with the Big East before Temple did. There would have been only one year with 7 FBS full members. (Maybe Memphis too, I forget.)

(08-16-2015 12:16 AM)Attackcoog Wrote:  

(08-15-2015 11:15 PM)Pony94 Wrote:  Don't remember ECU being football only

They were originally given a football only invite at the same meeting where Tulane was offered a full invite. ECU's invite was later upgraded to an all sports invite after the C7 left. It was the C7 that had blocked an ECU all sports invite.

Correct!

(08-16-2015 06:14 PM)pablowow Wrote:  

(08-16-2015 12:16 AM)Attackcoog Wrote:  

(08-15-2015 11:15 PM)Pony94 Wrote:  Don't remember ECU being football only

They were originally given a football only invite at the same meeting where Tulane was offered a full invite. ECU's invite was later upgraded to an all sports invite after the C7 left. It was the C7 that had blocked an ECU all sports invite.

Correct!

For some reason ECU basketball was hated by the Catholic schools. I understand we are not good but Tulane was no better then us in basketball neither is UCF and they got full invites. Also our baseball is pretty good but I do not think the northern catholic schools care for baseball nor football.

(08-16-2015 06:24 PM)Carolina_Low_Country Wrote:  

(08-16-2015 06:14 PM)pablowow Wrote:  

(08-16-2015 12:16 AM)Attackcoog Wrote:  

(08-15-2015 11:15 PM)Pony94 Wrote:  Don't remember ECU being football only

They were originally given a football only invite at the same meeting where Tulane was offered a full invite. ECU's invite was later upgraded to an all sports invite after the C7 left. It was the C7 that had blocked an ECU all sports invite.

Correct!

For some reason ECU basketball was hated by the Catholic schools. I understand we are not good but Tulane was no better then us in basketball neither is UCF and they got full invites. Also our baseball is pretty good but I do not think the northern catholic schools care for baseball nor football.

I think that ex-NFL commish and Georgetown Board of Trustees president Paul Tagliabue was the most influential figure in C7 (and probably Big East) decision-making, and he was all about the markets. So ECU suffered from bad basketball AND not being in a major metropolitan area, with even Norfolk and Winston-Salem being a real stretch as ECU territory. Tulane was at least in New Orleans, an NFL market and world-famous city, and is a top 50 US News university and is private.

Sorry ECU fans, that's the way it was.

(08-16-2015 06:39 PM)johnbragg Wrote:  

(08-16-2015 06:24 PM)Carolina_Low_Country Wrote:  

(08-16-2015 06:14 PM)pablowow Wrote:  

(08-16-2015 12:16 AM)Attackcoog Wrote:  

(08-15-2015 11:15 PM)Pony94 Wrote:  Don't remember ECU being football only

They were originally given a football only invite at the same meeting where Tulane was offered a full invite. ECU's invite was later upgraded to an all sports invite after the C7 left. It was the C7 that had blocked an ECU all sports invite.

Correct!

For some reason ECU basketball was hated by the Catholic schools. I understand we are not good but Tulane was no better then us in basketball neither is UCF and they got full invites. Also our baseball is pretty good but I do not think the northern catholic schools care for baseball nor football.

I think that ex-NFL commish and Georgetown Board of Trustees president Paul Tagliabue was the most influential figure in C7 (and probably Big East) decision-making, and he was all about the markets. So ECU suffered from bad basketball AND not being in a major metropolitan area, with even Norfolk and Winston-Salem being a real stretch as ECU territory. Tulane was at least in New Orleans, an NFL market and world-famous city, and is a top 50 US News university and is private.

Sorry ECU fans, that's the way it was.

+1

There was only so many struggling basketball programs that could have been added before the C7 couldn't stand pat anymore. Tulane and ECU, unfortunately, were the school additions that pushed the basketball schools to leave. Even though ECU was football only, it was widely known they would be full members at some point soon there after. Decisions were being made for football, plain and simple, and basketball-only schools didn't want to be part of it any longer.

(08-17-2015 07:48 AM)Native Georgian Wrote:  

(08-16-2015 12:21 PM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  At the end of the day, both (new) conferences are extremely better off. Both get to focus on their institutional and athletic priorities, and a grouped with similar schools. It's amazing the Old Big East conference lasted as long as it did with the football/basketball dichotomy.

This, x100

In a few years, after everybody has had a chance to get adjusted to the new status quo, I'm hoping the AAC and the BE will have some sort of early-season hoops-challenge.

Since the Big East has already has a hoops challenge with the B1G (Gavitt Games), for the next 8 years, I don't think that will happen anytime soon. However, it would be cool to have the C7 have some games with former conference mates in UConn, Cincinnati and USF. From a Marquette and DePaul standpoint, it would also be fun to play against some former C-USA brethren as well (Tulane, Houston, SMU, East Carolina, etc.).