(02-07-2019 08:18 AM)orangefan Wrote:  

(02-06-2019 07:44 PM)esayem Wrote:  

(02-06-2019 02:53 PM)orangefan Wrote:  

(12-27-2018 05:53 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  I found it a little curious that the Big East took on USF as a full member in 2005. They could have doubled down in Florida and taken both USF and UCF as football affiliates but I suppose the realignment was designed to create 2 groups of 8 that could fulfill the NCAA requirements for an autobid after 5 years.

Providence
St John's
Seton Hall
Villanova
Georgetown
Notre Dame

UConn
Pitt
Syracuse
Rutgers
WVU
Cincinnati
Louisville

UCF (FB only)
USF (FB only)

13 for Olympics, 9 for football (and an 8 game conference schedule instead of that awkward 7).

If they ever decided to upgrade the U_Fs to full membership DePaul and Marquette are still there on the basketball side.

NCAA rules required, and still require, that an FBS conference have eight members that play both football and basketball in the conference in order to qualify for whatever benefits come with that status. It was the implementation of that requirement around 2000 that prompted the Big East to invite UConn as a football member in place of football only Temple.

USF was added after BC joined the ACC as its twelfth member in the fall of 2003. The Big East football members clearly wanted a school in Florida for recruiting purposes.

USF needed to be a full member. However, there was no reason the Big East couldn't have invited a 9th member of the football league that was football only. My guess is that they didn't want to "feed another mouth" with TV and BCS money that may have been fixed.

With respect to Depaul and Marquette, the basketball schools wanted two more non-football members to ensure continuity if and when the conference split. Taking them was a quid pro quo for their willingness to expand again for football. The "prenup" agreement reached at that time between the football and basketball schools was invoked when the C7 split in 2013.

UConn started the process of studying 1-A as early as 1990 when the Big East football conference was set in motion. They had an open invite from the get-go.

Interestingly enough, UMass had an offer from Robert Kraft to use the Pats stadium to move-up to 1-A back in the fall of 1994! Imagine if UMass upgraded back then when they started seriously studying the move.

I believe that the invite was part of the compromise related to the 1995 expansion that added Rutgers and West Virginia.