(01-31-2019 12:21 PM)esayem Wrote:  

(01-31-2019 12:04 PM)ken d Wrote:  If an all-sports conference, including Penn State, had formed from northeastern independents, I suspect the Big East might never have formed at all. The question is: were there enough schools already playing at a level that would have warranted a full-fledged all sports conference?

With 20/20 hindsight, one could say Penn State, Pitt, Syracuse, Boston College, West Virginia, Louisville, Cincinnati and Virginia Tech would have made a conference that could be considered a power conference today. They wouldn't have needed any non-football schools. If it had formed before the NCAA expanded the tournament field to allow at-large entries, Maryland might even have been tempted to leave the ACC.

With all those schools already spoken for, what would have been left for a Big East to form with? Dave Gavitt's dream probably would have withered on the vine.

Cincinnati was regulated to 1-AA for a season in the early 80's, there is no way they would have been included.

Louisville and Virginia Tech would have been considered way out of the footprint back then, but who knows. That's why Rutgers and Temple were shoe-ins for any all-sports leagues.

I wonder if Rutgers accepting an initial Big East invite would have been cause for Penn State being voted-in?

Except Cincinnati was never relegated or demoted.

The NCAA tried to demote Cincinnati after the 1982 season , but Cincinnati appealed and won.

The NY Times article on Cincinnati defeating Penn State never mentions Cincinnati being in the lower division. Lower in the article, it DOES mention that Delaware is in Division 1-aa.

The book, The Playing Grounds of College Football A Comprehensive Directory lists UC as D-1A from 1978 onward (1978 was the first year of the split between D-1A and D-1AA).

And it makes no sense. After the 1982 season, UC hired the OC from an 8-4 SEC team as our head coach. After a 4-6-1 season with UC, he was poached by a Power conference team (Rice). Do either of those things happen to a D-1aa team?

Our 1983 schedule may have been the toughest in the country (the year we were supposedly "relegated"): Home games against Oklahoma State, Cornell, Temple, Miami (FL), Rutgers, and Memphis. Road games against Penn State, Louisville, Florida State, Kentucky, and Miami (OH).