(02-13-2021 11:00 PM)gosports1 Wrote:  i think he did what he could given the circumstances. He could have been more aggressive with not only other leagues attempts to steal members but also with BE members themselves In my view the FB schools were looking to get out for years back even before his time to at least when BC left. The FB schools weren;t committed to each other. Even when the GE expanded to 16 the FB schools IMO were looking for a way out. Self interest is fine but i wonder what would have happened if the FB schools held together , contractually if necessary . Perhaps if they did it would have been the B12 that collapsed. If WVU(and any BE backups)said no the B12 where would they have gone to find someone? If Cuse and Pitt said no to the ACC, would the ACC have looked to the B12 with maybe Texas and Kansas? Would that have stopped MD from going to B10. Maybe the BE would have been the aggressor and together with the B10 and ACC picked apart the B12.Was he capable of that? Were the BE FB schools even interested in that? We'll never know. Maybe he was too nice and didnt want to be responsible for such upheaval as i seem to remember some suggesting at the time.

If Pitt had said no to the ACC, it would have been because it had decided to go to the wounded B12 with WVU and one of either Louisville or Rutgers. In such a scenario, the ACC could have no more pulled UT than it can now and Syracuse could in no way have said no to the ACC. Even at that stage, there was no way Pitt could have said no to the ACC because it was clear the BE was finished as a viable and equitable football power conference and the ACC was certainly a better place than the B12 (at least for the University of Pittsburgh).

WVU and others were actively seeking an exit before Pitt, and that was known to all BE leadership. Despite the repeated stories of how this rejected ESPN contract was this or that, it was clear to all leadership that it was not going to be enough to allow the league to keep pace with the other power conferences going forward and the BE's place in the major bowl hierarchy (as the BCS was transforming into the playoff and NYD6) was also going to be lost. What they were facing was a rapid decent into non-power status and complete lack of willingness among any football playing schools, at least those that thought they might have options, to stay together to work on building an unsure thing, which at one point there was at least some hope to do with the addition of TCU. What precipitated this lack of commitment was an open rift over membership additions that, in the eyes of various football school leaderships, indicated that growing football side in a way to give it a chance to maintain major conference status was going to be impossible (and yes, this largely comes down to adding UCF vs Villanova's "Duke plan").

The ONLY thing that could have saved the Big East, circa either 2002 or 2010, was ND joining in football. Schools would have willingly stayed within the orbit of ND. Not just because of the Irish brand, but because ND is trusted and respected (unlike PSU) and would have brought the commitment, and thus security, to the conference's future that no one else would have been able to.

In the what-if hypotheticals, the real one is what if ND joins BE in football by, say, 2000? Then I think you are looking at a scenario where the conference raiding is going the other direction.