(02-01-2019 02:29 PM)solohawks Wrote:  

(02-01-2019 11:13 AM)mikeinsec127 Wrote:  

(01-31-2019 12:24 PM)solohawks Wrote:  

(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?

Yep!

Rutgers turning down the Big East to cast their lot with Penn State is incredibly underrated on the dumbest realignment decisions scale

The Big 10 bailed them out

No argument from here. For RU this was just one in a years long series of blunders that our long time AD - Fred Gruninger - made.

Yep, if Rutgers takes the Seton Hall spot then Penn State wins the Big East vote and Big East football gets launched in the early 80s as opposed to scrambling to put something together

Wiki says it was Georgetown, St. John's, and Villanova that voted against Penn State, not Seton Hall: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_East_C...arly_years