(06-11-2019 07:00 PM)msm96wolf Wrote:  Not sure why everyone blames ESPN about the Big East. They were offered a nice contract renewal and the Big East thought it could do better. Ninja Swofford basically started the collapse of the Big East.

I was in the minority on this back in 2011 when debates raged on Big East boards, but I never blamed ESPN. IMO, then and now, the culprits were (a) the ACC, and (b) poor Big East leadership.

The ACC was the #1 culprit because they attacked the Big East by raiding it for key members Syracuse and Pitt. The ACC had long had a desire to destroy the Big East, because the Big East was one of three conferences that hemmed it in, limiting its power and money, and the other two, the SEC and B1G, were too strong to attack. So the ACC saw decapitating the Big East as its ticket to expansion in to the lucrative northeast corridor.

The ACC had attempted to kill the Big East before, in 2003-2004, when it raided it for BC, Miami, and VT. But, to everyone's shock and amazement, it didn't work. The rump Big East that added USF and Louisville somehow not only survived, but actually thrived - between 2005 - 2012, the Big East was at least equal to the ACC on the football field, and was better on the basketball court.

This was a mortal threat to ACC ambitions, so the ACC struck again in 2011, and this time, the blow was mortal and the old Big East was killed.

Big East leadership was the #2 culprit, because it had advance warning: Fool me once (2003) shame on you, fool me twice (2011) shame on me. The ACC attack of 2003 should have warned the Big East from that point forward that the ACC was a hostile force, and that moves like turning down big ESPN dollars was a bad thing, but Big East leadership interacted with the ACC as if it was peace and harmony, when in fact the ACC was just biding its time.