(06-12-2019 09:34 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(06-12-2019 09:21 AM)usffan Wrote:  

(06-12-2019 08:57 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(06-12-2019 08:48 AM)RutgersGuy Wrote:  BC President saying out loud to the press that "They (ESPN) told us what to do." is proof enough that ESPN was a major player in moving Big East assets to the ACC.

The problem I have with that line is that the ACC had tried to kill the Big East in 2003-2004. Did ESPN tell them to do that, too?

To me, it was clear the ACC was looking for a chance to strike again at the Big East, it didn't need an impetus from ESPN. Not saying ESPN didn't say something about it, but IMO it was happening anyway.

The ACC had it out for the Big East, and for pretty clear reasons.

So using your logic, the conspirator who provides the means, method and literally the roadmap for performing an execution is not to blame for the execution itself?

And to RutgersGuy's point, why do you think ESPN wasn't involved in the first attempt at this?

USFFan

Because we don't have any evidence that ESPN was involved in 2003, and the ACC had plenty of motivation in 2003 (and in 2011) to try and kill the Big East anyway, regardless of ESPN's view of the matter. And, for ESPN's part, in 2003 conference media payouts were so small that it wasn't a big deal to try and maneuver something like this.

Just a look at the map during the 2000s showed that if the ACC was going to expand in power and money, it had to go north. And north was where the Big East was.

You avoided answering the first question, which was prompted by your post a few above mine that says:

(06-12-2019 08:29 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  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.

That aside, it's noteworthy that absence of evidence of something is not evidence of absence. And the only "northern" school they added the first time was BC, unless somehow you want to argue that Virginia Tech is a northern school...

I'm not saying that ESPN was the sole culprit. Nor am I saying that the Big East's incompetent leadership wasn't a contributing factor. But ESPN was hip deep in this, and I believe they were hip deep from the outset. ESPN also paid off the Big 12 to not expand. They have a very vested interest in limiting the number of schools they have to pay top dollar to.

USFFan