(02-11-2021 08:19 PM)MemTGRS Wrote:  

(02-10-2021 03:54 PM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  

(02-10-2021 12:35 PM)bullet Wrote:  It was a league run out of Providence for Providence, Seton Hall, St. John's, Villanova and Georgetown.

I strongly disagree.

From a distance, I did not see a favoritism towards the non-football schools either.

In hindsight, I think the Big East would have been wise to have grabbed four western schools for football only upon the initial ACC raid. Utah, BYU, and Boise State almost certainly would have jumped to a BCS league along with one more (SDSU, USAFA, etc) ... and been incubated with the league to stay following the 2nd raid (minus Utah who would gave left when the Pac-12 called).

I am biased and we felt we (Memphis) would have benefitted greatly from that same incubation. It was mostly our own fault for not being nearly committed to our football program as we should have back then... (read: not much $$$ left after Calipari's demand were appeased).

I will say that the AAC being higher profile along with FINALLY giving the football program a priority has been nice.

Every decision that the football schools wanted required time and arm twisting to get the basketball schools on board. Schools like WVU and Rutgers and VT couldn't get in right away. They tried to bring Connecticut, Villanova and Navy in rather than football schools. Decisions had nothing to do with football.