(04-23-2010 10:10 PM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  

(04-23-2010 10:48 AM)miko33 Wrote:  

(04-23-2010 10:40 AM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  I love you guys, but too many people here are completely off of their rockers here with the Tagliabue consultancy. He's the Chairman of the Board at Georgetown, so he obviously has a direct interest in keeping the hybrid together. Even if there was some brilliant plan to make all of the BE a lot of money, it would not do anything to prevent the Big Ten from taking a BE school if it wanted to as that couldn't be put into place for years. It's not as if though the Big Ten doesn't have a lot of extremely powerful alumni and political connections, either. In the event that the BE loses any schools, Tagliabue has the gravitas to say that the BE would still be better off in the hybrid than to split. Maybe people like Tom Jurich don't trust the BE office anymore, but if the former commissioner of the NFL says that the hybrid is still the revenue maximization opportunity for the BE, then the people who might want a split would change their minds.

Tagliabue directly dissed Rutgers and said that if the Big Ten was looking to add NY/NJ homes for the BTN, it was a flawed strategy because people wouldn't tune in and they couldn't get subscibers. That's all well and good to temper the expectations of the Big Ten, but how the f**k does that inspire confidence that the BE would create its own network?! Tagliabue is a very high profile person that demands respect from the average sports fan, but do NOT forget that he has 110% interest in making sure that the BE will always stay a hybrid no matter what happens. People are looking at him as an NFL guy, but in the case of the BE, he's a Georgetown/Catholic school guy.

Lighten up a little. Most people on here are merely talking about what-if scenarios. I'm sure most of the people who posted euphemistically about a possible ND-BE alliance to "screw the B10" is wild speculation. Most of us much more skeptical than that. But I'll at least keep an open mind that Paul and the BE leadership may come up with some pretty attractive scenarios that may greatly help the league. As a DePaul guy, shouldn't you at least be more positive about the BE yourself?

As a DePaul law grad, I do want to ensure that they stay with the BE Catholic schools (whether or not the FB schools stay). Now, I can completely understand that Georgetown and Villanova, who have much longer histories with the FB schools, would think very differently and are REALLY going to push to keep a hybrid. I think Paul Tagliabue is a smart guy, but I just had to temper some of the stuff being thrown out here. It doesn't change the structural issues that the BE has and that any BE school that gets approached by the Big Ten will be packing its bags. Tagliabue's work, at least from how I see it, is to make sure that the hybrid stays together no matter how many football schools leave (because that's what he wants as the Chair at Georgetown and that's what ND wants). That's not necessarily a bad thing, but I see him as a symbolic person with gravitas to deliver news that might be unpopular as opposed to a real change agent.

The Big East should have split before the ACC raid with UofL and UC. That could have been a heckeva league and perhaps the 3 never would have left for the ACC. I just think it is to late to split now. To add UCF? Memphis? ECU? Do I hear SMiss or Marshall or Temple? With ND apparently cooperating the hybrid absolutely should continue at this point. Tags is great to bring leadership and professionalism to the league office (which is lacking big time) and just the entertainment value of his recent comments is outstanding given the prior silence and bend over attitude. I suspect that his statements were directed towards the Big Ten presidents to get them thinking about what is going on and to apply pressure to keep the expansion to one or maybe three schools and perhaps the Big East only loses one school (Rutgers or Pitt). No doubt the Integer can still have anybody they want not named ND or Texas.

Agreed, IAR, at this point the hybrid may be absolutely necessary to maximize whatever revenue we can. I just feel like the Cards need to be aligned w/ the strongest collection of hoops programs we can, especially if the BE gets hit hard, and that means the bball onlies. Besides, I like to see the Ville playing them...

(04-23-2010 06:27 PM)Pervis_Griffith Wrote:  As far as the HYBRIDITY of this conference, the marquee asset of the Big East is it's men's basketball tournament in Madison Square Garden. It is THE thing that sports fans recognize as Big East. Preserving the hybridity of this conference is the ONLY short term solution to "saving" the Big East. And the quickest way to jump-start a Big East network.

The "hybridity" would be healthier if a few dead limbs were pruned.