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Ok this is a serious question, several years ago the Big East was seen as a Super Conference in the Making. Today its viewed as a destination or a stepping stone, a place for teams to travel to before being invited to a larger, or as the Louisville AD recently stated after being invited to the ACC, the associating with more presitgious schools.
Since we know, its not about academics, or athletics,and at this junction as far as the money payout and bowls goes there is not much different, so my question is what makes the Big East attractive ?
I seriously cannot get my hand around it.

Georgetown,Marquette,Uconn,Memphis,Cinci,Providence,and others in Bartow Arena instead of FIU,MTSU,and UTSA.

Basketball and that's it.

(11-29-2012 10:51 AM)rebounder2u Wrote:  Ok this is a serious question, several years ago the Big East was seen as a Super Conference in the Making. Today its viewed as a destination or a stepping stone, a place for teams to travel to before being invited to a larger, or as the Louisville AD recently stated after being invited to the ACC, the associating with more presitgious schools.
Since we know, its not about academics, or athletics,and at this junction as far as the money payout and bowls goes there is not much different, so my question is what makes the Big East attractive ?
I seriously cannot get my hand around it.

Several of our conference mates are/will soon be in the Big East. Going to the Big East would keep UAB at the same level of competition it's been at for the past 15 years or so. Staying in C-USA, at this point, is effectively a demotion.

(11-29-2012 10:51 AM)rebounder2u Wrote:  Ok this is a serious question, several years ago the Big East was seen as a Super Conference in the Making. Today its viewed as a destination or a stepping stone, a place for teams to travel to before being invited to a larger, or as the Louisville AD recently stated after being invited to the ACC, the associating with more presitgious schools.
Since we know, its not about academics, or athletics,and at this junction as far as the money payout and bowls, there is not much different, so my question is what makes the Big East attractive ?
I seriously cannot get my hand around it.

The whole saga is just a stark reminder of the utter irrelevance of college basketball compared to college football. If basketball mattered even 40% as much as football, none of this would have happened. The Big East was an elite basketball conference. Now, of course, it's nothing more than a reconstituted and watered-down C-USA. Because of football. But the reason we would want to be associated is not because we think money or bowls will be that great, it's because association with even the reconstituted and watered-down Big East that is really just the former C-USA would be better than association with the reconstituted and watered-down C-USA that is really just the former Sun Belt.

I have fond memories of the Sun Belt. I was on a team that won the last conference championship awarded by the original Sun Belt before we formed the Great Midwest. But I thought we'd grown up and moved on. And now we're back again. It's not the worst thing in the world, but I can't help feeling bummed out.

(11-29-2012 10:57 AM)Blazer88 Wrote:  Georgetown,Marquette,Uconn,Memphis,Cinci,Providence,and others in Bartow Arena instead of FIU,MTSU,and UTSA.

This is the biggest reason. Football will be possibly even better in CUSA. But the Big East will have a somewhat better TV deal (not by a huge margin), so that matters as well.

There is also some thought that you have to first reach the Big East to gain enough credibility to join a league like the ACC, B1G, SEC, etc. In other words, they aren't going to pull a team directly out of CUSA to join ACC. But it has been shown several times now that the ACC will pull from the Big East. Whether that will hold up over time is anyone's guess, but to this point, that has been the trend.

(11-29-2012 10:58 AM)ATTALLABLAZE Wrote:  Basketball and that's it.

What he said!

(11-29-2012 10:57 AM)Blazer88 Wrote:  Georgetown,Marquette,Uconn,Memphis,Cinci,Providence,and others in Bartow Arena instead of FIU,MTSU,and UTSA.

Id sure love to have an improved basketball lineup like the old CUSA or Great Midwest did back when I was first getting inducted into UAB fandom.

I hear you, but what some seems to be saying is although football rules, its Basketball thats attractive

(11-29-2012 11:25 AM)rebounder2u Wrote:  I hear you, but what some seems to be saying is although football rules, its Basketball thats attractive

UAB is a basketball school.

The NCAA conference setup is starting to resemble major league baseball. AQ conferences(Power 5) are the big leagues; BE is Triple-A; CUSA and MWC are Double A; the other non-AQs are single A; and FCS is the rookie league. There is a natural progression(rookie league->A->AA->AAA->Major League) depending where you start, but players(teams) sometimes skip a "division". But typically you would work yourself up through the ranks toward the top. That's where CUSA and MWC come in - moving from AA->BE aka AAA(at least that's where the BE is trying to keep things). Given the opportunity teams move to BE because its closer to the ultimate goal. But some AA teams are better than AAA teams.

So,when all is said and done will BE still be AAA or will they be replaced or demoted?

(11-29-2012 11:32 AM)WesternBlazer Wrote:  The NCAA conference setup is starting to resemble major league baseball. AQ conferences(Power 5) are the big leagues; BE is Triple-A; CUSA and MWC are Double A; the other non-AQs are single A; and FCS is the rookie league. There is a natural progression(rookie league->A->AA->AAA->Major League) depending where you start, but players(teams) sometimes skip a "division". But typically you would work yourself up through the ranks toward the top. That's where CUSA and MWC come in - moving from AA->BE aka AAA(at least that's where the BE is trying to keep things). Given the opportunity teams move to BE because its closer to the ultimate goal. But some AA teams are better than AAA teams.

So,when all is said and done will BE still be AAA or will they be replaced or demoted?

The nBE is really C-USA around 2002. One rung below The Big Table. Unless UAB moves up with the rest we will have been effectively demoted a level.

(11-29-2012 11:25 AM)rebounder2u Wrote:  I hear you, but what some seems to be saying is although football rules, its Basketball thats attractive

"Attractive" is a relative term. Here's an example:

Group A:
Miami
UNC
Florida State
VA Tech
NC State

Group B:
Memphis
Cincy
Houston
ECU
Tulane

Group C:
FAU
FIU
UTSA
LA Tech
MTSU

If you compare Group A with Group B in football, Group B is not that attractive. But, if you compare Group B with Group C, then Group B is very attractive.

We know we can't have Group A, so we are hoping for Group B. Otherwise, we are stuck with Group C.

The Big East is attractive because it is movement. In this period of realignment, if you are moving you are a "have". If you stay behind you are a have not, and are stagnant.

Not looking good.

“@JFowlerCBS: From what I've gathered, Big East isn't looking to C-USA for its next member.”

Please keep in mind that the status of any school or conference in any collegiate sport is changeable over a short time if the financial (money) backing is "right". All teams are subject to improvement or decline over a few years (see AU for a recent example) due to recruiting "finds" or "errors" and how well new coaches can put their talents to best use. UAB has suffered a shortage of financial backing and its results show it. A renovated Bell gym conditioning facility is an "interim" improvement at best - like the hiring of J. Smith at UAR. - this season. Yes, Coach McGee said we "could win with the players we have and the facilities we have" and we saw how that turned out. Let's learn from history and build accordingly.

We used to play a lot of the schools because they were in our conference.

When all is settled though, everyone outside of the Big 5 will be equal, making location important.

Lets look at the new Big East as it is expected to look. In football you have Cincy, Boise, UCF and possibly ECU as the future football powers, Georgetown, Villanova, UCONN, Cincy (who believe they are stuck ) and Memphis, (with sometimes Providence and St. John) as your Basketball Elites.
I see no football team that is a lock for BCS bowls, and maybe a 3-4 bid basketball league, again its perception borne from east coast media.
Its perception, and not reality.
I see no advantage to the big east, except for the point made by some here that the Big East is viewed as a step above CUSA as an all sport league, but thats because CUSA continues to allow the blood sucking dead, to feed off of it.
When you campare the big east basketball playing schools to the other so called BCS basketball schools, the big east looks okay, but the football is just a step above CUSA.
Sometimes the grass on the other side of the fence is better, but often if you took care of your own, it would be just as green.

(11-29-2012 02:16 PM)rebounder2u Wrote:  Lets look at the new Big East as it is expected to look. In football you have Cincy, Boise, UCF and possibly ECU as the future football powers, Georgetown, Villanova, UCONN, Cincy (who believe they are stuck ) and Memphis, (with sometimes Providence and St. John) as your Basketball Elites.
I see no football team that is a lock for BCS bowls, and maybe a 3-4 bid basketball league, again its perception borne from east coast media.
Its perception, and not reality.
I see no advantage to the big east, except for the point made by some here that the Big East is viewed as a step above CUSA as an all sport league, but thats because CUSA continues to allow the blood sucking dead, to feed off of it.
When you campare the big east basketball playing schools to the other so called BCS basketball schools, the big east looks okay, but the football is just a step above CUSA.
Sometimes the grass on the other side of the fence is better, but often if you took care of your own, it would be just as green.

The Big East > C-USA

Before, if C-USA had stayed put the Big East would have died, so I agreed with your sentiment when we still had most of the former C-USA teams in C-USA. Now that most have defected, the Big East is still superior and there is a great advantage to being in it above C-USA (now).

Okay I guess I have kicked this horse as much as possible, if we had stayed the course...
For those of you who believe this is the death of us, dont believe it, we will be okay.
I believe we are perfectly located and now UAB and So. Miss are the bell cows, thats not a bad thing