TerryD
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I Root For: Notre Dame
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RE: Big East Rewind
(04-09-2019 09:10 PM)Nerdlinger Wrote: (04-09-2019 08:31 PM)Bogg Wrote: (04-08-2019 12:19 PM)Nerdlinger Wrote: (04-08-2019 09:30 AM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote: Aresco significantly overvalued the desire of networks for major media markets, not to mention spreading out a conference footprint that spanned half the country.
The real do-over should have been in 2008 - in advance of the league's next TV deal - where the league should have acquired Memphis (which would have likely been accepted as a full member, due to national championship appearance under Calipari, and past histories with Louisville and Cincinnati) and East Carolina as a football-only (with certain benchmarks that could have elevated them into a full-member over time). If they were really forward-thinking, they would have also re-acquired Temple (football-only) and UCF (football-only, but with similar parameters with ECU) in order to get to twelve members and immediate stage a CCG (either in NYC or Philadelphia). The dynamics between the football programs and basketball programs, however, made expansion impossible.
How about in 2005? Add Memphis as a full member instead of USF, then add four FB-onlies: TCU, UCF, USF, and Navy.
Football divisions
East: Central Florida*, Connecticut, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Syracuse, West Virginia
West: Cincinnati, Louisville, Memphis, Navy*, South Florida*, TCU*
Basketball
Cincinnati, Connecticut, DePaul, Georgetown, Louisville, Marquette, Memphis, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, Providence, Rutgers, Seton Hall, St. John's, Syracuse, Villanova, West Virginia
I mean, to what end? Adding more Conference USA schools earlier wouldn't have changed the long-term outcome.
The inherent problem the middle two versions of the Big East had was that college football just doesn't matter all that much in the Northeast, and so you didn't have that anchor program to keep the league together - Miami and Virginia Tech were always going to head to the ACC eventually because of simple geography, while Penn State (because they get bandied about as some lost savior) was always going to choose Michigan, Michigan State, and Ohio State over Syracuse, BC, and Rutgers. The whole reason they went with the 8/8 split in version 3 was because everyone knew where things were headed back in the 90s and it would let both sides establish the necessary continuity.
For a CCG, obviously. Still wouldn't have prevented an eventual split, but it's not as though they knew there would be a split at the time anyway.
Yes, they did.
That is why you had eight football schools and eight "basketball" schools (including ND).
That is also why the football schools had a "get out of jail free card" wherein they could have split and left at any time (which went unused).
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