RE: ESPN: Realignment Revisited - the beginning of the end for Big East football
Very enjoyable read, and one that brings back a somewhat orderly account of what fueled the destruction of the Big East as a football conference. The biggest void in this account, for obvious reasons, is the role that ESPN played behind the scenes, which was the biggest driver in terms of pushing teams out of the Big East and into other power conferences. ESPN was largely successful in this regard. They consolidated the top brands of the Big East (a sixth AQ conference) and managed to funnel them into the ACC (Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Louisvlle), the Big 12 (West Virginia) and Rutgers (Big Ten). In addition, it severely drove down the value of the conference as it was (the AAC), offering cheap and affordable complimentary programming to the other conferences' content it already had. The only thing that ESPN didn't really expect to have happened was the C7 being picked up by Fox, and then paying to keep the Big East brand, history and MSG as a tournament site. It was apparent that they believed that they were going to devalue the Big East into a non-AQ conference, as a "best of the rest" league with still-strong (not elite) basketball. Without Fox's interest, the C7 quite possibly would still be in the BE/AAC as a hybrid, especially if the money was the best it was going to get. There is zero doubt in my mind that ESPN did not believe that UCF, Houston, Memphis and others in the AAC have successfully invested in themselves and elevated their football programs as a result. That is another misstep I believe they took.
Regarding the "What If?" expansion discussions pre-2011, the fact remains that there were no candidates that were going to be supported by both the football faction and the non-football faction. No available programs were strong in both football and basketball that would have been able to be accepted by both sides. With Big East Football only having eight members at this point, the league was looking at adding, potentially, four new programs just to be able to get to a conference championship game (especially not knowing that the CCGs were going to be deregulated for the Big 12). Regardless, let's say for arguments sake that the Big East added Memphis (all-sports), UCF (all-sports), ECU (football-only) and Temple (football-only) pre-2011. That gets them to twelve members, a CCG game and likely locks them up with ESPN for a billion-plus TV deal. In the end, many of the teams will still refuse a GOR, as those eyes still would have been on the ACC. The academics were/are better; the programs were/are historically better; the associations were/are better. Thus, there was truly nothing that the Big East (2005-2012) could have collectively done to keep all of the members together. Between the defections of Syracuse/Pittsburgh in 2011, the defections of Miami, Boston College and Virginia Tech in the early-2000s, and the inability to secure Penn State as a member in the 1980's, there were numerous "warning signs" of the Big East, as a football conference, inevitably breaking apart.
It's easy to start pointing fingers at the basketball schools for not supporting the football schools more, but the reality was that the Big East was founded as a basketball league. It's just as easy to point the finger at the football schools for not supporting the conference's original mission as well. Nevertheless, what should be highlighted, is that what made the Big East special for so long was the mixture of schools (Private/Publics, Rural/Metro and Football-First/Basketball-First), that led to really competitive basketball and football contests, with great fan support, that created a quality and entertaining league. The collection of schools found value with one another, despite the clear differences, and really helped elevate one another into their respective spots in different conferences today. There really hasn't been, nor will there be in my mind, another conference like it ever again.
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