BatesUAB
Doombringer, Esq.
Posts: 4,068
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I Root For: Hard Liquor
Location: At the bar
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ESPN: Realignment revisited - The beginning of the end for Big East football"
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07-20-2021 05:30 PM |
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blazr
Hall of Famer
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I Root For: UAB
Location: Nashville, TN
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RE: ESPN: Realignment revisited - The beginning of the end for Big East football"
Having not had time to read the article yet, there are 2 terms that snapped the Big East in half: 1) BCS & 2) Tom Jurich
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07-21-2021 01:48 AM |
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DuelingDragon
All American
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I Root For: UAB
Location: Birmingham
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RE: ESPN: Realignment revisited - The beginning of the end for Big East football"
Big East was probably doomed from the start to end up as it did.
The Big East hit its zenith as a conference in 1984 with Georgetown's national title and then in 1985 when three Big East teams (Georgetown, Villanova and St. John's) reached the Final Four with Villanova winning the title in one of the all-time upsets.
But it's not coincidence that at the same time, football was already fraying the league even though it didn't yet even sponsor it. The 1984 Supreme Court decision to deregulate television changed everything. It also meant that rising ESPN would become a player in college football like never before. The decision to pass on Penn State in the 1980s would come to haunt the league, although I don't think it would have changed the end result.
It's also not coincidence that at this time in the mid-1980s, Gene Bartow began his push for football, or that, by 1987, the days of UAB being a regular participant in the NCAA Tournament would be over.
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07-21-2021 09:08 AM |
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BAMANBLAZERFAN
Hall of Famer
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I Root For: UAB & Bama
Location: Cropwell, AL
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RE: ESPN: Realignment revisited - The beginning of the end for Big East football"
In the early 1960s, a TIME magazine sports writer stated that the best football played in America was among the 5 or 6 independents in the northeast - Army, Navy, Syracuse, Penn State, etc. (he excluded the Ivy League which he called the "Fight Fierclies") This prejudice prevailed for some time, supported by such national writers and good players like Roger Staubach. The first Black player to win the Heisman Trophy played for Syracuse. (George Preston Marshall who owned the Redskins, traded away his draft rights because he said he wanted to keep his team all white.)
With Penn State joining the BIG 10 and the decline of service academy programs, the reputation of the Big East began to pale.
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07-21-2021 12:09 PM |
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C-Finder
All American
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RE: ESPN: Realignment revisited - The beginning of the end for Big East football"
UAB would have been great in the old Big East
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07-21-2021 01:39 PM |
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UAB Schnauzer
1st String
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Joined: Oct 2018
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I Root For: UAB
Location:
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RE: ESPN: Realignment revisited - The beginning of the end for Big East football"
Act 2 Que the beginning of the end of the Big 12
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07-21-2021 03:35 PM |
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