The Big East is certainly less stable than the Big 12, because Texas seems content right now, as does the PAC-12. Not because of any GOR.
The GOR is not all it’s cracked up to be. It’s not as though it’s a completely one-sided deal. Say Baylor leaves the Big 12 for the Mountain West next year. If the Big 12 enforces the GOR, then the Big 12 is still obligated to 1) broadcast Baylor games against Colorado State and Hawaii as though they’d never left and 2) pay Baylor a share of the conference media revenue. Both sides would want to reach a settlement. The practical difference between a GOR and an exit fee is that a GOR is undetermined (value of future games in the new conference , costs of broadcasting, level of effort the conference is projected to exert in fulfilling its end of the bargain, are variables, for example), and that the cost of breaking it declines every year as its term winds down.
I’ve seen some of the lower-level Fox cable channels that Iowa State games have been relegated to. I don’t think the Big 12 would be a huge problem showing Baylor-Colorado State on Fox College Sports, or whatever that godforsaken cable channel is. It’s like they use a 35mm camcorder run through a Radio Shack mixer board.
I can’t see the Big East existing as it’s trying to do, not as a major conference. They’re not going to be able to survive with members in San Diego, Houston, Tampa and Phiadelphia.
I do agree with you about Texas. They are the self-appointed bullies of the Big 12, and if they decide they want to go elsewhere, the conference will fracture. Just don’t disrespect them with the upside-down horns! Oh noes! Their feelings might get hurt!
And now, the Big East is adding East Carolina and Tulane. Maybe this will be the time the non-football schools cut themselves free of all this foolishness, and let the football conference simply merge with C-USA.
Not much left of C-USA (on the football side anyway) to merge with. UCF, Tulane, East Carolina, Memphis, Southern Miss and Houston basically were C-USA football.
Louisville is (IMHO) a break-even trade for Maryland.
Oh, I’m also now counting our game against the Terps as an OOC win.
New rumor is that the Big12 is going after Clemson and FSU as a package deal. Counter-rumor is that the SEC will offer to prevent that from happening. Not sure I believe it though - it sounds like wishful thinking to me. For whatever reason, FSU and SEC just don’t seem to be able to get along very well - too much prior bad blood. Although Alabama’s President is said to want FSU in - I’m assuming UF would be a big NO vote though.
I’d think South Carolina would be against it too. Being in the SEC gives USC (and UGA and UF, etc) a recruiting advantage over their ACC in-state rivals when it comes to landing the best home-grown talent.
Yeah, but if it’s that or let the whole Big12 (incl UT and the Longhorn Network) have a foothold in the state, might be the lesser of two evils to accept an in-state rival. Or at least that’s the logic that’s being used.
Like I said before though, the rumor seems a little too…pat for me. Expansion up until now has been messier.
I think the Big East needs to stop and regroup. What does it want to be, exactly? It was formed as a basketball conference, but the writing is on the wall. Football drives the revenue bus. The basketball schools left from the pre-shuffle Big East are who now? (I am teying to remember from the top of my head… Not cheating, in other words!). Villanova, UConn, St. Johns, Georgetown, Providence, Seton Hall.. Who else? That’s it as far as I can recall from the pre-conference shuffle. That looks a lot like a conference with no football identity to speak of. I know that as of now UConn is still there, but Villanova is division 2 football, and i’m not even sure how many of the other schools still have football teams at all. UConn is the only Div 1 team left from the older conference teams from as recently as three years ago.
So, now that Louisville (GAG) is going to the ACC, another DIV 1 Football program leaves the big east. UConn is going to go at the first opportunity, and so will cincinatti. The conference should stop, and remove the schools that have division 1 FB programs, and go back to a basketball focused conference.
They still have some schools with very good division 2 programs.. Villanova springs to mind. However, i dont know if Georgetown still has a team, and what other schools still maintain a football program. The conferene is a train wreck and in a free-fall. They need to do something ton top the bleeding and re-define itself pronto, or there will be nothing left.
I know the answer is money, but I still have to ask, WTF is the ACC doing by inviting Louisville? Uconn on the surface seems to be a much better choice, so what is the obvious part of this I am missing? I think Cincinatti is also a better choice than Louisville… So what is the scuttlebutt as to why the ACC picked Louisville? Did some money get put in the right pockets of the ACC selection committee?
And the really stupid thing is they have ND in every sport but football… ND is just dangling in the ACC, like a booger in the nose of the conference. Until they commit to a confernce, they will always be a booger. Just like they were in the Big East.
Oh, and did I read right? Did the mighty Scarlett Knights of Rutgers go down to the lowly Pitt Panthers last week? They were in the top 25 right? I will bet they arent any more. Every time you Rutger fans think the football program has taken that giant leap forward, they go out and lay a turd for everyone to see. I am guessing that loss cost the University a few million in a Bowl Gsme selection. Now where do they get to go?
Dont feel too bad though… Pitt is definitely NOT as bad as people think this year. They should have won against ND (i am a homer, but i believe this to be true.) The number 1 team in the country was taken to overtime by Pitt, who played a great game from the first snap. Boy, it would have been sweet if Pitt knocked off ND this year. Now we are going to have to suffer through a possible ND title. Crap.
Apologies for the ramble… Two cut and paste errors and a crying baby have caused me to abandon this post before i could clean it up properly. I hope i got most of the typos!
Oh, and please forgive my use of Div. 1 and Div 2 as descriptors for the footbwll programs. I know that Div. 1 schools are now FBS or something and the Div. 2 schools have a similar name. I just dont care anymore!
I can’t see this happening because FSU and Clemson would probably only leave for the Big 12 if the ACC starts to fall apart. And the only way that the ACC falls apart is if the SEC and B1G pick it apart. If the SEC was concerned about the Big 12 somehow stealing their glory by being in more of the same states as they are, then leaving the ACC alone would accomplish that. If they decide to expand it will be for money, and the money is in adding new places to the north of them not in doubling down in the states they are already in. The Longhorn Network does not work like the Big 10 network, the Big 12 expanding to a state does not mean LHN will pop up on the basic cable plans there. It will still only be on the basics in Texas, so I can’t see how this is a threat to the SEC. Heck, they might even be glad to see FSU and Clemson go to the Big 12 if it happens to make a more intense Sugar Bowl games or open up a rivalry series.
Now, I guess the B1G could destroy the ACC on its own and get FSU and Clemson to want to jump ship, but I can’t see the SEC turning down the money for VT or an NC school for fear of the Big 12. The Big 12 would just take them instead of FSU and Clemson, or worse the Big 10 would.
Well, that was the original Big East conference mantra, so it sounds like a few of the originals want to go back to their roots. Makes sense. Unfortunately, in today’s football centric world, it wont make the dollars it is used to.
Still, i like the idea, as the conference is headed for an implosion. None of the seven has a division 1 football program, although Villanova could probably jump if they wanted to. Adding the other schools would keep it relevent in March for now, but the conference would disappear outside of the basketball season. That’s not a great recipe for a cable channel… And it may hurt the schools if kids want to be on cable TV, and can play hoops good enough to go to a cable-conference school.
This is really getting boned up. Is the ACC really in danger of being cherry picked now? If so, i hope it happens soon and Pitt somehow buys it’s way into the Big 10. Thats where it belongs. I want to see Pitt-PSU renewed, and i woild also love to see Pitt-OSU, Pitt-Michigan, and a number of other Big Ten football programs every year. There isn’t one ACC school that I care about in football, so for me, the ACC is only a small upgrade for my football fix.
