<p>Happy to see this, as the quality of basketball was going down the drain with the new admissions. Let’s go back to why the Big East was founded in '79 - big name basketball.</p>
<p>[Seven</a> Catholic schools leaning toward leaving Big East, sources say - ESPN](<a href=“http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/_/id/8742607/seven-catholic-schools-leaning-leaving-big-east-sources-say]Seven”>Seven Catholic schools leaning toward leaving Big East, sources say - ESPN)</p>
<p>The seven bkb schools might be shooting themselves in the foot financially by not sticking with other schools in BE conference, including the football schools, and riding things out 'til dust settles with TV negotiations.</p>
<p>[Sources:</a> Big East expected to split - CBSSports.com](<a href=“NCAA Division I Mens Basketball - College Basketball News, Scores, Stats, Standings, and Rumors - CBSSports.com”>NCAA Division I Mens Basketball - College Basketball News, Scores, Stats, Standings, and Rumors - CBSSports.com)</p>
<p>One contributor on a Rutgers sports board uses the tag line: “The Big East is dead and Rutgers has gone to football heaven.”</p>
<p>“The Big East is dead and Rutgers has gone to football heaven, but used Apple Maps, and found themselves surrounded by a bunch of devils and defrocked angels. They were, however, comforted to see they indeed had arrived at their chosen destination, as one could clearly see all the B1G logos amidst the flames.”</p>
<p>Yes, I think.</p>
<p>That was the Big10 logo on signage at the Knicks game the other night. Wasting no time.</p>
<p>I was surprised by this move. But it seems like the big conferences have been eyeing some of these schools for expansion. More and more it seems to be more about the almighty dollar then the actual sports… JMO</p>
<p>The Big East in actuality died years ago, when the football schools first began to complain. In the 1990s the footballs schools-- Syracuse, Boston College and West Virginia came to realize that being a football independent was a game of diminishing returns after Penn State initiated the modern age of conference expansion. That’s how UMiami FL came to the Big East, to satisfy the football schools’ demands. The revenue streams for college football and college basketball are different, so essentially there is friction, but the basketball schools bit their tongues because football revenue from TV has become tremedously important to Division I schools. When the ACC raided the Big East for Boston College, Virginia Tech and Miami, even Duke BB Coach K said that ‘football drives the bus-- financially speaking,’ at most Division I colleges.</p>
<p>Where the Big East messed up is when they didn’t take the time to soberly consider their options after Boston College left. The basketball mega-conference concept had some success, but it began to erode the rivalries that made the Big East popular (see UMaryland’s recent complaints here). I don’t think adding South Florida and Louisville did much for Big East football. And it turns out that Louisville never had its heart in the Big East. And…when you have to intimidate your partners to stay with you (the hefty exit fee inacted by the Big East), then a messy divorce is likely headed your way nevertheless.</p>
<p>The league has really been rudderless in the last few years. It really made no sense to invite Texas Christian, Memphis and Boise State. And that’s the opinion of the basketball schools, who really were the foundation of the league.</p>
<p>Well, let the Big East join names like…The East Coast Conference, The Big West, the Pacific Coast Athletic Association, the Ohio Valley Conference, the Metro League, the Southwest Conference and the Big 8 in the dustbin of sports history.</p>
<p>The football teams schools were angered by the incompetence of the group in Providence that ran the Big East. Among other things, they felt felt that they should have had the hq in NYC. The bb schools contributed very little to the conference. When was the last DePaul or Providence or Seton Hall or St. Johns did much of anything. The football schools, Louisville, West Virginia, Syracuse, UCONN, were also the best bb schools. The football schools should have left a long time ago and maybe they would have stayed together.</p>
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Take a look at this article: <a href=“http://www.courant.com/sports/other/hc-jacobs-1214-20121213,0,639077.column[/url]”>http://www.courant.com/sports/other/hc-jacobs-1214-20121213,0,639077.column</a></p>
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<p>You do realize the OVC still exists, right?</p>
<p>TV money is the reason for all the recent college athletic conference realignment activity. Big conference football and basketball coaches are making millions, universities are getting millions of TV dollars, and the TV networks are making millions. The student-athletes relatively get peanuts with their scholarships…student-athletes are someday going to want a bigger piece of the real money action!</p>
<p>Sorry Hops Scout.</p>
<p>I was too lazy to check Wikipaedia and I always confuse the Ohio Valley Conference with the Missouri Valley Conference. Does the MVC still exist? Does the OVC still play Division I basketball? The OVC had a fantastic tradition and history with Oscar Robertson of Cinncinati and the Denny Crum teams at Louisville, before Louisville left for the short-lived Metro Conference and later, independence. Louisville has changed conferences so-many times in the last 25 years that I lost count.</p>
<p>Yes, the Big East was a great idea whose time had come back in the early 1980s. But as I said, the conference administration lost sight and became shockingly desperate. They should have never tried to replicate big-time college football as it’s displayed in the south and the midwest. Don’t get me wrong, I always believed that a Division I football conference was viable in the northeast. Remember, the old coot Joe Paterno for years begged Pittsburgh and Syracuse to help form an eastern football conference. They turned him down flat, which is why he enivitably looked to the Big Ten.</p>
<p>Big East football had a chance, but they blew it. After the ACC raid, they should have taken a bit more time to map out a strategy. Maybe Boston College would have returned after a season or two in the ACC (the fool’s gold of mountains of ACC football TV money and a challenge to the prestige of SEC football, never materialized) if the Big East had given them a sound reason.</p>
<p>In my humble opinion, the Big East should have stuck to its northeastern roots. If they were smart, they would have invited Ohio U and Miami U, two D1 football schools in a state that produces tons of talented high school players and multiple major media outlets. Those two schools have been searching to get out of Ohio State University’s athletics shadow for a long time, and the big east may have been their ticket. Now, I doubt they would touch the Big East with the proverbial 10-foot pole.</p>
<p>They did take Cincinnati, which was an excellent member of the Big East and does not deserve the screwing it is getting. BTW, I do not understand the fascination of with BC.</p>
<p>No intent to dis Cincinnati. Their football program has been successful. And they’ve tried to use their Big East platform to enhance their athletics and to overcome the fact that Ohio State refuses to play in-state football opponents. In my ideal world, Cincinnati would be the foundation of a new Big East football conference with in-state partners Ohio U and Miami U. Together with Pittsburgh, Connecticut, Syracuse, Temple and South Florida, maybe they could have motivated another school with football potential, like UAlabama Birmingham, to join them. At least Birmingham is in the eastern time zone. And soon Georgia State will inaugurate its Division I football program in Atlanta. That’s 10 schools!!!</p>
<p>They went to Florida and Ohio plus added a basketball power and decent fooball school in Louisville. The ACC caused this by raiding the Big East twice.</p>
<p>Pitt and Syracuse would not be in that conference they left for the ACC. In fact Syracuse would have left the first time but they were displaced by VaTech.</p>
<p>Birmingham is in the Central Time Zone.</p>
<p>Foiled Again,Tsdad!!! Well, at least Birmingham is relatively near the border of the eastern time zone. LOL.</p>
<p>Tom, my point about Pitt and Syracuse is that they are among the schools that have been the most perturbed about the state of Big East football over the years. Yes, Syracuse got burned when it was left out of the first round of ACC expansion…but I am guessing that if they had been given some kind of rational plan for the future of the league they would choose to stay. Coach Boeheim carries much more authority than the Syracuse football coach, and Boeheim endorsed the move to the ACC very reluctantly.</p>
<p>Yes, I remember that Syracuse was the unknowing victim of politics in the Virginia State Legislature. The pols made it known to UVA’s leaders in no uncertain terms that UVA had to insist that the ACC invite VaTech, whose name was nowhere in the discussion before then.</p>
<p>The Big East was identiifed as the weakest conference and once the other conferences decided to expand there was nothing to keep it together.</p>
<p>I happen to hate the larger conferences even though I love that Rutgers is in the Big Ten. In my perfect sports world there would be 8 8 team conferences and a football playoff. Either 8, 12 or 16 teams with conference champs getting automatic bids.</p>