Pederson: Pitt seeking quicker exit from Big East

opefully, we can resolve [Pitt leaving the Big East] in a way that is good for everyone," Pederson said.

He didn't rule out legal action to make it happen, however, but said he would hope the school and the conference could work something out, especially now that the Big East has rebuilt itself and is ready to move forward.

"Our hope that these things can always be resolved where everybody leaves and shakes hands and feels good about it," Pederson said. "This would probably be a good time for everybody to start solving the problems and making everything work. We're not going to close any doors because we don't know what the future holds.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12040/1209052-142-0.stm#ixzz1mEQe0TkM

Pederson said that Big East officials have never given Pitt a reason the conference benefits from holding Pitt and Syracuse to the 27-month waiting period now that it is clear both teams and the conference clearly want to move on.

"You will have to ask them," Pederson said.

Uh, I think he has a pretty good idea why there is a waiting period without being told by the conference. He helped write the bylaws.

conference realignment makes me like college football less.

Pay the $20 million.

I really could not care less if they left in 2013, we will have our new friends by then. 2012 will cost you 20 million.

Well that took longer than I thought.

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The moment the deal is cut with WVU, Syracuse and Pitt will start negotiating to get out one year early. And, given that theo replacements will be on board by then and the TV contract will be in it's last year anyway, for the right price there is no reason not to let them. They way Pitt and syracuse handled it, which is to wait for their replacements to be ready and then ask, is perfectly appropriate. As opposed to what the Scumineers are doing.

Pitt can leave early, as long as we can follow them out the door

Thanks counselor. For that simple sentence. Since Thursday, and to this moment, to my knowledge, the only news report I've seen, that's accurate about this whole situation comes from the usa today, a simple piece:

http://content.usatoday.com/communi...ginia-big-east-settlement-talks-big-12-move/1


No schedules are out. No official announcements. Nothing, except a judge that says this thing is on it's way to trial, unless he hears something different about a settlement. He's not getting his news about any agreement from the Charleston WV Gazette.

Now, that could all change in second. We all know how fast information spreads in this day and age.

But as of right now, WVU is still in the Big East.

Facts.

My opinion, is that it's less and less likely that WVU will be in the Big East come fall. But if this thing makes it to trial? That's not a good thing for WVU, and I'm not a lawyer, but I know there's some kind of process that exists to get a "speedy trial". If I'm a big east attorney, that's what I"m pushing for.

But anyway, It seems that somehow, Oliver Luck and the university president over there have gotten Carte Blanche from the state, and the BOT, and whomever is responsible for budgets over there, to write whatever size check they need to. It's mind boggling what this is going to cost that school if they do buy out for 2012. I wonder if there's a point, where somebody over there in that state, is going to put the breaks on this thing.

I was reading some stuff this weekend, and just poking around for my own interest. The closest university in the big 12 to Morgantown, is Iowa State, and that's over 1,000 miles away. The jets that are going to be carrying the entire entourages of the athletic department, I don't see how they're going to be flying out of anywhere except Pittsburgh International, unless in all of this expense to the state of WV, they plan to build bigger runways at Hart Field. The new big 12 programs are going to LOVE traveling to Morgantown, flying in over 1,000 miles to Pittsburgh adn then driving to a whole different state!!!

THat's ALL of their programs now. We are spread out in the Big EAst, but we have programs that all have major airport hubs nearby, or in our case, 1/2 hour drive from campus. We have programs that will be able to schedule a significant portion of their athletic budgets for reasonably priced ground travel. There will be a lot of flight time in the new big east, but we already travel to the tampa area, and to the midwest (kentucky) region anyway. We are adding the American Airlines transport hub in Dallas. Boise, and SDST, they will need to fly their football programs a little bit more than they're already used to doing. the rest of their athletics doesn't change much.

West Virginia though? Not only are they goign to need to add athletic programs to their budget (golf) for big 12 membership.....their travel budgets for the entire athletic department is going to go through the roof, and they are not going to make any friends of the big 12 athletic directors once all those guys in the big 12 really realize what their programs have added when it comes to a travel destination for all of their sports.

And with all of that, they're potentially taking a hit of, by my last check based on the reported $11 mill figure, a hit of nearly 20% of their entire athletic budget. THen you look at waht the big 12 structure is like, and the fact that league was closer to failure in 2011, than the big east has ever been in it's 32 year history......

I have never seen anything like this in intercollegiate sports. West Virginia has made a very, very, very bad move for themselves.

I've been saying that in about 10 years, when everyone starts re-evaluating this conference realignment stuff, people will be saying, "What the hell were we thinking?"

These moves are relatively short term money grabs and to make it worse traditional rivalries are being scuttled by morally/etically questionable back room deals.

Welcome to business in the 21st century. This isn't unique to college football. Even in the business world, everyone is making decisions based on how it will impact them in the next year or two. This is because the people in charge (of both universities as well as companies) do not care about the long term...only about maximizing their own 'resume' and optimizing performance for their tenure. This is true now in all areas of life: education, comapanies, government....everyone. As long as they optimize revenue/performance/etc on their watch...what happens in 10 years is someone else's problem!

Long post coming......then I'm gone for today. BTW: i'm very pleased with the new AD. A guy that understands football, and that if basketball at UCONN is going to continue to be top notch, in the future, we're goign to need football along for the ride (sitting in the driver's seat)

When you look at the list of programs that will compromise the big east in the future, there's not choice but to ask yourself...."WTF is this?".

THe people that stop there, simply conclude - this will never work, based on looking at the structure. But when you dig deep. When you study the past, and understand history, to try to prevent future mistakes, and look how things have been handled now.

Well, the answer to the "WTF is this?" quesion, is simply - the answer, you just wrote. Short term money grab deals driven by morally/ethically questionable back room deals.

But the conclusion - "This will never work." Can't be further from true. It all comes down to basic priorities and economics in intercollegiate athletics. The big East valueing football.

it was noted in that very first report by the SEC commissioner that I talked about a week or two ago. The former SEC commissioner, the same guy that was instruemental in the creation of the BCS system, to guarantee the major conferences a seat at the table for big time post season cash flow....

was charged with writing the upgrade plan for UConn to 1-A football, and presented his report to the UCONN Board of Trustees in 1996. In that report by Roy Kramer, he clearly notes his conclusion, that UConn is one of the few instances where a 1-A upgrade is completely in the best interest, but also clearly notes his opinon that the future of the big east conference, and it's success will be hinged on the membership to recognize the importance of football as an economic force and decision making motivation. Stated clearly to the UConn BOT in 1996, in writing.

It took until 2011, and a brand new president, with no acting AD, to make it clear to the Big East, that this is what we need to do as a conference moving forward.

The big east conference, in the late 1990s, terrified the SEC. If there was a home for Notre Dame, it would have been the Big East. We put programs in the first 4 BCS national championship games, that Roy Kramer had been instrumental in creating.

Because they knew down south, that if the leadership got behind football, the Big East would be the #1 conference in the entire country, with both basketball and football.

But by 2002, the leadership (at the university levels and conference commissioner level) hadn't changed, and the very real thing, the Big East confernce with reigning national champions in both basketball and football, and regular competiting for both......was gone.

THey get it now. Everybody in the Big East gets it now.


The deeper you look though, the more clear it becomse that the conference expansion that the big east has done in 2011-2012, has been done with a major, major point of emphasis on financial stability and funding, OTHER THAN TV MONEY, athletic department interests regarding travel, and the thing that's lost in all of it, scheduling. I'll keep saying it till I'm blue in the face, the larger a conference gets, the harder it gets to schedule the events on TV that actually bring in the TV money.

THe funny thing, and this where all the people out there wil most definitely call me crazy, is that in 10 years time, my crystal ball says that the league that has the most chance right now of still being stable, is the Big East. It all comes from having your priorities in line (valuing football as the primary economic/financial force in intercollegiate athletics)....AND - having broadcastingn rights freedoms and in a chaotic landscape, having a hybrid sports conference with a strong enough structure to absorb and lose football programs from coast to coast? A major weakness can be turned into a strength. It all comes down to having priorities in line.



The worst thing that the big east can do at this point, once contracts are up with ESPN/ABC and CBS in 2013, is negotiate a deal for broadcasting rights that is all encompassing, much like ESPN has with the ACC, and with Texas.

I highly doubt that when the new deals are done, that it will be an all-inclusive deal for any single network. That's just dumb......hello ACC.

Someone needs to quantify "quick" for this situation. Is it quick as in the speed of Pitt's exits from the NCAA tournament? Or is it something that is not a quick as that, like an anvil falling off a cliff?

And it's even more difficult to swallow when this behavior is being perpetrated by supposed institutions of higher leaning.

Carl, while I don't agree with some of the crap you've taken about your perspective on the NBE, I do not agree with your perspective on the NBE. We've lost bona fide members who we've established strong rivalries with and replaced them with the flotsam and jetsam of the college football world. Will it work? It could but it's far from ideal.