nelsonmuntz
Point Center
- Joined
- Aug 27, 2011
- Messages
- 44,314
- Reaction Score
- 33,422
Everyone loves to blame Big East instability on the basketball schools, which is patently false. Big East instability boils down to one decision the conference made about 26 years ago, that it was never able to recover from. Penn State badly wanted into the Big East, and was turned down. That decision set into motion a series of events that got the conference to this point.
At the time, the Big East was supreme in basketball, and doing fine financially. It was a made-for-TV league whose birth coincided with the beginnings of widespread availability of cable and an all sports network called ESPN. ESPN needed content, the Big East, with its big city schools and charismatic coaches was manna from heaven. In turning down a rural school with a lousy basketball program, the Big East thought it was avoiding watering down its product. Within a few years, the league realized it needed to do something for football, but by that point, Penn State was no longer an option. So the Big East made a deal with the devil and brought in Miami.
At the time, the Big East was supreme in basketball, and doing fine financially. It was a made-for-TV league whose birth coincided with the beginnings of widespread availability of cable and an all sports network called ESPN. ESPN needed content, the Big East, with its big city schools and charismatic coaches was manna from heaven. In turning down a rural school with a lousy basketball program, the Big East thought it was avoiding watering down its product. Within a few years, the league realized it needed to do something for football, but by that point, Penn State was no longer an option. So the Big East made a deal with the devil and brought in Miami.