you're cruel!
nonetheless, I would like to not split, and also not reject ECU out of hand. If we have seven now [I hope, I hope, I hope], I'd like to add the service academies to 10, and then a take your pick of Houston, UCF, Memphis, ECU, Temple. I'm not sure all the service academies come, but if they do, I think Temple and UCF make sense. But ECU also. There's no love for UCF in many quarters.
That B12 BE merger isn't completely off the table even if Missouri stays with the B12. There will be nine schools and that conference may decide to look east. If the B12 wants to go to 16 then they could invite the seven BE football schools. This is unlikely but can't be ruled out. Even if Missouri heads to the SEC this merger is possible. About the only thing anyone can rule out is the BE football teams other than TCU will be part of the PAC.
In 2003, were any of us aware that the split option was on the table? I don't think we were. Why was it abandoned? I seem to recall discussions about BB credits and no auto BB bid for one side of the split (the football schools were on the short end I believe despite having 3 dominant programs that would have gotten bids regardless). How come 3 of the 6 teams that wanted to split in 2003 are gone? Could it be that they tired of a bifurcated conference with two distinct factions that do not share common direction and effort? Were they tired of carrying dead weight that comes from one side that limited their revenue stream (insert Rutgers joke here if you want)? How long were they probing the viability of escape before it was announced? If you don't think it was years, you are more naive than me. That all seems logical to me. If you truly believe that keeping BE football as a BCS conference is viable thru expansion, and FB money is the root of all conference moves, from solely a Uconn perspective, doesn't pushing the idea of a split make logical sense? Is that one way to maximize the value of the brand? If Uconn is left as the last FB team in the BE (which is not out of the realm of possibilities), you might ask yourself again in 8 years why didn't the conference split when given a second chance.
Ha. Felt like a 1L again there for a moment reading this.
If the option was presented, they lacked the votes to do so. Who was not ready to split? That is the real question. Rutgers (the darling of the B1G), Lville and Cinci (they benefit pretty significantly from the BE in BB as much as FB). Uconn out of some misguided sense of loyalty to Providence? Do you think, with the benefit of hindsight, that splitting in 2003 would have resulted in the BE FB facing the same issues 8 years later?
Read it again. I said the FB schools did not have the votes. I meant amongst themselves. There must be enough FB schools that in the past believed a mongrel is better than a purebred.
Why is it off the table now? If losing teams every 8 years is profitable, I guess I would not want a split. If being in danger of losing the BCS status for your conference is profitable then take it off the table.
I don't disagree with your logic. But there is another logic that also works. We don't split, but the onlies learn to just ENS (emit no sound - nice way to say stfu) in terms of conference composition. If they say one word about football or membership, then I go with your logic, which is: split now. But if they play along, there is no reason to split. They bring great basketball value. Without Syracuse and Pitt, a lot of these recruits are going to end up at Seton Hall and St. Johns. The basketball will recover nicely, just watch. But they have to ENS.
I would like to try to answer some of them. Nothing to do with the hybrid conference for these programs. If they stayed together in 2003, they all would have fared better, save VTech - who has done just as well in the ACC. The reason is pedigree, 100%. VTech never had any, so they were going to do just as well in either conference, based on production. But the others, Miami, BC, Syracuse and Pitt view themselves, rightly so, as of a different breed in the football pantheon. They are royalty, fallen drastically, mightily, horribly, but still . . ................... royalty. Former national champions (maybe not BC), but former Oscar winners, Heisman winners, All Americans -- all of that -- now impoverished, down on their luck, relegated to living in the same trailer park with the likes of Uconn, Louisville, Cincinnati, USF (egads!), Rutgers, and our poor relations that don't even own a trailer, out in the real boondocks, West Virginia. This is just intolerable. Just intolerable! You can't even comprehend how intolerably painful this is. And now, we are being invited back, we're being invited back into the fold, into the flock, the community, where we once were, where we belong! Finally! Let's get our best old suit out of mothballs: let's look our best. We're going to the fancy party! My friends..... this has nothing to do with whether the Big East is better or worse than the ACC. This has to do with what neighborhood you get to live in. This is all about pedigree.
