What happened if the Catholic 7 decided to leave first?

[Ts5034]

Serious question, if the Catholic 7 decided to leave before Syracuse and Pitt, could something have worked out where we formed a league with: Syracuse, Pitt, West Virginia, Cincinnati, USF, and Rutgers, along with the additions that were made to the AAC like Houston, UCF, SMU, Memphis, Navy, and Wichita?

 

[Jaker]

What would have happened if Germany had not bombed Pearl Harbor??

 

[Madmannsucks]

What would have happened if Germany had not bombed Pearl Harbor??

Might have actually been Japan. FWIW.

 

[Jaker]

Might have actually been Japan. FWIW.

No, Japan invaded Europe, sheesh

 

[Ts5034]

What would have happened if Germany had not bombed Pearl Harbor??

I thought the reason why things worked out the way they did was because the Presidents didnt sign the new media deal and one of the reasons was the Catholic schools felt they deserved a bigger piece of the pie.

 

[Madmannsucks]

I thought the reason why things worked out the way they did was because the Presidents didnt sign the new media deal and one of the reasons was the Catholic schools felt they deserved a bigger piece of the pie.

BE Commish turned down the deal. ESPN back doored the conference and helped convince the schools to move on. That left UConn in the cold. Nothing is going to change. They are in the AAC and will be for the forseeable future.

 

[Jaker]

I don't think there was anyway the cath 7 was leaving the Big East until forced too

 

[SoFla Steve]

Might have actually been Japan. FWIW.

You never saw Animal House?

 

[Rico444]

Might have actually been Japan. FWIW.

Forget it, he's rolling.

 

[CL82]

What would have happened if Germany had not bombed Pearl Harbor??

Might have actually been Japan. FWIW.

Germany bombed Japan?

 

[SubbaBub]

Can't be known, but they were not leaving. Years will pass a more people will forget how much of a parasite they became. The non-Catholic schools became the money makers while the C7 used every opportunity to stunt the FB programs. They left only after the BE died choosing that moment to leave the 3 remaining FB schools and the 1 original member who played FB and wasn't a Catholic school when it became obvious that it was over.

 

[Austin316]

What would have happened if Germany had not bombed Pearl Harbor??

No, Japan invaded Europe, sheesh

FWIW Most posters take UConn history 101 instead of US History 101.

 

[Ts5034]

Its been a while since ive seen the Big East 30 for 30, but IIRC, Tranghese said something like, most of the schools in the Big East were all on board when they came to the table, but they were all trying to jump ship behind each others back. I think he said one of the reasons he retired was because he saw the writing on the wall. Syracuse and Pitt was the first shoe to drop obviously. Was UConn one of those schools that saw this coming and tried to be the one to get the ACC invite? People always seemed to put a lot of blame on Warde and Susan, but at the same time always point out how we never had the votes for membership in the ACC to begin with because of BC and the football schools. Was UConn fighting a losing battle the whole time? Im not an expert on any of this by any means and I know many of you know a lot of the details. Its just hard to figure out what really happened because theres so many opinions on this.

 

[businesslawyer]

Even if the Catholics had left, Syracuse, Pitt or us were leaving when the ACC called.

 

[UConnNick]

One of the biggest clusterflucks was orchestrated by Marinatto, who blatantly favored the interests of the BB schools over the FB schools, since he was a member of the Providence College mafia. He extended an invitation to Villanova to join the football conference. Nova had to commit to the upgrade from I-AA. For a whole year Nova hemmed and hawed, and Marinatto waited for their answer. This behavior pissed off the football schools. That's what spurred Pitt, Syracuse and West Virginia to start shopping around. They were sick and tired of the BB schools calling all the shots with their own hand picked Commissioner, who owed his allegiance to Pee Cee and the other small Catholic schools.

Nova finally declined, but by then it was already over. Pitt and Syracuse cut their deals with the ACC, WVU later broke every contract provision (ironically written by their own AD, Oliver Luck) and bolted early without the requisite notice, and Rutgers made their deal with the Big Ten.

Any objective analysis of UCONN's approach to the whole situation has to be that we were reactive, not proactive. By the time we woke up, Loserville had out manuvered us for the ACC invite, and here we are today and tomorrow in the AAC, a/k/a the conference of misfit toys.

To show how slanted the conference administration was, the only reason DePaul and Marquette were invited to join after BS College, Miami and VA Tech left, was to insure a balance of eight BB and 8 FB schools. That way, if ever there were tie votes, the BB school loving commish breaks the tie by voting with the BB schools. Tranghese set that up. It was a prescription for disaster. That's why he turned tail and bolted. He didn't want to be around for the impending carnage.​

 

[huskyrob1]

Its been a while since ive seen the Big East 30 for 30, but IIRC, Tranghese said something like, most of the schools in the Big East were all on board when they came to the table, but they were all trying to jump ship behind each others back. I think he said one of the reasons he retired was because he saw the writing on the wall. Syracuse and Pitt was the first shoe to drop obviously. Was UConn one of those schools that saw this coming and tried to be the one to get the ACC invite? People always seemed to put a lot of blame on Warde and Susan, but at the same time always point out how we never had the votes for membership in the ACC to begin with because of BC and the football schools. Was UConn fighting a losing battle the whole time? Im not an expert on any of this by any means and I know many of you know a lot of the details. Its just hard to figure out what really happened because theres so many opinions on this.

The Big East was doomed from the moment the Catholic BB only schools rejected Penn State's application in 1982. St John's, Villanova, and Seton Hall all voted no.

Fast forward to now where the Big East Champion is a projected #6 seed in the big dance.

 

[Ts5034]

The Big East was doomed from the moment the Catholic BB only schools rejected Penn State's application in 1982. St John's, Villanova, and Seton Hall all voted no.

Fast forward to now where the Big East Champion is a projected #6 seed in the big dance.

Lets see what happens when the brackets are released. The Big East usually gets more respect than the AAC.

 

[A10 fan]

The Big East was doomed from the moment the Catholic BB only schools rejected Penn State's application in 1982. St John's, Villanova, and Seton Hall all voted no.

Fast forward to now where the Big East Champion is a projected #6 seed in the big dance.

It was no surprise that Nova voted no. Nova was a founding member of what is now the A10, as was Penn St. Penn St's sudden departure in 1979 damaged that league. Had Penn St. stayed in the then Eastern 8, they, along with Pitt (then a monster in football), and WVU, could have put tremendous pressure on Cuse to not join the new BE, but to join them in the Eastern 8. Had that happened, Nova would never have left, and St. John's probably would have followed Cuse. After all of this, PSU was surely on Villanova's list. When Paterno started pushing for a league comprised of all the football schools, Cuse convinced the Catholics block it by adding Pitt, otherwise they and BC would have to leave the BE. In hindsight, Pitt, PSU, and WVU should have forced Cuse to join when they were putting the E8 together back in 1975. Cuse wanted to remain an independent, and the other schools didn't want to use football to force them to join. They should have. BC would have come too, and all of the eastern football programs except for Temple would have been in one league. This could have easily morphed into the league Paterno wanted, and had it been successful, Penn St. may have never gone to the Big 10.

 

[DefCONNOne]

One of the biggest clusterflucks was orchestrated by Marinatto, who blatantly favored the interests of the BB schools over the FB schools, since he was a member of the Providence College mafia. He extended an invitation to Villanova to join the football conference. Nova had to commit to the upgrade from I-AA. For a whole year Nova hemmed and hawed, and Marinatto waited for their answer. This behavior pissed off the football schools. That's what spurred Pitt, Syracuse and West Virginia to start shopping around. They were sick and tired of the BB schools calling all the shots with their own hand picked Commissioner, who owed his allegiance to Pee Cee and the other small Catholic schools.

Nova finally declined, but by then it was already over. Pitt and Syracuse cut their deals with the ACC, WVU later broke every contract provision (ironically written by their own AD, Oliver Luck) and bolted early without the requisite notice, and Rutgers made their deal with the Big Ten.

Any objective analysis of UCONN's approach to the whole situation has to be that we were reactive, not proactive. By the time we woke up, Loserville had out manuvered us for the ACC invite, and here we are today and tomorrow in the AAC, a/k/a the conference of misfit toys.

To show how slanted the conference administration was, the only reason DePaul and Marquette were invited to join after BS College, Miami and VA Tech left, was to insure a balance of eight BB and 8 FB schools. That way, if ever there were tie votes, the BB school loving commish breaks the tie by voting with the BB schools. Tranghese set that up. It was a prescription for disaster. That's why he turned tail and bolted. He didn't want to be around for the impending carnage.​

You omitted a crucial detail in the bolded. I have to believe this omission wasn't intentional.

 

[CL82]

Pitt and Syracuse cut their deals with the ACC

Remember that the original targets for the second round of expansion were Syracuse and UConn. Pitt got put in as a sub when BCU balked at having us join.

The Big East was doomed from the moment the Catholic BB only schools rejected Penn State's application in 1982. St John's, Villanova, and Seton Hall all voted no.

Agree. But youngsters probably won't remember how strong the Big East was and close the ACC was to breaking up. The real nail in our coffin was when ESPN decide to make the ACC their house band. They promoted them and regularly had their talking heads talk down the Big East. That allowed them to low ball us for media rights. When the Big East balked and threatened take their rights elsewhere the paid the ACC to raid the conference. Without ESPN upping their contract for raiding the Big East, those raids wouldn't have happened. If you really want to lay blame for our current predicament you need look no further than Bristol. They cost Connecticut taxpayers well over $100 million so far.

 

[ImpalerMD]

The proper spelling is Louisville.
Loserville implies we lose a lot, which we dont.
UofL has only had 3 losing seasons in the past 78 years, for reference.

It’s a reference to academics...since Loserville is more on par with local community colleges in that respect.

 

[Stainmaster]

The proper spelling is Louisville.
Loserville implies we lose a lot, which we dont.
UofL has only had 3 losing seasons in the past 78 years, for reference.

Your “institution” doesn’t deserve any respect.

 

[Scrutiner]

My mistake, I didnt know this was the academic message board. I thought it said basketball.

No problem. The less polite people have, in the past, used terms like Hookerville, Adidasville and Pitino/Petrinoville or some other reference to the most recent major scandals.

There's a lot of ill feelings here about a conference like the ACC, which had held itself out to be a bastion of higher education, taking a school rated as poorly as Louisville. It was reportedly done to hold together it's football schools, but it shattered the image they tried to trumpet that it's the Ivy League of the South.

In the end, it's always about the money. Otherwise, Pitino would have been gone after the hookers in the dorm incidents (who could believe he knew nothing about what was happening in the dorm named after his late brother-in-law) and Petrino would never have been rehired. Ticket sales, bowl games, merchandise, donations, etc. are all that matter.

Having said that, while many of us say how disillusioned we are about it, we're still holding out hope we can join the party and feed at the same trough so we, too, can return to the glory days of yesteryear. Sort of like the Lone Ranger for those old enough.

The updated Petrino shenanigans timeline

 

[Zissou]

Nova finally declined, but by then it was already over.​

Actually, Nova didn't decline. It's true that instead of immediately accepting the invite, Nova "hemmed and hawed" for nearly a year while it conducted a study to aid the decision to move up. The conclusion of the study was to move up. By the time Nova was to say yes, Pitt and Rutgers had already been secretly shopping, and with WVU they stopped Nova from moving up by rejecting their stadium use plan (an 18,500 seat stadium that could expand to 30,000).

Pitt lead the move to reject the ESPN TV deal, then led the break-up by secretly negotiating with the ACC.

Lots of back stabbing to go around.

Regarding 1982, the already formed Big East was going to either add Penn State or Pitt, but not both. The members chose Pitt over Penn State, which seemed reasonable for a basketball conference.

 

[CL82]

The proper spelling is Louisville.
Loserville implies we lose a lot, which we dont.
UofL has only had 3 losing seasons in the past 78 years, for reference.

Ah, that's right it was the taxpayers of Louisville who got stuck with the bill in the arena scam deal who were the losers.