Basketball Onlies Blocking BE Expansion

[Madbiker]

From article on Boston.com this afternoon:

All of this uncertainty, which has been dominated by arguments between the basketball and football factions of the Big East, has slowed the talk of expansion, if not stopped it.
At yesterday's meeting, potential candidates such as Boise State, Central Florida and Temple were discussed, but no consensus could be agreed upon which teams to invite first, or at all.
The basketball factions were adamant about not adding anyone, while the football faction argued that if the Big East is going to survive as a BCS conference, whose champion gained automatic entry to a BCS bowl it is imperative for Boise State, with its high national ranking was a necessity for survival.

The dysfunction continues.

http://www.boston.com/sports/colleges/extras/colleges_blog/2011/10/big_easts_fate.html

 

[Orangemen]

Honestly, it makes sense for the bball schools to wait.

WVU, Louisville, UConn, and Rutgers could still conceivably all leave at this point. The bball onlies don't want to get stuck with the albatrosses of USF, UCF, SMU, Houston, etc.

The should just break up at this point, it's gone too far.

 

[SaltineWarrior]

Honestly, it makes sense for the bball schools to wait.

WVU, Louisville, UConn, and Rutgers could still conceivably all leave at this point. The bball onlies don't want to get stuck with the albatrosses of USF, UCF, SMU, Houston, etc.

The should just break up at this point, it's gone too far.

I agree. They should let each team go and reach out to the Xaviers, Butlers and St. Louis's of the world and try to make it as a basketball-only league. After all, this is how the conference was founded. ND can get what they want (football independence) and satisfy the rest of their sports. Time to stop tryign to jam a square peg into a round hole. We can play St. Johns and Georgetown annually; Villanova once in while and PC/SHU when we need a nice little Dec. 15th opponent in the dome.

 

[kingottoiii]

From article on Boston.com this afternoon:

All of this uncertainty, which has been dominated by arguments between the basketball and football factions of the Big East, has slowed the talk of expansion, if not stopped it.
At yesterday's meeting, potential candidates such as Boise State, Central Florida and Temple were discussed, but no consensus could be agreed upon which teams to invite first, or at all.
The basketball factions were adamant about not adding anyone, while the football faction argued that if the Big East is going to survive as a BCS conference, whose champion gained automatic entry to a BCS bowl it is imperative for Boise State, with its high national ranking was a necessity for survival.

The dysfunction continues.

http://www.boston.com/sports/colleges/extras/colleges_blog/2011/10/big_easts_fate.html

But the BE can get teams as FB onlies. Can the BBall schools really block that?

 

[BlazeOrange]

But the BE can get teams as FB onlies.

Is that certain? Probably is, but everything I've read lately has alluded to the BE inviting new teams, with vague references that they'd be FB-onlies. I haven't seen anything confirming that the candidate schools would accept that arrangement, with the possible exception of the military academies. But they seem to want to wait until the dust settles. I don't know if Temple is all-MAC now or is FB-only there, but if the latter, they'd be able to easily accept their former BE arrangement.

It would be more problematic for the CUSA and MWC schools to find homes for their other sports since their current conferences aren't going to keep their non-revenue sports without the FB teams. Since this is where the better FB teams are, the FB side may be pushing for full membership to get them, while the hoops side doesn't want to add any more.

At some point in the next 27 months (are we down to 26 yet?), they need to add two more FB teams or the BCS worthiness of the conference will be a moot point.

 

[All4SU]

Honestly, it makes sense for the bball schools to wait.

WVU, Louisville, UConn, and Rutgers could still conceivably all leave at this point. The bball onlies don't want to get stuck with the albatrosses of USF, UCF, SMU, Houston, etc.

The should just break up at this point, it's gone too far.

I really think the BBall onlies are waiting to see how this plays out, and how many millions of dollars in exit fees they will accumulate. They won't volunteer to split, and leave that cash on the table, if the split will be coming piecemeal anyway. So they drag out SU and Pitt, drag on expansion, drag on split. Pretty short-sighted if true.