Oliver Luck details WVU exit from Big East

[Whitey23]

Oliver Luck details WVU exit from Big East

Perhaps most striking was the utter lack of foresight in the league after Pitt, Syracuse and TCU all decided to leave:

"I think it was pretty obvious that the league was going to struggle. We hadn’t added a new member since 2005. Sitting in these AD meetings, there was no expansion committee to speak of," Luck said. "You’re down to five members with no clear-cut expansion candidates, with no activity, so at that point, I think people -- and not just me -- realized that we needed to look around and make sure first and foremost that we were going to be in a conference that maintained high standards and high-quality opponents."​

 

[oldpinepoint]

hard to argue with his comments. He just handled it like a first class assole thats all.

 

[IthacaMatt]

hard to argue with his comments. He just handled it like a first class assole thats all.

Sometimes you have to do that. By saying to the Big East "we done. we're out next fall", I'm sure that influenced the entire lawsuit and negotiations. He did ultimately get his way. You don't see WVU with the messed up schedule situation that we are in for next year.

 

[Rocco]

"West Virginia" and "high standards" in the same sentence. Hmmm.

 

[KaiserUEO]

Syracuse
boston college
pitt
wv
miami
vpi
rut

and hell even storz and temple, thats the bigeast.

add cincy, lville and nsewfu, and im fine with that 12.

in all honesty...that shouldnt have been too hard to keep together.

but, thank god we can still play seton hall & providence in hoop, and as a thanks for staying, we will add depaul and marquette to your schedule!!

 

[IthacaMatt]

Syracuse
boston college
pitt
wv
miami
vpi
rut

and hell even storz and temple, thats the bigeast.

add cincy, lville and nsewfu, and im fine with that 12.

in all honesty...that shouldnt have been too hard to keep together.

but, thank god we can still play seton hall & providence in hoop, and as a thanks for staying, we will add depaul and marquette to your schedule!!

This is what the ACC should do - take all the old Big East schools and put them in the same division. It would do wonders for stirring up old rivalries in an instant. Put Miami, Va Tech, BC, Pitt, SU in the same group with Maryland and NC State. That's the way it should be, instead of us playing Clemson and Fla State.

 

[longtimefan]

Sometimes you have to do that. By saying to the Big East "we done. we're out next fall", I'm sure that influenced the entire lawsuit and negotiations. He did ultimately get his way. You don't see WVU with the messed up schedule situation that we are in for next year.

WVa's ace in the hole was the desperation of the league that they were moving to. The Big XII *had* to have a 10th member (oxymoron alert) to avoid losing beaucoup $$$. So Texas, Oklahoma, etal. were willing to find upfront money to grease the skids. The ACC has no such needs with its current 12-team membership.

 

[All4SU]

Let's not forget Mr Luck's comments about how he would rather play Air Force and Navy than Syracuse anyway.

“In fact, I would trade Air Force or Navy for Syracuse every day of the week in terms of the quality of the football program. No disrespect, but that’s just an observation I think most would agree with who understand football.”

 

[NovaOrange]

Let's not forget Mr Luck's comments about how he would rather play Air Force and Navy than Syracuse anyway.

“In fact, I would trade Air Force or Navy for Syracuse every day of the week in terms of the quality of the football program. No disrespect, but that’s just an observation I think most would agree with who understand football.”

ANd let's not forget what happened to WVU when we played them after he made those comments. He provided that locker room quote to motivate the players and I have to thank him for that lol

 

[longtimefan]

Let's not forget Mr Luck's comments about how he would rather play Air Force and Navy than Syracuse anyway.

“In fact, I would trade Air Force or Navy for Syracuse every day of the week in terms of the quality of the football program. No disrespect, but that’s just an observation I think most would agree with who understand football.”

Maybe someone should send him a picture of the Schwartzwalder Trophy, sitting indefinitely, and properly, in the SU trophy case.

Wonder if he would now say that he would rather play AirForce and Navy than Iowa St or Kansas?

 

[OrangePA]

Oliver Luck details WVU exit from Big East

I just find his comments hard to believe.

I strongly suspect that WVU was planning to leave well before the meeting where "we were down to five teams."

It sounds like an bunch of self-serving BS aimed at justifying the actions WVU took to get out.

 

[tipphill]

Maybe someone should send him a picture of the Schwartzwalder Trophy, sitting indefinitely, and properly, in the SU trophy case.

Wonder if he would now say that he would rather play AirForce and Navy than Iowa St or Kansas?

i hope we a ooc game with them every year despite what he said.that doesn't erase years of history----luck is just passing through---

 

[Chip]

I just find his comments hard to believe.

I strongly suspect that WVU was planning to leave well before the meeting where "we were down to five teams."

It sounds like an bunch of self-serving BS aimed at justifying the actions WVU took to get out.

Not only that, he's just wrong. They had added TCU.

I think he's right that the league should have been more aggressive in expansion, meaning they should have pursued the teams they have recently pursued, before they did it out of desperation. But to say they did nothing isn't accurate.

And why do you need an expansion committee? You're all ADs, sitting there, Luck has a voice, speak up about it, do some research, bring it to the table. The ADs are the committee. Goodness, people in this world think nothing can be done without a committee.

And with that, I will no longer ever defend the Big East. I hope they got their money's worth.

 

[Scooch]

And why do you need an expansion committee? You're all ADs, sitting there, Luck has a voice, speak up about it, do some research, bring it to the table. The ADs are the committee. Goodness, people in this world think nothing can be done without a committee.

Agreed. And ultimately none of the remaining "marquee" Big East schools (SU, Pitt, WVU) really wanted to commit to the league after 2004/2005 anyway. No matter who they added they were still going to be 6th among the 6 BCS leagues in terms of media value. They all knew that finding a better home was their best ticket to long-term stability.

 

[All4SU]

Agreed. And ultimately none of the remaining "marquee" Big East schools (SU, Pitt, WVU) really wanted to commit to the league after 2004/2005 anyway. No matter who they added they were still going to be 6th among the 6 BCS leagues in terms of media value. They all knew that finding a better home was their best ticket to long-term stability.

Yup. They knew it, and everyone everywhere knew it.

 

[Orangemen]

Not only that, he's just wrong. They had added TCU.

I think he's right that the league should have been more aggressive in expansion, meaning they should have pursued the teams they have recently pursued, before they did it out of desperation. But to say they did nothing isn't accurate.

And why do you need an expansion committee? You're all ADs, sitting there, Luck has a voice, speak up about it, do some research, bring it to the table. The ADs are the committee. Goodness, people in this world think nothing can be done without a committee.

And with that, I will no longer ever defend the Big East. I hope they got their money's worth.

They didn't need an expansion committee. Everyone knew what schools wanted to get into the BE, and it was clear that if the BE ever expanded, those were going to be the schools.

He wanted out because the competition left behind was terrible. He took a lot of for leaving like they did, but at the end of the day, it doesn't matter. No one who leaves any conference is looked at fondly by those left behind. It sucks to be left behind, but any of those left behind would have switched places in about half a second. He could have done everything above board and perfect, and still, they would have taken a lot of for it.

I don't really understand the flack SU has taken for the way they went about leaving. They did it quietly, and didn't let it drag out, is that really a bad thing? Should they have sat on the fence while pining to leave for 2 years like Mizzou?

 

[longtimefan]

Agreed. And ultimately none of the remaining "marquee" Big East schools (SU, Pitt, WVU) really wanted to commit to the league after 2004/2005 anyway. No matter who they added they were still going to be 6th among the 6 BCS leagues in terms of media value. They all knew that finding a better home was their best ticket to long-term stability.

That's the pink elephant in the corner that no member of the BE (since 2003) has dared speak about. If the BE FB conference was ever viable, its last window of opportunity closed in the '90's, if not sooner. The bottom line is, there have never been enough schools in the northeast willing to commit to big time football at any point in time to support a league.

 

[Scooch]

That's the pink elephant in the corner that no member of the BE (since 2003) has dared speak about. If the Be FB conference was ever viable, its last window of opportunity closed in the '90's, fi not sooner. The bottom line is, there have never been enough schools in the northeast willing to commit to big time football at any point in time to support a league.

I agree with the bolded wholeheartedly. The Big East had a small window, in the 1998-2001 time frame IMHO, where there was a (slim) opportunity to aggressively court some then-reportedly disaffected ACC members (FSU, GaTech, Clemson) and attractive non-BCS schools (Louisville) and form a 12-team football league that could have forged a good media deal.

That was when BE football was relatively strong (VaTech & Miami playing for national titles in back-to-back-years), and hoops was in a downcycle.

Alas, neither the league office nor the members ADs had such vision.