Sporting News Says Exit Fee Vote Tomorrow

[Townie72]

LOL the Basketball schools are GOING to blackmail the football schools into agreeing to this increase or they won't allow any football expansion. My god, if I am UConn, Rutgers, or any football school with a legal department how can Marinatto allow the basketball schools into a position where they basically be blackmailing the football schools into an exit fee which is 3 times what they generate from their TV contract. Tomorrow is D-Day in the Big East I believe the conference will be over tomorrow in 2014 if the football schools don't agree to this increase.

Glad to see someone else gets it. The BB schools have the FB schools over a barrel.

If the FB schools vote "No" on raising the exit fee, the BB schools say, "OK. Then we aren't going to allow any more members in the Big East. No ECU. No UCF. No Navy. No anybody.

Why should they? They don't want to be stuck in a Conference with these new schools when some of all of the FB schools leave.

What can the FB schools do, if the BB schools won't vote to allow additional FB members and they don't have an invite from the ACC or the Big 10 or the Big 12?

They can stay in the Big East and have a 6 team FB Conference in 27 months.

They can go Independent. Fork over the $5M exit fee and watch the BB schools lay claim to the Big East name, the MSG Tourney and everything else.

Without an invitation from the ACC or another conference, the FB schools are in a Hell of a pickle.

Their best choice may be to vote "Yes" and take their lumps if they get an invitation. It's better than being stuck in a 6-team FB Conference with no possibility of adding additional schools.

 

[IthacaBarrel]

Glad to see someone else gets it. The BB schools have the FB schools over a barrel.

If the FB schools vote "No" on raising the exit fee, the BB schools say, "OK. Then we aren't going to allow any more members in the Big East. No ECU. No UCF. No Navy. No anybody.

Why should they? They don't want to be stuck in a Conference with these new schools when some of all of the FB schools leave.

What can the FB schools do, if the BB schools won't vote to allow additional FB members and they don't have an invite from the ACC or the Big 10 or the Big 12?

They can stay in the Big East and have a 6 team FB Conference in 27 months.

They can go Independent. Fork over the $5M exit fee and watch the BB schools lay claim to the Big East name, the MSG Tourney and everything else.

Without an invitation from the ACC or another conference, the FB schools are in a Hell of a pickle.

Their best choice may be to vote "Yes" and take their lumps if they get an invitation. It's better than being stuck in a 6-team FB Conference with no possibility of adding additional schools.

Agree Townie, I think UCONN and Rutgers will def vote yes as I don't think either has anything on the front burner.. Will be interesting to see WVU, LVille, and Cinci vote. That will tell you if they feel they have a legit shot at the Big 12 sometime soon, which would be great for us and would be a death blow to UCONN and Rutgers. Rutgers may pull back football funding quite a bit of this happens, what is the point if you are basically vanished to being completely irrelevant morseo than you are currently. Most people could care less about Rutgers in the state of New Jersey, it's really a cult following and I think a lot of people have had enough

 

[Townie72]

We'll for sure see who thinks an invitation from another Conference is going to happen.

If the increased exit fees are not approved and the BB schools won't allow new members because they don't want to get stuck with them, the FB schools are up the creek without a paddle.

Three of the FB schools have to vote "Yes" for the fee to be raised.

Rutgers may be in the worse financial shape of all of them and therefore very risk adverse.

Do they vote "Yes" and then have to pay a King's ransom to get out using money they don't have? They might not be able to afford accepting an ACC invitation even if one should come thanks to their past lavish lifestyle and a stadium expansion.

Do they vote "No" and risk ending up in a 6-team FB conference because the BB schools won't allow any new members?

As a NJ native --- born and raised 18 miles south of the campus -- I can assure you that RU football is a program nobody asked for. It was the brainchild of a few people including recently-fired RU AD Bob Mulcahy. The whole thing has always been a gamble based on "build it and they will come" ... with taxpayer dollars in the pot.

If RU were to announce they were going back to the Patriot League tomorrow, 99% of NJ residents wouldn't care.

 

[kingtidge]

------------------

Why not just wait till Missouri and the Big 12 decide what they are going to do?

Unless there is some behind the scene accompanying agreement on what football schools everyone wants to add, and at least 4 of the football schools want to make a committment, from an outsider perspective, it seems the BB schools are setting the stage to force a split.

Because Marinatto and the Prafia are being proactive!

This is eterntainment on the grandest scale (for those of us lucky enough to have already landed elsewhere).

I don't know whether to laugh, cry, be embarassed or punch couch pillows...

 

[rrlbees]

Because Marinatto and the Prafia are being proactive!

This eterntainment on the grandest scale (for those of us lucky enough to have already landed elsewhere).

I don't know whether to laugh, cry, be embarassed or punch couch pillows...

Gonna be even funnier when the official BE release says they tabled the exit fee vote and instead voted to explore expansion.

 

[rrlbees]

or punch couch pillows...

Just be thankful your pillows have a couch to set on.

 

[OrangePA]

Perhaps more interesting is DeCourcey's claim that Louisville may not attend the meeting/call:

http://aol.sportingnews.com/ncaa-ba...ast-to-vote-on-increasing-exit-fees-on-friday

Do you schedule something like this if you don't have the votes?

It just seems odd to me that the Commissioner would stick his neck out like this.

If teams refuse to attend it makes the Commissioner look very weak. If one of the structures needed to add stability - as part of the overall plan - is voted down, again, the Commissioner - the apparent architect of the plan - looks very weak.

I don't get it.

Why schedule a vote? Is the Commissioner simply trying to flush out who is in and who is out?

 

[orangenirvana]

Does anyone know why Marinatto the Big East decided to do this today? Am I wrong in thinking that absolutely nothing but disaster can come from this vote, at least at this point in time?

Is it possible that the expansion candidates (Navy, Air Force, Boise State, CFU, etc.) pressured Marinatto into having this vote by the end of this week in order for them to determine whether or not they are willing to truly consider entering the conference? That would make sense, other than the fact that the Big East schools cannot agree whether or not to expand, and if so, who to take.

But I can't think of any other reason why this vote would be taking place now.

The entire thing is such a cluster f.

What are they trying to accomplish with this vote?

 

[Alsacs]

Do you schedule something like this if you don't have the votes?

It just seems odd to me that the Commissioner would stick his neck out like this.

If teams refuse to attend it makes the Commissioner look very weak. If one of the structures needed to add stability - as part of the overall plan - is voted down, again, the Commissioner - the apparent architect of the plan - looks very weak.

I don't get it.

Why schedule a vote? Is the Commissioner simply trying to flush out who is in and who is out?

Rule 1 of being a commissioner don't schedule a vote unless you know the outcome. We are talking about Marinatto though the outcome of this vote will determine the Big East future unless the basketball schools allow non-football members.

 

[ClkWrkOrange]

laugh,
is working for me.

 

[kingtidge]

What are they trying to accomplish with this vote?

Who knows...

One thing is for sure, both Marinatto and Tranghese appear to have taken all of this stuff very personally... when they should be taking it simply for what it is - business.

Plus, Marinatto has been getting slammed for being the most clueless, reactive and inept major conference commisioners in the country...

All that said, this could be an ego 'muscle-flex' for Marinatto to show the world he's doing something??

I dunno... I would like to think there is some sort of master plan this is all serving, but since this is Marinatto, I don't know that we can assume there are real shrewd dealings going on here.

It may be nothing more than Basketball Guy seeing the Football ship sinking and trying to do something to fleece the ship for the basketball schools before the wreck goes down... Prafia = protect catholic b-ball schools at all costs...

 

[NKR1978]

What can the FB schools do, if the BB schools won't vote to allow additional FB members and they don't have an invite from the ACC or the Big 10 or the Big 12?

My understanding was that the conference went to 8/8 so that it could be dissolved and split into two viable conferences after five years without penalty so that each would retain automatic bids into the NCAA tournaments. We've gone past those five years, so can't the football schools just all vote to leave the conference? They would then lose the "Big East" brand (but honestly, there's nothing "Big" about a conference with Georgetown and Villanova as its anchors) but they would also save all of us $5,000,000.

All the football schools could join CUSA, Mountain West or whatever. They'd land somewhere crappy, but anything that would hurt the bball schools that lived off being able to tell recruits and fans that Syracuse, Pitt, UConn, Louisville and WVU would come to town every two years is deserving. Let them go it alone and see how well they do.

There's a good chance these assumptions are completely wrong though because I'm trying to remember newspaper articles from 8 years ago. It would be nice if the football schools were able to screw the CYO league out of $40,000,000 along with their NCAA credits. It would also be great for SU.

 

[Rocco]

Please pray that this happens.

 

[OrangePA]

Please pray that this happens.

Not me.

Instability is dangerous.

I don't want this to boomerang somehow and mess with our ACC invite.

A lot can happen in 27 mos.

I want the BE to survive and flourish enough to maintain the BCS bid. I want UCon and Rutgers and WVU to stay in the BE and I want to add Houston, Air Force, UCF and others.

 

[Townie72]

My understanding was that the conference went to 8/8 so that it could be dissolved and split into two viable conferences after five years without penalty so that each would retain automatic bids into the NCAA tournaments. We've gone past those five years, so can't the football schools just all vote to leave the conference? They would then lose the "Big East" brand (but honestly, there's nothing "Big" about a conference with Georgetown and Villanova as its anchors) but they would also save all of us $5,000,000.

All the football schools could join CUSA, Mountain West or whatever. They'd land somewhere crappy, but anything that would hurt the bball schools that lived off being able to tell recruits and fans that Syracuse, Pitt, UConn, Louisville and WVU would come to town every two years is deserving. Let them go it alone and see how well they do.

There's a good chance these assumptions are completely wrong though because I'm trying to remember newspaper articles from 8 years ago. It would be nice if the football schools were able to screw the CYO league out of $40,000,000 along with their NCAA credits. It would also be great for SU.

If anybody is blameless in this whole mess its the basketball schools.

They -- along with UConn and SU --- formed a great Eastern, urban, Monday-night playing basketball Conference.

They acquiesced to adding football school after football school without so much as a whimper. Now the football appears to be falling apart.

How is any of this Georgetown's fault? (And I loathe Georgetown)

The basketball schools don't deserve to get screwed on this any more than they will be by losing rivals like SU and Pitt.

It sure wasn't the BB schools that upped the buy-out penalty. But they had to live with it.
They weren't building stadiums or stadium expansions betting "on the come" that things could only get better. They've been pretty much minding their own business and going along with what the FB schools insisted they had to have.

If they get the $40M, I'd say they deserved it for putting up with all this FB insanity.

 

[orangenirvana]

Not me.

Instability is dangerous.

I don't want this to boomerang somehow and mess with our ACC invite.

A lot can happen in 27 mos.

I want the BE to survive and flourish enough to maintain the BCS bid. I want UCon and Rutgers and WVU to stay in the BE and I want to add Houston, Air Force, UCF and others.

You really think the ACC could pull our invite?

 

[MaxwellCuse]

Do you schedule something like this if you don't have the votes?

It just seems odd to me that the Commissioner would stick his neck out like this.

If teams refuse to attend it makes the Commissioner look very weak. If one of the structures needed to add stability - as part of the overall plan - is voted down, again, the Commissioner - the apparent architect of the plan - looks very weak.

I don't get it.

Why schedule a vote? Is the Commissioner simply trying to flush out who is in and who is out?

Maybe the proposal is to increase exit fees effective January 1, 2012?? That would give the football schools a decent chance to figure out if they have a good place to land outside the Big East. That also tells Boise and the academies that in 2 months time the BE will know for certain who is in and who is out. I could see a proposal like this winning enough votes to carry.

I can also see this teleconference being postponed indefinitely.

 

[MaxwellCuse]

Not me.

Instability is dangerous.

I don't want this to boomerang somehow and mess with our ACC invite.

A lot can happen in 27 mos.

I want the BE to survive and flourish enough to maintain the BCS bid. I want UCon and Rutgers and WVU to stay in the BE and I want to add Houston, Air Force, UCF and others.

We're gone. The only thing left to figure out is will we really have to stay 27 months or can we escape the insane asylum sooner.

 

[Townie72]

You really think the ACC could pull our invite?

Were you around in 2003 and 2004?

Things may get worse in 2011, but the situation after the last raid was a lot worse than it is today. Lawsuits and accusations and attacks in the press from high level people at the various schools. And that didn't slow the ACC down a bit. They knew it would get ugly in 2004 they kept right on going.

 

[NKR1978]

If they get the $40M, I'd say they deserved it for putting up with all this FB insanity.

Collectively they've earned far more than $40,000,000 putting up with the football insanity. They know that. How is Georgetown going to fill up and pay the rent on its NBA arena without UConn, Louisville, WVU, Pitt and Syracuse? Recruits are going to love Nova now that they play all their games in a high school gym. The Dunc is going to be rocking.

After reading what Tranghese said after SU and Pitt joined the ACC it is clear that our commissioners have only cared about preserving basketball to the detriment of football. If we had created a 10 school football conference in 2003 then the Big East wouldn't be having as much of a problem. That's all on the basketball schools.

And what has Georgetown ever done? They resorted to a cheap small time gimmick that restricted the ability of Syracuse fans to purchase tickets for our game against them at the Verizon Center. That's a pathetic move that a small time program has to make. Since the end of the 80's "glory days," the basketball schools have sucking off the teat that is the general success of the football schools.

I hope Syracuse schedules a game against Maryland at the Verizon Center during one of our purgatory years.

 

[orangenirvana]

Were you around in 2003 and 2004?

Things may get worse in 2011, but the situation after the last raid was a lot worse than it is today. Lawsuits and accusations and attacks in the press from high level people at the various schools. And that didn't slow the ACC down a bit. They knew it would get ugly in 2004 they kept right on going.

Right. Which is why I'm puzzled as to why OPA is concerned that instability will mess up our ACC invitation.

 

[NKR1978]

We're gone. The only thing left to figure out is will we really have to stay 27 months or can we escape the insane asylum sooner.

Seriously, we were never formally invited in 2003. The idea that our bid would be pulled is insane. The ACC already laughed its way through one lawsuit, I doubt they're afraid of another.

 

[EastBayCuse]

I'd like to see Mizzou go to the $EC, the B1G stand pat. Penn State gives them all the NYC/Philly market coverage they need in terms of viewer interest. Hell, a good Michigan-Ohio State game is a better TV draw in the tri-state than Rutgers vs. anyone. The only school I'll miss is WVU; they're an Eastern independent rival from way back, we have long standing rivalry there based on a nice balance of respect and occasional animosity. And of course their outrage when their sisters sleep with our fans instead of them.

If ND decided to go ACC, I'd prefer WVU come along. They have basketball tradition, a rabid fan base for football, and even in down cycles have been twice the football & hoops programs that Rutgers has ever been.

UConn is a one-trick pony. When Calhoun is gone so is their prosperity. They've had their moment(s) in the past 20 years or so, but they'll fade away like St. John's did. They bring nothing to the table in terms of football.

WVU, who probably won't make the cut due to academics or relative isolation from the coast, makes the most sense to me not only from a sports perspective but from a Syracuse perspective. Rutgers and UConn would just be deadweight filler to theoretically garner a few hundred eyeballs and in the case of SUNJ, open the fertile Jersey recruiting swamps.

Why do I keep hearing that Penn State delivers a large NYC TV market? It is over 200 miles and more than a 4 hour drive between those locations. I was born in NYC - never met a Penn State fan there.

 

[Rocco]

Seriously, we were never formally invited in 2003. The idea that our bid would be pulled is insane. The ACC already laughed its way through one lawsuit, I doubt they're afraid of another.

agree

 

[Rocco]

Why do I keep hearing that Penn State delivers a large NYC TV market? It is over 200 miles and more than a 4 hour drive between those locations. I was born in NYC - never met a Penn State fan there.

big alumni base