Will the Big East without Boston College follow the program that Mike TRanghese has set for them? He made this plan for adding 2fb and 2 bb schools with the hope that BC would now stay after they had not been invited the 1st time. Now the ACC is most likely going to get BC as their 12th member. I can see that it will possibly disrupt their plans. There is most likely a consensus about adding Depaul, Marquette, Louisville, and Cincinnati. BUT, now that BC appears to be leaving I doubt the schools will have an easy time coming to a consensus on an 8th school. South Florida, Central Florida, and East Carolina could be the schools to choose from. Another question to wonder about that is very important I think is what was Boston College holding the Big East up on? We know that they would not agree to Notre Dame playing 3 to 4 league games. What else were they disagreeing with to hold up the process waiting for their precious ACC invite? Maybe they were the school that stopped the Big East from splitting. Could they have said we will stay only if you don't split and the other schools were foolish to believe. I know they were probably catering to them trying to keep them happy since the ACC's 1st invite did not go their way, not knowing that the second invite would be coming. It will be interesting to see if things change when they leave if the ACC invite comes today.

Good point, arpmany,

If BC leaves today or this week, I wouldn't be surprised if decisions become a bit easier, knowing there will be no more defections in the near future. Perhaps it was BC holding up everything, rather than ND. But ND certainly didn't help things by not being wililng to commit to full membership.. If ND had done that, BC would have remained.

But some other decisions are going to be more difficult. Why would Pitt and Syracuse be willing to commit to a 5 million exit fee when they know they would prefer going to the Big10 if ND continues to stupidly prefer independence?

:)

Reports have been that BC, Syracuse, & Rutgers are opposed to the split, West Virginia, Pitt, & UConn favor the split. Subtract BC & the dynamics change.

Notre Dame also opposes a split, but if they can't or won't offer anything that will convince BC to stay, then they can't influence anyone.

Do Pitt, West Virginia, & UConn remain in the 16 team Big East essentially to remain affiliated with Syracuse? Rutgers really has no leverage since they bring nothing to the table at this time - regardless of how desirable their location is.

Purely speculation, but Pitt & West Virginia have as much in common with CUSA schools as they do with Northeastern schools. So, might they join with Louisville & Cincinnati as a nucleus for an 8-team league without Syracuse & Rutgers? Their assumption in such a move is that 'Cuse & rutgers would have to join eventually anyway.Add South Florida, Central Florida & East Carolina to the other 5 & you're ready to gol. Marshall & Temple also remain as possibilities.

I don't think that this will happen because the BCS affiliation is too strong an incentive even if it's just for the 2 years after this one. But I wouldn't be surprised if it's part of the conversation.

http://www.nypost.com/sports/3680.htmmy

Army and Navy for football only 2005.BC replaced by CFLA for all sports.

Friarfan, Syracuse can not survive without a football conference. Unless the school is planning to drop football on move down to 1AA, they will have no other choice to remain with the BE football schools.

The Big 10 is not an option for the next few years. Its either sign the 5 million exit fee or go independent. Syracuse does not have a choice.

I think the Big East will continue with the 16 team all sports conference, however, the football schools will have a bigger input into the decisions.

Lets face it, both Notre Dame and the bb schools really need the football schools to stay. Losing BC is more damage to the bb schools than football schools. It is the first BE charter member to jump ship. Notre Dame needs the football schools for minor bowl alignments. It has been stated that without Notre Dame, the BE loses the Gator Bowl. Likewise, without the BE, Notre Dame will lose the Gator bowl. Unless NBC is banking on Notre Dame never reaching the BCS again.

The change that could occur is with divisional alignment with the 8 teams.

I think the football schools should insist on being in the same 8 team alignment to build rivalries.

Syracuse, Rutgers, and BC were probably the three football schools wanting to remain in an eastern geographic division to play old BE rivals.

Without BC vote, the football schools should insist on playing in the same division. Rutgers and Syracuse can continue to play Seton Hall and Georgetown in cross over games. Pitt can continue to play Villanova in cross over games.

This option does not provide the 10 all sports conference, however, is a foundation to build on by remaining in the same division.

South Florida makes the most sense to replace Boston College. If the ACC can have an odd ball hanging out in New England, then the BE should be able to survive keeping an odd ball in Florida.

Losing BC was a very big blow. Not so much because of BC, but because they only have 4 of the BE schools left, not much left for rivalries, and they lose their exclusive geographic control of the NE.

Based on everything that I've heard, BC was strongly in favor of a split as were several other schools. At some point ND chimed in saying that they would committ to playing 3-4 games in fball if the league stayed together. They also strongly supported Marquette and Depaul, because it gave their Olympic sports and bball shorter trips for conference games.

The process was held up because the schools that favored staying together needed time to convince those that favored a split to change their vote. With the help of ND, they finally did convince all the other schools except BC, to go their away. The BE has had enough votes for weeks to go forward with the mega-mess conference, even without BC's vote.

I also wonder how this will influence the BE decision makers. The foundation for an all sports conference is a little weaker without BC. On the other hand this alignment does nothing for the fball conference in terms of strength or stability...its my guess that all of the fball schools have a wandering eye right now. The dilemma for them is that it makes no sense to leave a conference that has a BCS slot to go to another conference, unless of course that conference is a BCS conference. Right now, that BCS slot is the only thing thats keeping this league together. Without it UL and UC wouldn't be coming and the remaining fball schools would be going.

Pitt and WVU going to CUSA actually wouldn't be a bad move, if that happened CUSA would be far more deserving of the BCS slot than the BE. The problem is the BE has the slot for atleast two years so they won't be going anywhere until then. CUSA is planning on becoming a 13 team league, if that happens they'll have very little room for expansion in the future.

I hate to say it but the future doesn't look good for the BE...they had a window of opportunity for years to fix what was wrong with this conference. Unfortunately for them and the fans that window may now be closed.

Bullet, I totally disagree with you.

The BE has Pitt/WVU one of the oldest and best rival games in football. Syracuse has an old standing roung robin series that goes back way before our time.

Factor in Cincinnati and Louisville current rivalry which will spill over to Pitt/WVU.

Add in Army/Navy and I think you have have a pretty good handle on the northeast markets.

Lash, I don't disagree there is potential, particularly, UL and UC with Pitt and WVU, but the BE is starting at 0. There are only 4 schools who have regularly been playing each other. It just takes a while to build those rivalries. For the 4 left, Rutgers doesn't count since they have been so bad the last 5-10 years. That just leaves 2 games that will generate a lot of interest (at first). That will handicap the league.

Army and Navy have some good points but also some negatives. I imagine we will be discussing that for the next couple of months on the other thread.

This has been hinted at on another board , and I will suggest it a bit more explicitly here:

The only thing keeping the BE football schools together now that BC has left is the BCS status and bid.

Lacking that, if C-USA were on the ball, it would absorb the remaining five BE football schools, lop of marginal members (any suggestions?) and create a new twelve-member C-USA with championship game.

Perhaps C-USA should do that anyway...

:(

Well, so now its finally done with (let's hope), as a fan of college football and the Big East, we need a plan for realignment fast or else we will simply be viewed as a doormat for other conferences to pilfer. Memo to Mike Tranghese; ANNOUNCE SOMETHING SOON....!!...Obviously, Miami and BC had their own agendas to join the ACC from the start (how else do you explain Miami turning down a guaranteed $9 million per from the Big East) and Va Tech jumped on the bandwagon so quickly that no one had time to even present a counteroffer. I'd like to know your thoughts and pros/cons on the following......

STRATEGY; 17-team superconference in order to save face and a BCS bid. Please note; the 9-football team formation allows for the 4/4 home/away games.

PLAN; Keep w/ the rumored Louisville, Cincinatti, Depaul and Marquette invites. Additonally, add Xavier or Dayton (basketball only) to fill the void left by BC departure. This creates a 'godzilla' basketball conference. From a football perspective, there needs to be an infusion of name recognition; add Marshall (football only) to fill the BC slot, and then subsequently allocate the $9 million Miami offer to Notre Dame or a SCHOOL FROM A MAJOR CONFERENCE (i.e. Penn State)...if the money was there to begin with, the time has come to utilize it for a brand-name product or the BCS will become a distant memory. Please note; as of today, Pitt could very well be bumped from the top 25 which technically would then feature ZERO Big East schools.

ALIGNMENT

Football only members; MARSHALL

Basketball only members; SJU, Providence, Georgetown, Seton Hall, Providence, Notre Dame (suject to change; see below), Marquette, Depaul, XAVIER/DAYTON.

Football/Basketball members; Syracuse, Pitt, WVU, Rutgers, Uconn, Lousiville, Cincinnati, ND/ MAJOR CONFERENCE TEAM.


LET'S GO TRANGHESE, STEP UP TO THE PLATE !

SJUalum, that type of hybrid conference is what got us to this point in the first place. Marshall has a bad bball team so the BE lets them in for football only, what does that do for Marshall's bball team? Absolutely nothing. Its Marshall's and every other schools mission to find a solid situation for all of its programs. Marshall will join because its good for their football program, they'll make their team even stronger because their affiliated with a BCS conference, but guess what, the first league that offers full membership will snatch them up.

The BE did the same thing to VT for about 10 years, they were in the fb conference since day 1 but they didn't get the bball program in until 3 years ago. This is just my opinion, but I don't think VT was ever fully commited to the BE because the BE never fully commited to them. How do you think VT felt when they had to watch the success and money generated from BE bball, but they couldn't share in it. Even though they were giving as much to the fball conference as UM.

I still believe the best option for the BE is to form an all sports conference. If they build a conference that is fully commited to its members, they'll have members that are fully commited to the conference. The problem for the BE is they are running out of schools to build a conference with.

West Virginia , Pitt, and UConn if for a split should do this immediately IMO. Go to Louisville and Cincinnati and come up with a gameplan to play hardball with SU and Rutgers. They should tell them:
1. We are splitting from the Big East and if you want to play football you had better come along. If you stay you will ba 2 team conference.
2. We are going to form a 10 team all sports conference with 12 for football including Army and Navy. If you agree to this we as a group will then play hard ball with Notre Dame. This will be the offer. You can join and play 5 football league games . You thoughfully offered 3 to 4 games,what is 1 more game. You will get Navy in your division along with Pitt, Cincinnati, and Louisville. We will be picking 2 more members from the group of East Carolina, South Florida, Central Florida. You get to pick which ever one you want for your division. If you dont like it Good BYE!
3. We are not going to worry about bball money from the Ncaa tournament so that the split can happen quickly. With Uconn, SU, Louisville, Pitt, and Cincinnati we will be making lots of money very soon.

Good discussions which is probably what the BE officials are doing.

Since I am more like North Carolina in which tradition make a difference, maybe 12 team conferences are the way to go for the Big East football schools.

What if Syracuse, UConn, WVU, Rutgers, Pitt keep Temple and form the north division of a new conference and let Louisville and Cincinnati form the south division.

Memphis would be in and most likely Marshall. WVU is the north division and should be ok.

East Carolina would make five and maybe Toledo or Southern Miss for 6.

Dare I enter the fray? I hope I'm known well enough to be considered safe here.

The Big East football schools obviously have their work cut out for them, but hopefully it won't prove too daunting. I think the BCS matter has another twist to it, though, in that it's quite well assumed that there will be improved access granted to current non-member conferences. Surely after all this jockeying it won't simply be BCS-BE+MWC=new BCS!? There will be more conditions allowed, possibly more games, and certainly more money tossed around. Even if the BE schools lose the automatic tie in, I contend they'll still be close enough that they'll receive a good share of the pot. Especially if they add among those mentioned, as they're taking the best from the conferences that could hope to dethrone them.

Thus, the BE now must choose a direction as they choose their members/configuration. It is essentially a case of going regional or going for markets and TV appeal. Arguably USF and ECU will serve the conference's SOS better than Army or Navy, whereas the latter programs certainly lower the operating costs and keep the northeastern mentality in the forefront. Whichever path they choose, what the schools MUST do is show a mutual committment to their programs and each other. Despite all that is happened, or could happen, there must be the sense that what they have is perfect for them, and let the fans and players show it off on the field and on our TV sets. Pittsburgh and WVU must try to fill their 60k plus stadiums and encourage more travel among/to UL and UC. Fans at SU, Rutgers, etc must treat each conference game with enthusiasm, and every non-conference game as vital. Whoever becomes #8, 9 etc., must echo these feelings, because until now, it seems, the football programs have appeared a division of some larger corporate entity, not as a premier sport among a strong, united conference.

Perhaps this is greater cause for them to seek the BCS play-in concept with another conference (in-lieu of their own championsip game). And while I agree the benefits from a split have increased, perhaps there might also be reflection on subtracting some schools as well. The Big East as a vision is essentially no more. A new vision is needed, one with a sense of permanence. The alternative is to be blind. I wish the schools good fortune as they move forward.