Big East Expansion: Louisville, UConn Rumors Joined By Boise State Hesitation?

http://www.sbnation.com/ncaa-football/2 ... nment-news

BSU and Lville are obvious but here is UConn...

"Connecticut's governor is calling for UConn and the Boston College Eagles to resume their rivalry. As Eagle In Atlanta points out, considering the ACC's nine-game schedule, that could be a clever call for the two to be in the same conference."

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Fan of the Big 12 Conference, the Mountain West Conference and...

Eventually, I do see the ACC inviting two out of Notre Dame, UConn, and Rutgers. All three fit the academic profile of the ACC institutions and expand their geographic footprint along with their prestige. Of course the prize out of all realignment is who lands Notre Dame and the ACC has positioned itself to have as good a chance as the Big Ten in being able to court the Irish. In the end, I think it will all come down to how ND feels about maintaining their traditional rivalries, being able to cut ties to independence after having it for over a century, and, of course, money.

Notre Dame is a fickle lady and they could just as easily tell the ACC "thanks but no" seeing as how if they would join the league for all-sports they would likely have to end their yearly rivalries with all but a couple of USC, Stanford, Purdue, Michigan State, Michigan, and Navy.

The ACC is likely just waiting for the Big 12 to make their move in when and if they will expand back to 12 before they poach more teams from the Big East. Say once the Big 12 decided to move and they invite Louisville and Cincinnati (since the FSU/Clemson rumor is bunk and BYU likely isn't being invited) then the rest of the Big East is ripe for the picking. In the case of two schools leaving the Big East, Boise likely decides to move back to the MWC and Navy back to being an independent. SDSU could perhaps even look to returning to the MWC if that plays out.

Then you have UConn and Rutgers sitting there. If Notre Dame rejects the ACC then the Huskies and Scarlet Knights will probably be promptly invited. In that case, the ACC would become the preeminent basketball conference with NYC as the possible home of the conference's basketball tournament. A tourney featuring UConn, Syracuse, Pitt, UNC, & Duke would fetch major money and could lead to the ACC restructuring their television deal based on that alone.

In that scenario, the Big East is destroyed as a football league. Temple, Memphis, Houston, SMU, UCF, & USF would then be searching for homes for their athletics and that's a whole new can of worms to open.

Couple of CSNBBS MB threads discussing Pitt/BE lawsuit at http://csnbbs.com/showthread.php?tid=569803 and at http://csnbbs.com/showthread.php?tid=569787

I didn't say they were invited. I said they were desired more, first, and maybe even approached. And I would be correct. Invites come after applications to join are approved. You apply to join because you either want to join or received encouragement to apply.

A lot of programs "were encouraged." Some just applied. As I'm sure this year, some/many of those will probably "be encouraged" again, just as others will apply because they want to...again.

Semantics.

Brett McMurphy blog article with comments from Syracuse AD regarding his school's attempt at leaving the BE early at http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootbal ... t-big-east

Pitt and Syracuse are contractually obligated to stay through 2014.

They (and the ACC) want the move to occur on July 1, 2013.

To do this, Pitt and Syracuse need to buy their way out of the final year (2014) and finalize their early exit by June 30th of this year.

The Big East may be even less functional right now in the wake of Marinatto's departure, and Pitt is filing suit to force the issue.
The negotiations could still be amicable. However there is urgency on the part of Pitt and 'Cuse, but not on the part of the BE.

I wouldn't expect John Swofford to comment (bottom of article), since he is not a party to this negotiation.
You know that he wants it to happen, but he does not want to interject the ACC into the procedings.

Syracuse will get the same deal as Pitt, obviously... to say they don't want to file suit is disingenuous. Pitt is doing their dirty work for them.

The BE wants that early buy-out money if it means more than Pitt & 'Cuse staying another year. Marinatto's departure may not change that much.

Pitt could pull a West Virginia and say "we are going now" and let the fuss over how much get arbitrated somehow. Not sure the circumstances are similar enough, though.

A new BE Commish shall have his hands full in sorting out mess on multiple levels. They better have an individual with deep college sports knowledge, can be objective and balanced in handling factions, show impressive negotiating prowness, display innovative marketing skills, shows success at damage control, exhibit bold and competent decision-making, and overhaul a conference's image that has been battered. Maybe this could be a great job for Mitt Romney if he is not successful in November .....well, success with the Utah-hosted olympics is often cited. Some Bain Capital tactics may be just what the BE needs!

Not trying to be political, just synical.

Pitt can't walk with a swagger like WVU did. The state-related institutions in PA (Pitt, PSU, Temple, and Lincoln) are at the mercy of a sociopath of a governor who'd cut all the funding off to these schools if he could get away with it. Any move they do to hasten the exit without some kind of due diligence on their end is going to end horribly for them. The lawsuit shows Pitt cares very much about the finances of this defection. The gesture alone is proactive.

I think the most public institution of them all, Navy, is being quite quiet these days. I'd love to be a fly on the wall in that AD.

I could definitely see Navy saying "on second thought, thanks but no thanks, we'll stay independent" if nymore schools leaving the Big East (not including Pitt, Cuse, Boise, or SDSU). Really, what's the point of Navy joining the Big East now aside of more money which they don't need since they're a federally funded institution.

If Louisville and/or Cincinnati bolt for the Big 12 then the Big East crumbles as a football conference. Navy would leave, Boise State would leave and then what? Southern Miss, Tulsa, East Carolina and UMass to get to 12?

Yeah, spent a long time in PA with one of them. The other thing, at most Pitt would just have to wait one more year if the can't leave for 2013. Also, if the BE let Pitt go early but not 'Cuse because 'Cuse did not petition, that would pose a problem for the ACC in scheduling. I am confident the ACC would expect both at the same time if earlier or not...pending no ACC unexpected departure. 'Cuse may not want to stick their neck out on this, but ride the Pitt results.

Navy marches to the beat of a different drummer when it concerns athletics, but it does understand that it needs to appear somewhat relevant for it to effectively recruit. The Big East they were close to getting put them in with traditional regional powers as well as a competitive environment that could have produced a lot of exposure for the program. Now it's not far off from what Army regretfully endured in C-USA.

I feel bad for USNA and USMA because of the big-leaguing so many conferences are pulling on ND's independence. If associate-membership wasn't such a taboo subject for conferences like the ACC and B1G, I think Army and Navy would have their pick of wherever they wanted to be.

While your right that "Navy [as well as Army and AFA]marches to the beat of a different drummer when it concerns athletics" you are pretty far off on everything else...

Army and Navy have had a standing fb only invite to the Big East for years, they didn't want to join because they would have had their butts kicked (like Army did in CUSA 1.0) and would have been an embarrassment for the academies (and services) which they thought would hurt their military recruiting. No way would they join the ACC, B1G, or any other major conference even if they could.

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Fan of the Big 12 Conference, the Mountain West Conference and...

The difference between Navy (and AFA) to Army is that Army doesn't have graduate programs. The two (AFA and USNA) of them combined have some of the highest graduate enrollment by volume in the country. Navy (and AFA), institutionally, resembles a Big Ten school more than people think.

I keep the door unlocked for the SA's to make a major jump because they were on the cusp quite frequently in the 70's and 80's when Temple, Penn State, and WVU tried to make an eastern sports conference. Both Army and Navy were on board during those discussions. Modesty kept them at bay when the Big East finally sponsored football, but we see what AFA and Navy almost joined (yearly meetings with Pitt, WVU, Louisville, TCU, Cincy). Maybe not Army, but Navy certainly is regaining their confidence.

Boise intends to go east in '13.

I know there isn't the official "Boise withdraws" language, but, oh boy...they don't grow them smart in Idaho, do they?

Perhaps it is something in the potatos or potatoes (as former VP Dan Q. once spelled).