The BE is set for 7 teams next year, correct? I thought 8 was the new minimum for conferences. Does the BE get an exemption for 2004? If so, why doesn't it let BC go early to the ACC?

I believe that the 8 team requirement does not kick in until the 2005 football season. The need to bring UConn in a year early was to fill in open dates in the schedule, as much as anything. I suppose, with the potential loss of BC or SU at the time, it also ensured that the BE would have at least 6 for 2004, which is the current NCAA minimum.

yeah, and Temple had gotten an extension beforehand.

Outstanding, outstanding article on the whole history of whether to split, whether to stay together, BC's role, ND's role, etc. Its all coming out now...

Lot of hostility and cross-purposes between the fb and bb schools, the whole league is sort of like a shotgun wedding, or one of those marriages of convenience with a foreign wife who will get divorced as soon as she achieves citizenship. Confirmation of all we intuited...

http://www.syracuse.com/sports/poststandard/index.ssf?/base/sports-0/1067939709291480.xml

The paragraphs below also summarize what I had earlier suggested was NotreDame's role:

"One of the athletic directors who asked not to be identified said Notre Dame, a Big East member in all sports except football, worked hard behind the scenes to press the Catholic basketball schools (Georgetown, Providence, St. John's, Seton Hall and Villanova) to keep the league together.

Notre Dame, like the other basketball schools, had a lot to lose if the football schools broke away because it would have lost a viable home for its basketball team. A hybrid Big East is a perfect solution for Notre Dame, which wants to remain independent in football while keeping its other sports teams in a conference.

Through sports information director John Heisler, Notre Dame athletic director Kevin White said he was not involved in any of the meetings until it was decided that the Big East would expand. "He got involved after the fact when the (football schools') position had changed," Heisler said. "

Pretty sorry and selfish role for Notre Dame to work to mold the BE to suit its purposes. NotreDame doesn't seem to care about the overal health of college football, only its own health.

Doesn't surprise me a bit. ND wants what's in ND's best interests, period. Although I don't care for FSU much (but do like our lone 'Nole poster on here), I did like seeing F$U beat up ND bad!!! ;D ND will have missed the BCS for the second straight time in a row under Tyrone Willingham. ;)

Although the Irish did not particularly like Cincinatti being added, the revamped BE is just what they want. This league will not be what it was in football, and if ND had to commit in football, it is bye-bye BE and hello B-10.

Yes there is a shameless ACC, self-serving BE basketball only teams, manipulative and arrogant ND, and a controversial Commissioner; but WVU, Syracuse, Rutgers, Pitt, and UConn needed to stop dancing with ND and declare their intentions-----should say two years, that's it. Notre Dame clearly sided in the end with the bb schools.

How many could come up with a better conference of a tenth of the salary?

Thanks BG, why not start a "Spotlight on future BE Split" thread...

I'm halfway serious...

:) ;) :D ;D >:( :( :o 8-) ??? ::) :P :-[ :-X :-/ :-* :'(

Does anyone know if Temple's status has changed? ??? I read somewhere (that I can't remember now) that one of the reason for the 11/4 conference was to discuss Temple's fate.