Big East's expansion a double-edged sword

By Mike Prisuta
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Saturday, July 2, 2005


The new Big East Conference officially became a reality this week, as newcomers Cincinnati, DePaul, Louisville, Marquette and South Florida were formally admitted.

We've known that a day such as Thursday was coming since November of 2003.

We won't know for some time if this radical realignment signifies progress or another giant step toward the apocalypse.

Probably, it'll constitute a little of both.

As far as football is concerned, the Big East had to do something in the wake of the departures of Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College.

Louisville provides an instant influx of much-needed credibility, while Cincinnati and South Florida provide someone else to schedule. And while the new eight-team Big East won't be challenging the Big Ten or the SEC for national supremacy any time soon, there are those associated with Big East football, as it stands now, who are convinced the conference no longer need sweat losing its BCS affiliation.

So, that's a win.

But Big East basketball, with its bloated, 16-team configuration, may be about to discover that bigger isn't necessarily better, and in fact, might be worse.

The problem is a 16-team conference has to get exceptionally creative in scheduling a 16-game conference season. The Big East's initial response is that members will play 13 conference opponents, doubling up with three and skipping two entirely. Rivalries will be considered when trying to determine which teams play twice and which teams won't play at all, but television appeal and national standing will carry more weight when schedules are being compiled each offseason.

Such an approach cheapens the conference regular-season championship considerably and makes the Big East more of a loose affiliation than a conference in the traditional sense of the concept.

And that's a loss.

Of course, college basketball has been moving away from tradition and more toward made-for-TV events for some time. The new Big East isn't breaking any new ground here; it's merely rushing forward in the same direction everyone else is already headed.

Still, you have to wonder if the Big East isn't moving too far, too fast.

Although the NCAA Tournament has become a monster event and the make-or-break barometer for aspiring Top 25 programs, the regular season still ought to mean something. Only so many teams, after all, can reach the Sweet 16, the Elite Eight and the Final Four. For those destined not to make it quite that far, what transpires in advance of March Madness ought to have value.

In the upcoming Gargantuan East, what takes place before the brackets are filled out will be almost exclusively about rankings, seeds and positioning for the Big Dance and, of course, the Big East Tournament (still a 12-team affair).

Now, there's less reason to tune in until then.

The conference may have grown in stature and, at the same time, shrunk in appeal.

Mike Prisuta is a columnist for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

Some fans might particularly react to this line:

"Louisville provides an influx of instant credibility, while Cincinnati and South Florida provide someone else to schedule."

Santa Fe Falcon Wrote:Some fans might particularly react to this line:

"Louisville provides an influx of instant credibility, while Cincinnati and South Florida provide someone else to schedule."

Line like that don't even bother me because the people who report it really don't have a clue about those programs. Someone from Pittsburgh is naturally going to thumb their noses down at those programs. They thumbed their noses at Louisville until Louisville's season next year. I guarantee, that if Cincinnati or South Florida won 8 games next year and flirted with the Top 25 they would be kissing their behinds. So it doesn't really matter.

prisuta is a b10 psu kinda guy. don't worry bout him. he makes a fool out of himself w/ his psu bias anyways.

Nah...most fans reach to this line...

Quote:there are those associated with Big East football, as it stands now, who are convinced the conference no longer need sweat losing its BCS affiliation.

So, that's a win.

Jackson

animus Wrote:prisuta is a b10 psu kinda guy. don't worry bout him. he makes a fool out of himself w/ his psu bias anyways.

That explains everything. And I completely agree Jackson!

I too think that 16 are too many for basketball, but Tranghese created this situation by also inviting Marquette and DePaul.

By doing this he also left no room for a future football school to join and give us a much-needed 9th member. We really do need 9 for football so we can have a balanced schedule, and inviting someone for football only is not the way to go.

Perhaps Tranghese knows in the back of his mind that a split will happen, and he just prepared for it by inviting Marquette and DePaul, but he won't entertain this in public.

........or perhaps he truly believes this current lineup can succeed in the long run, which is a scary thought if he won't have an open mind about a split possibly happening.

Don't blame Tranghese for this...the bball onlys wanted Depual and Marqutte and in order for UC, UL and USF to be invited for all sports this deal had to be made....the Golden Eagles and Blue Demons give the bball onlys some security that the all Catholic Big East will have most of its membership in place and be fine when the football schools leave

-- the split is in the hands of the football presidents not Tranghese...there is nothing he could to stop it today or in 2010....and he has said many times that he will retire if such a move is made



Jackson

Santa Fe Falcon Wrote:Some fans might particularly react to this line:

"Louisville provides an influx of instant credibility, while Cincinnati and South Florida provide someone else to schedule."

I guess your attempt to trash Cincinnati on the C-USA board because you don't like Mark Dantonio fell to the wayside. The thread got moved to the Smack board where it belongs.

Big East football has operated and scheduled just fine with 8 schools for 15 years. Doing so for 5 more years is not going to kill anyone. After the split in 2010, both the basketball and football schools will become two separate conferences that are free to add whoever they want. Too many posters keep forgetting that this 16-team Frankenstein is 95% likely to be just a temporary discomfort that will be abandoned in 5 years.

KK good post, I agree with you.

There is no doubt in my mind that the 2 will go their separate ways in 2010. I expect the announcement in 07 or thereabouts. That would give the 3 years to work out the details. It would not suprise me if there was a confederation of sorts after the split. The BB schools aren't stupid. They insisted on Depaul and Marquette so when the split happens they have a vaible BB league and won't have to jump through hoops to add members. I wouldn't be suprised to see them add Xavier, Duquesne or both once the split happens to reestablish a presence in Pgh & Cincy. The reality may be for Duquesne might be that they just aren't good enough to be considered.

Shannon Panther Wrote:...I wouldn't be suprised to see them add Xavier, Duquesne or both once the split happens to reestablish a presence in Pgh & Cincy. The reality may be for Duquesne might be that they just aren't good enough to be considered.

I do not see Duquesne in any such mix. You don't need more than eight anyway.

Then again, I don't think the same eight I-A schools you see in 2005 will be together in 2010 anyway.

Mike Tranghese told the Cincinnati Enquirer the other day that the details of a split have already been worked out as a precaution. So we probably shouldn't expect a public announcement until maybe the spring of 2009 actually. Making the process too public could hurt the league's perception and television contracts. The professionals will get everything done behind the scenes next time, unlike what happened the last time.

DFW HOYA Wrote:

Shannon Panther Wrote:...I wouldn't be suprised to see them add Xavier, Duquesne or both once the split happens to reestablish a presence in Pgh & Cincy. The reality may be for Duquesne might be that they just aren't good enough to be considered.

I do not see Duquesne in any such mix. You don't need more than eight anyway.

Then again, I don't think the same eight I-A schools you see in 2005 will be together in 2010 anyway.

And I'm willing to be your very wrong. These 8 schools are the core of the coming return of Eastern Football, hopefully in its most traditional form of UL, UC, RU, TU, PSU, WVU, Pitt, SU, and BC plus UMD, UConn, and USF. And even if its not quite in its most traditional form. The 2010 byproduct will include Temple with these current 8 schools.

brista21 Wrote:

DFW HOYA Wrote:Then again, I don't think the same eight I-A schools you see in 2005 will be together in 2010 anyway.

And I'm willing to [bet] your very wrong. These 8 schools are the core of the coming return of Eastern Football, hopefully in its most traditional form of UL, UC, RU, TU, PSU, WVU, Pitt, SU, and BC plus UMD, UConn, and USF. And even if its not quite in its most traditional form. The 2010 byproduct will include Temple with these current 8 schools.

It's easy now to assume all eight I-A schools will stay united, but past results do not guarantee this.

Remember when Donna Shalala told the Big East Miami had no interest in looking elsewhere, only to say "I obviously didn't say forever"? Remember when Boston College essentially lied to the Big East Council of Presidents that they were not seeking an ACC invite? Syracuse fell one ACC vote short of an invite--would they have turned it down?

The ACC and their friends at ESPN still have a trump card in all this. Twelve is great but if a 14 team deal seals the Eastern seaboard and eliminates the BE as a challenger for BCS rights money, they'll consider it. At that point, how loyal will the remaining schools be to each other?

Some fans like to think that the non-IA schools are the enemy in all this. But the enemies to a true Eastern League are from the schools which jumped ship and the conference which welcomed it.

It all about "Title 9" and BCS now! And this translates into money! The football schools will do what is necessary to keep the BCS status and to earn enought money to pay for Title 9.

Wilkie01 Wrote:And this translates into money! The football schools will do what is necessary to keep the BCS status and to earn enought money to pay for Title 9.

One doesn't have to be in I-A football to pay for Title IX or be in compliance with it. I think all Big East schools, regardless if they're I-A, I-AA, or non-football, will do what is necessary to be Title IX compliant.

DFW HOYA Wrote:

brista21 Wrote:

DFW HOYA Wrote:Then again, I don't think the same eight I-A schools you see in 2005 will be together in 2010 anyway.

And I'm willing to [bet] your very wrong. These 8 schools are the core of the coming return of Eastern Football, hopefully in its most traditional form of UL, UC, RU, TU, PSU, WVU, Pitt, SU, and BC plus UMD, UConn, and USF. And even if its not quite in its most traditional form. The 2010 byproduct will include Temple with these current 8 schools.

It's easy now to assume all eight I-A schools will stay united, but past results do not guarantee this.

Remember when Donna Shalala told the Big East Miami had no interest in looking elsewhere, only to say "I obviously didn't say forever"? Remember when Boston College essentially lied to the Big East Council of Presidents that they were not seeking an ACC invite? Syracuse fell one ACC vote short of an invite--would they have turned it down?

The ACC and their friends at ESPN still have a trump card in all this. Twelve is great but if a 14 team deal seals the Eastern seaboard and eliminates the BE as a challenger for BCS rights money, they'll consider it. At that point, how loyal will the remaining schools be to each other?

Some fans like to think that the non-IA schools are the enemy in all this. But the enemies to a true Eastern League are from the schools which jumped ship and the conference which welcomed it.

Hoya, you're not our enemy, but not being able to expand to at least 9 schools right now, and more in the future is a huge stumbling block for us all.

I hate to see it happen, but the football must split in 2010 in order to survie.