Big East expansion timetable

[Southland]

Big East confirms it won't expand until 2005-2006 school year.

<A HREF="http://espn.go.com/ncf/news/2003/0710/1579072.html" TARGET=_blank>http://espn.go.com/ncf/news/2003/0710/1579072.html</A>

[The PonyGrad]

Sure, thats more BCS dough to divde among those remaining schools. A nice piece of change. They will need to add some for the following years to try and hold that BCS bid.

[Hoop Fan]

But that doesnt mean that invites won't be issued in the near future. As much as they want to maximize revenue per school, the Big East would be foolish to sit in limbo without announcing expansion very soon. Recruiting will suffer the longer they wait to invite Lousiville and affirm Notre Dames partial affiliation.

[Southland]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Hoop Fan:
<B>But that doesnt mean that invites won't be issued in the near future. As much as they want to maximize revenue per school, the Big East would be foolish to sit in limbo without announcing expansion very soon. Recruiting will suffer the longer they wait to invite Lousiville and affirm Notre Dames partial affiliation.</B></font><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

agreed, but this lets you know that our school is going to be either (a) in CUSA, (b) in a regional conference, (c) in the WAC with TCU, Tulane and Houston, or (d) up s*it creek by 2005. We'll probably know the answer by June 2004.

[OldPony]

Big East can't afford to wait until 2004 I don't think. More proactive conferences could grab off a couple of schools or the members of BE (or other conferences) who fear being left behind may vote a higher withdrawal fee to force action (or maybe better put-inaction) on those who might leave. Conferences can pretty much make up some rules as they go along. I would think the penalty for early withdrawal might fit into the category which majority rules. Can anyone confirm that?