Start Recruiting BE teams

[EastStang]

You know on all scenarios, USF and Cincy are pretty much left holding the bag in the BE unless the BE expands. CUSA is at 12 teams the MWC at 10. With the hoops schools playing with their food and refusing to make major necessary decisions to save FBS football, if I were USF and Cincy, I would be looking around for a deal. Why not recruit USF and Cincy as football only to a new 24 team mega conference with the western division of the MWC plus UTEP and Tulsa? Since there are no huge buyout fees because the other four don't want to pay them and then get an invite to the better conference, these two schools are really at risk. This would put them in a conference with Boise, SMU, Houston all of which could be BCS busters in the years to come. And CUSA division with USF and Cincy added back in to get back to 12. This might pressure WVU, Louisville, Rutgers and UConn to make some decisions soon as well as the hoops schools in the BE, or make the BE realize that unless they have some bold changes in fortune, their conference will be backfilled with MAC teams, maybe Navy, maybe Army. In other words out of the BCS.

[whitwiki]

I don't understand the 24 team conference. Way too many teams for me. Why not just keep them separate? Or better yet, keep recruiting and form our own league with our own champion.

Would the rest of the NCAA even recognize a title game in that scenario? Maybe if we got enough $$$

[MustangStealth]

I don't understand the 24 team conference. Way too many teams for me. Why not just keep them separate? Or better yet, keep recruiting and form our own league with our own champion.

Would the rest of the NCAA even recognize a title game in that scenario? Maybe if we got enough $$$

Why go to all that trouble when we could just join D1-FCS?

[ponyinNC]

I think the merger idea is a nightmare, but something we may have to do if BE falls apart. We add some horrible teams to an already bottom-heavy conference. BCS access for Rice, Tulane, New Mexico, UNLV??

I would so much rather join the BE with the best of CUSA/MWC, even after Louisville, Uconn, Rutgers and WVU leave. We would drop the bottom feeders and still have Cincy and USF.

BE football could be:
SMU
UH
Boise
AFA
UCF
USF
Cincy
Navy
Temple

[EastStang]

Yes, but if I'm Cincy and USF do I stick around and be the last guys out the door? Won't have the BE name, the Catholic basketball schools keep that and they would block any new admits. I would rather force the others to deal with the issue now, so that they aren't the last ones out the door? Rutgers and UConn are hoping for an upgrade as are WVU and Louisville, but if USF and Cincy give them an ultimatum, and say we're gone if you don't admit these schools, they're no longer a football conference and they have to then look for a new conference home themselves with no leverage at all. My view is that we might be able to use the USF/Cincy fears to force the whole group to make a deal. Remember they're looking to poach from CUSA and the MWC. Two can play at that game.

[smupony94]

Cincy and USF have nowhere to go. Cincy is no longer on Big 12 radar.

[ponyinNC]

they have to move away from the basketball schools unfortunately, which was one of their best selling points.

[ericdickerson4life]

Exactly. You merge the best of what you can under the BE umbrella and fight to maintain AQ status. This is a better scenario than merging CUSA with MWC.

[Pony^]

Would UCF be joining Big East or Big Deceased? League invitation isn't as coveted as it once was

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/201 ... ge-o-leary

"How hilarious would it be if the Big East folds and UCF then blocks USF from getting into the BCS-affiliated Conference USA/Mountain West?

The fact is, joining the Big East is no longer a no-brainer for cash-strapped UCF. In today's economic climate, UCF simply cannot afford to throw away $7 million to join a league that could easily lose its BCS status in the next year or two.

The sad part is that all of this might have been avoided if the Big East leadership had a clue about football. If only they had listened to their football schools months and years ago and tried expand during a time of strength instead of this time of desperation. UCF coach George O'Leary says the league is fading because it has allowed its basketball-only members to call the shots even though the league's football television contract makes most of the money.

O'Leary says he has studied the numbers and found that football "pays 73 percent of the bills" in the Big East. He believes that's why football-basketball combo schools like Pitt and Syracuse have already left and others such as West Virginia, Rutgers, UConn and Louisville would love to leave, too. The only reason USF doesn't have an exit strategy is because nobody wants them.

"I think that's why a lot of the (football) schools have departed because they're carrying the show and too many people with the round ball are making the decisions," O'Leary said a few days ago on his weekly radio show. "People think the Big East is a basketball conference, but it's driven by football money, which is why it's ridiculous for the football-basketball combo schools to put up with what's been going on."

[ponyinNC]

while it would be great to have smu in the big east for basketball, I just don't see how this league can survive without one group (fb or bb) making major concessions. you have to remember with those bb-only schools, this is their entire focus. G'town doesn't care about BCS football and never will.

[BRStang]

I have been advocating the same thing--certain schools from C-USA and MWC need to band together and try to poach other schools to form a new conference that would ultimately qualify as a BCS conference. SMU look at every angle, but if it could, for instance, band together with Navy, AFA, UCF, Houston and Boise, they could collectively try to at least grab USF and Cinci. Then extend an invite to WVU, UCONN, Lville and Rutgers. If they balk, then start looking at other C-USA/MWC potential invitees. SMU needs to be a leader on this, or risk it being one of the "leftovers" itself.

[Pony^]

http://www.nj.com/rutgersfootball/index ... cloud.html

What a mess.

[BRStang]

http://www.nj.com/rutgersfootball/index.ssf/2011/10/big_east_expansion_talks_cloud.html

What a mess.

Yes, posted yesterday.

[smupony94]

http://www.nj.com/rutgersfootball/index.ssf/2011/10/big_east_expansion_talks_cloud.html

What a mess.

Yes, posted yesterday.

three times

[EastStang]

Interesting that USF is one of the schools balking at Boise. That shocks me. Cancel what I said, we don't want to get near that bunch of dundering fools. I get Villanova trashing Temple, they've fought about dominance in Philly for years. And Nova does not want to play Temple in hoops every year. Temple makes any team look bad with its match-up zone.