Big East Back In Business

[DFW HOYA]

Some late night thoughts from the whirlwind of conference news postings late this evening:

1. Big East football lives another day. if this proves true and the conference is united (sans UConn), it's the biggest bullet dodged by Georgetown since John Thompson passed on becoming coach at Oklahoma in 1980.

OK, so UConn is playing hard to get, but you've got six schools on board with a green light to find as many as six more. Does the Big East continue to look west (Kansas, K-State)? Save three spots in the basketball alignment by taking the academies football only? What about ECU? For that matter, what about Villanova? Does it push its luck by proposing an ND-style offer to Texas?

Well, at least there are questions to pursue and not the last four days of ESPN writing its obituary....which won't be forgotten at contract negotiation time.

2. Does Syracuse get buyer's remorse? Offers get accepted. Offers can get recanted, too. Pitt won't do it, of course, but who knows, Syracuse could win back some fans in the conference by trading with UConn for a seat at the BE table.

3. The Big 12 is off the respirator, but for how long? A Missouri move leaves eight and who else is in the vicinity that can put up with Texas?

4. Did the Big 10 signal the Pac-12 to put on the brakes? After all, they can always add down the road--did they really want texas Tech and Ok-State in their hallowed hallways?

5. Are all eight "basketball schools" in the clear? We assume so, but if this latest retooling with football comes with some pressure on the bottom tier to move up or out, DePaul and PC should be on guard.

6. If Pitt the ACC tries to foist its tournament into the Garden one season, does the Big East move its to Greensboro? More to the point, do they give ECU or UCF a more serious look as a thorn in the ACC footprint?

7. Do the collective chest pains forced upon Georgetown athletics this week finally, FINALLY convince people at GU to get its facilities plan fast-tracked?

[MCIGuy]

The key point is #7.

Another key point which I will add to the mix is that if somehow the BE stays together, Gtown needs to have backup plans on the ready if things fall apart immediately or (inevitably) down the road. Gtown has to stop being reactive and more proactive. Easier said than done? Yes, but still true nonetheless. Which takes me back to #7....if you want to be taken seriously as a respectable athletic power then you need to at least look the part.

[Bando]

If I've learned anything during this realignment, it's that the football schools will eventually leave us. It can be delayed, but it's inevitable. We need to have a ready backup plan, we need to up the cost of leaving substantially (calling basketball-only seed money), and we need to make sure the basketball schools are in a position to keep the conference name.

Er, or what MCIGuy said (sorry, didn't see that before posting)

[kghoya]

Add Memphis.

Also why doesn't Texas just become an independent?

[TC]

Sept 20, 2011 23:56:21 GMT -5 DFW HOYA said:

2. Does Syracuse get buyer's remorse? Offers get accepted. Offers can get recanted, too. Pitt won't do it, of course, but who knows, Syracuse could win back some fans in the conference by trading with UConn for a seat at the BE table.

No way. If anything, this has proven how inevitable the split is and the fact that they are talking about a MSG conference final proves what a player Syracuse is going to be in this conference.

[Ranch Dressing]

Ugh. There is no long-term vision in this scenario. I view it to be worst case.

TCU an academic institution? Laughable. I'm getting pretty jazzed for the road trip to Waco.

[fsohoya]

This thread title really needs to end with a question mark. I mean, do you trust any of the football schools? I sure don't trust Rutgers or UConn (I know the latter hasn't recommited to the BE). And WVU would bolt in a second if someone would take them. If we are out of the immediate woods we definitely need to make facilities an absolute priority and have solid contingency plans for lots of scenarios, but I'm hardly convinced we're out of those immediate woods.

[SirSaxa]

The story now says the Service academies are being targeted ARMY, NAVY and AF.

Does anyone think that might be politically driven? Get Congress behind the Big East? It would be a smart idea.

No, I don't trust UCONN... they are gone.
But the remaining schools need to put something behind their pledge. Kind of the "Trust, but verify" idea. Make them all sign a very serious commitment letter.

OH, and JT3, Kirby and the rest... sign some big time players! Now!

[RusskyHoya]

As best I can tell, the operative logic goes something like this:

The football schools got together, surveyed their options, and looked at where they had the most leverage. If the Big East falls apart and they attach themselves to other conferences piecemeal, like refugees, their power is relatively limited. All the other conferences have existing power structures: the ACC is run by Duke and UNC, the BigTen is controlled by the Columbus-Ann Arbor-State College axis. The result of this option is being a medium-sized fish in a big pond that contains sharks - if they even want you (see WVU).

On the other hand, keeping together the Big East gives the (more or less united) football schools heavy leverage. They can use that leverage to invite 3 more football playing schools - say UCF (no reason they can't meet or exceed USF), Memphis (obvious reasons), and Houston (football-mad Texas, massive media market, Phi Slamma Jamma history). Now they control the machinery of the league, which conveniently already exists (no transition costs, existing contracts and institutions, history, etc.).

Based on earlier negotiations with ESPN on a TV deal, they likely understand that you don't actually need 16 football playing schools to get a good deal. The 8 non-football schools can help fill out the rest of a Big East Network's programming just as well as six football playing ones. Well, perhaps not just as well, but at that point ratings start to become fairly marginal anyway (SEC gymanstics! Be there!).

Certainly there is some disadvantage to having 3 fewer football games each week, but the counterbalance to that is control of the Big East basketball brand. Throw that in the pot, get a deal no worse than any other league, then make sure the revenue-sharing agreement privileges the football-playing schools. Now you get a bigger slice of the pie than you would otherwise, and ultimately you run the show.

[SirSaxa]

Good points Rusky, and... Thanks again DFW... excellent reporting!

[fsohoya]

This sure doesn't give me a warm-fuzzy:

brett-mcmurphy.blogs.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/29532522/32150361

If accurate, it appears everyone is looking for options and the commissioner is just taking them at their word when they say "we are totally committed." And is Nova really serious about upgrading to FBS football, or is that just a bargaining chip to get the football schools to keep them around a little longer?

As for adding Navy and possibly others, if that has been in the works for a while, and looked promising, why would Pitt and 'Cuse have left? It seems that would have added some significant stability to football.

[Ranch Dressing]

Nice write-up Russky. The leverage you referenced in your post is control that football schools ultimately will wield in a hodgepodge conference against the non-basketball schools. Meaning, Georgetown will be beholden to schools who ultimately do not have their best interests in mind.

As I've expressed, the quicker we can extract ourselves out of this morass, the better.

[hoyabinx]

My head is spinning and I don't think we are out of the woods yet.

This is my favorite part: Cuse and Pitt will be with us for the next 3 years. If they had been open about all of this and said they were in negotiations, I would have had no problem whatsoever. It is obviously a move to a more stable league. However, given that they gave everyone in the country a coronary from jumping so quickly, make 'em stay and get as much ticket revenue out of them before they leave. Also, it gives them and the ACC a lot of time to think about it.

[Dhall]

1. Georgetown doesn't belong in a conference with football schools, but it is the best outcome for now until a better home can be found.

2. Facilities are totally irrelevant to anything that is going on now. Our basketball facilities are very attractive to other schools/conferences because the stadium holds 17k+ as a pro arena. If we played football, the football facilities would definitely be relevant. But we don't and never will, so they aren't.

[fsohoya]

Sept 21, 2011 8:09:58 GMT -5 Dhall said:

1. Georgetown doesn't belong in a conference with football schools, but it is the best outcome for now until a better home can be found.

2. Facilities are totally irrelevant to anything that is going on now. Our basketball facilities are very attractive to other schools/conferences because the stadium holds 17k+ as a pro arena. If we played football, the football facilities would definitely be relevant. But we don't and never will, so they aren't.

Facilities absolutely do matter financially, and more important, we will need something smaller than Verizon if we end up playing several smaller schools that won't fill all Verizon's seats. Heck, we could use that now for much of our OOC schedule.

[FromTheBeginning]

TCU is in Fort Worth ( DFW is a top 10, if not top 5 media market), not Waco - Baylor is in Waco. TCU is a lot better academic institution than a lot of the Big East's current members.

[bmartin]

I think the Pac 12 had resistance from several current members. While they said they were concerned about Oklahoma and Oklahoma State's academics, it is more likely that the real issue is that there is no way in a 16 team league for every team to play two football games in California where they do most of their recruiting.

When Arizona, ASU, Oregon, OSU, Washington, WSU realized they would be giving up a trip to LA or the Bay area for a trip to Norman or Stillwater or Lubbock, Oklahoma did not look like such a good catch. Plus, who in their right mind wants to be a conference with Texas?

[RockawayHoya]

Sept 21, 2011 0:25:03 GMT -5 MCIGuy said:

The key point is #7.

Another key point which I will add to the mix is that if somehow the BE stays together, Gtown needs to have backup plans on the ready if things fall apart immediately or (inevitably) down the road. Gtown has to stop being reactive and more proactive. Easier said than done? Yes, but still true nonetheless. Which takes me back to #7....if you want to be taken seriously as a respectable athletic power then you need to at least look the part.

+1

Even if the BE survives this round (which is still not a slam dunk by any means necessary but is looking more likely now than it did 24 hours ago), you know four schools will try to leave at the drop of a hat the next time things go south: WVU, UConn, RU and Nova.

Just a hypothetical thought (this has less than a 1 in a billion chance of happening): let's envision a scenario where the GU administration woke up this morning and realized they had to commit to athletics, start to fund full scholarships to field a competitive football team, begin modernizing facilities, etc. Money fell from the sky, zoning restrictions were magically lifted, and no internal obstacles stood in their way.

Sometime in the next 5 years (and probably sooner), conference realignment and poaching of teams are going to happen again. Would we have a D-1 program up and running at that point in time that would be accepted to one of these other mega conferences? I think we all know the answer to that question.

[hoyabinx]

After reading the CBS article, I am not confident this is over. Not confident at all:

“Part of the purpose of the meeting was getting everyone’s commitment,” Marinatto said. “At some point, you have to take people at their word.” Marinatto said the membership discussed increasing the withdrawal fee from $5 million.

“I don’t know if there’s a price you can put on for breaking your word and lying,” Marinatto said. “That’s priceless. I don’t know high enough of a figure to charge for being disloyal or untruthful.”

Why not make teams put their money where there mouth is? Because the teams wouldn't agree to it, that's why.

brett-mcmurphy.blogs.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/29532522/32150361

[jackdog74]

Wholeheartedly agree with the facilities upgrade needing to be done right now. The other thing, let's be honest -- even in the wake of the President's comments, we have to put together a long-term plan to get to the FBS level in football in ten years. Whether we like it or not, the only way to avoid the heartburn created by these moves based on football, is to get a football team that can compete in a major conference. Granted, I'm not looking for a BCS bowl, but the only sure-fire way to protect basketball is to build up football.