The TV Contract: If you have a camcorder and a $1.50, you could probably procure the next Big East TV contract. TV contract? They're working on it. Let them get their membership issues figured out first.
The History of the Big East membership: The Big East was founded in 1979 as a coference primarily focusing on basketball. It was begun by St. John's, Providence (Providence AD Dave Gavitt was the driving force), Georgetown & Syracuse. They extended invitations to Seton Hall, UConn, Boston College, Holy Cross & Rutgers. Holy Cross & Rutgers would decline invitations.
Villanova joined in 1980.
The seeds for today's demise were sown in 1982 when Penn State applied for membership and was rejected. At this time, Joe Paterno began discussions with Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Rutgers, West Virginia and Temple about forming an East Coast Football Conference. It never came to fruition as questions about revenue sharing and the power of PSU left it a non-starter.
The Big East would invite and accept Pittsburgh as a member in 1982. Some saw this as a rebuke to Penn State for trying to begin its football conference. At the time, Pittsburgh was nearing the end of its glory days in football.
At the end of the 1980s, the Big East decided to become a football conference as well as a basketball conference. This meant bringing in new members who played football as only BC, Syracuse & Pittsburgh played Division 1 football. Miami, Virginia Tech, Temple, Rutgers & West Virginia were added.
Miami joined immediately as full member in all sports. West Virginia and Rutgers joined as full members in 1995. Virginia Tech joined as a full member in 2000. Temple never joined as a full member at this time.
Notre Dame was added as a member in all sports except football in 1995.
By 2003, tensions had emerged between the football and non-football schools. This allowed the ACC to come along and pursue football schools of the Big East. It was a surprise at the time whem commissioner Mike Tranghese announced this was happening. The ACC would eventually take BC, Virginia Tech & Miami. The league would also dismiss Temple for a variety of reasons including not being competetive, bad facilities and poor attendance.
To counter the losses, the league would add Lousiville, Cincinnati and South Florida to replace their football losses and would expand to 16 teams in basketball by adding basketball only schools in DePaul and Marquette. The addittion of the last two seemed puzzling but the thought process was "imprint" and "tv markets".
Though the league never achieved a strong football presence, it seemed the conference was fine, though it had to be known they'd always be targeted should other conferences decide to expand again. When Jim Delany announced the Big 10 would expand, tnat's what happened to the Big East.
Sensing the changing atmosphere, the Big East extended an invite to TCU in 2010 to strengthen their football and again extend its georgraphic imprint in hopes of drawing a better TV deal. Then came armageddon for the Big east as the drive for 16 members began in full earnest a year later. Here's the history:
- On September 17, 2011, the ACC accepted Pittsburgh & Syracuse as full members
- On October 28, 2011, West Virginia departed for the Big 12
- TCU declines the invitation they originally accepted to join the Big 12
- In Decdmber of 2011, the Big East adds Boise State & San Diego State for football only. They also added Houston, SMU & Central Florida as full members with all 5 expected to join the league as full members in 2013.
- On January 24, 2012, Navy was accepted as football only member
- On March 7, 2012, Temple was added as a full sports member 8 years after being kicked out for having a non-competetive football school
- On September 12, 2012, Notre Dame announced it was leaving the conference to join the ACC in all sports except football & hockey.
- On November 20, 2012, Rutgers announced it was joining the Big 10
Should nothing change, doubtful, members in 2013 for basketball would be SMU, Houston, Central Florida, Memphis, Temple, Marquette, DePaul, Providence, Seton Hall, Villanova, Georgetown, St, John's, South Florida, Cincinnati, Louisville and Rutgers (members until 2013-14).
What Hath Expansion Wrought: More than likely, the death of the Big East. When the Big East expanded to 16 teams in 2006 for hoops, most people snickered when in reality, it became the deepest, most competetive conference in America with its nadir in 2010-11 when they sent 11 teams to the dance. Some credited this to shear volume but the fact of the matter was, the conference had a lot of good basketball programs.
Well, since then, Syracuse, Pittsburgh and Notre Dame have left along with Rutgers. It seems likely UConn, Louisville, South Florda & Cincinnati will all be targeted during the next round of realignment and who could blame them for leaving a conference on such shaky ground? When this does happen, the remaining schools will have to decide what to do. The newest members can go forward (SMU, Houston, UCF, Navy, Memphis, Temple) in football along with anyone that gets left behind of the 4 current football schools and Boise State & SDSU and strike out on their own or stay and try and make the Big East work. Does it make sense for them to? They will not be allowed to sit at the boys table when it comes to BCS revenue. Would they be better served to form a super conference that has been discussed between the MWC and the other leftovers? That's for football.
As for basketball, it seems unlikely the current members have any real incentive to remain with an uncertain future. Current members can dissolve the league in a vote should they choose. A core of Georgetown, Villanova, St. John's, Providence, Seton Hall, Marquette and DePaul could be a strong mid-major in major markets. I don't think there is much doubt, the A-10 and these schools have much in common and some type of working patrnership would benefit everyone. Georgetown has been discussed as a 16th team in the ACC in all sports except football.
This March, the Big East will play another conference tournament in New York at MSG. It'll be the end of an era and the end of a great basketball league. And it's not good for the fans of any of these leagues. I think we've all accepted the sham of amateurism. What these super conferences are moving us to, is a true developmental system for the NBA and NFL where the difference between pro and college is negligible.
If you love college sports like I do, this is a shame. Real rivalries are lost and at some point, fans will lose interest in playing schools from 1000 of miles away. All for TV dollars that were there anyway. I fully expect 128 tourney announcement very soon.
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