Big Ten and other Conference Expansion

[BrutusBobcat]

As the weak BCS sister conferences gasp for air, the whole idea of four superconferences with all of the powerhouse schools seems to be rapidly evaporating. The new look ACC doesn't impress me at all -- weak football conference adding two more schools for VT to annihilate doesn't bode well. TCU to the B12-2, with possible additions of Louisville and even Cincinnati ()? Are you serious, Conference USA 2.0?

A&M to the SEC still seems like a mediocre move; at least they were smart enough to pass on Mizzou and Country Roads.

This has just all turned into the kind of mess that gives you some craptastic game like ECU playing Cincinnati in the Cotton Bowl.

The only conference move that was a winner was UNL to the B1G. Colorado to the PAC was probably about equal to the A&M move, and I still don't think Utah is a big boy conference school.

I don't care if conference expansion gets the death penalty now.

 

[MaxBuck]

Yes Virginia, it's all Nebraska's fault!

Dan Beebe: I pushed equal Big 12 deal

Texas, A&M, Oklahoma, Kansas and any other schools who opposed the plan are completely blameless of course.

Beebe needs to quit whining before he comes off as a bitter, clueless loser.


Oops. Too late.

 

[Gatorubet]

Very, very interesting stuff.

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/s...i-tigers-study-outlines-sec-revenue-advantage

 

[Muck]

The new look ACC doesn't impress me at all -- weak football conference adding two more schools for VT to annihilate doesn't bode well.

Increasing their footprint in the NE & filling the massive gap between BC and the rest of the conference is a very good move IMO. If for absolutely no other reason than to thrust a dagger in the Big East's heart.

The ACC just became the top dog in NCAA BB and added two football teams that are down right now but have been historically decent and are a good AD/Coach away from being so again.

TCU to the B12-2, with possible additions of Louisville and even Cincinnati ()? Are you serious, Conference USA 2.0?

TCU isn't a bad addition...not a home run by any means but I think they'll be a solid & productive member of the conference.

I've been one of the harshest critics of the media's ongoing white wash of the joke schedules schools like TCU & BYU have played over the past decade. I have no doubt that if TCU had been in the Big 12 over those years they would have lost 1-3 more games a year on average. That being said TCU has done an excellent job of building a solid athletic department that will allow them to be competitive with BCS schools. No it won't be year after year of 12 win seasons but it's also not going to be the doormat of the SWC again.

So all in all I think it's a solid move and arguably about the best available to them.

Louisville isn't exactly Nebraska BUT they are a school that is dumping tons of money into it's programs and probably has good growth potential.

We'll just snicker at UC.

A&M to the SEC still seems like a mediocre move; at least they were smart enough to pass on Mizzou and Country Roads.

A&M is a blockbuster in a lot of ways. They have a very large & passionate fan base, it's located in amazingly fertile recruiting grounds, the AD is overall stronger than most SEC schools, academically it'll be one of the top schools in the league.

A&M may not be a football king but they are a home run in just about every other aspect.

The only conference move that was a winner was UNL to the B1G. Colorado to the PAC was probably about equal to the A&M move, and I still don't think Utah is a big boy conference school.

Colorado is a good cultural fit and is now in the league they probably are the best fit for, but it's closer to Missouri to the B1G.

Beebe needs to quit whining before he comes off as a bitter, clueless loser.

Oops. Too late.

It's like he's trying to outbeebee FakeBeebee.

Big East's latest expansion possibility: Boise State for football only

Big East officials have discussed the possibility of adding Boise State for football-only, a move that would help the league retain its automatic qualifying status for a BCS bowl bid after the current contract runs out following the 2013 regular season, according to a college official.

The official requested anonymity because he is not authorized to discuss league matters.

.../cont/...

I actually think this might be a good move for the BEast. Gives them some much needed media love and adding BSU for FB only let's them distance themselves from the mess that is the rest of the school.

And when BSUs stay in the spotlight is over it'll make it easier to Temple their ass to the curb.

 

[RugbyBuck]

A&M is a blockbuster in a lot of ways. They have a very large & passionate fan base, it's located in amazingly fertile recruiting grounds, the AD is overall stronger than most SEC schools, academically it'll be one of the top schools in the league.

A&M may not be a football king but they are a home run in just about every other aspect.

Aggie gives the rest of the conference someone to laugh at. They're the Citadel with Texas funding and not so latent homosexual overtones.

 

[TooTall]

The Big East got bamboozled. They are like that fat chick you asked to prom as a fall back plan, and don't end up taking her.

 

[BOFUQUEL]

Why not let The Micky Mouse Group decide witch 4 teams The B1G needs.Maybe we could get back in their good favor, and everyone could make lots of money, and live happily everafter.

 

[jlb1705]

Why not let The Micky Mouse Group decide witch 4 teams The B1G needs.Maybe we could get back in their good favor, and everyone could make lots of money, and live happily everafter.

Then they'll get stuck with a bunch of mickey mouse schools. Besides Nebraska and aTm, those are the only ones that have been moving around.

 

[Woody1968]

Interesting read about ESPiN driving realignment:
http://awfulannouncing.com/2011-articles/october/did-espn-force-accbig-east-realignment.html

...
One quote from a Boston Globe story on Boston College and realignment of the ACC and Big East from BC athletic director Gene DeFilippo has hit the blogs. In a nutshell, Boston College supposedly blocked UConn from being one of the new additions to the ACC to protect their New England turf. (Evidently New England isn't big enough for the both of them, because, ya know, the Northeastern United States isn't big enough for the BC and UConn football programs.) One of the best college football writers, Pete Thamel of the New York Times, also had the quote and broke down the story:


“We always keep our television partners close to us,” DeFilippo told The Globe. “You don’t get extra money for basketball. It’s 85 percent football money. TV — ESPN — is the one who told us what to do. This was football; it had nothing to do with basketball.”

There's several levels at play here, but the sentiment that ESPN TOLD US WHAT TO DO is stunning for an athletic director to admit publicly.

Cont'd ...

 

[PlanetFrnd]

Interesting read on ESPiN driving realignment:
http://awfulannouncing.com/2011-articles/october/did-espn-force-accbig-east-realignment.html

Links to two other good columns referenced in the link above:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/10/s...-down-to-the-next-level.html?ref=ncaafootball

October 9, 2011

Conference Instability Is Filtering Down to the Next Level

By PETE THAMEL

The one remaining domino that can still reset the collegiate conference landscape is the University of Missouri, which is in the process of deciding whether to stay in the Big 12 or defect to the Southeastern Conference. Officials from the Big 12, the SEC and the Big East are all anxiously awaiting the Tigers' decision, as it will largely dictate the futures of their leagues.

One interesting and relatively recent reverberation of realignment is that the same anxiety that exists at much of the major conference level appears to be filtering down to leagues outside the Football Bowl Subdivision...

...Conflicts of Interest
An article in The Boston Globe on Sunday became the talk of college athletics, as it reported just how brazen and blatant Boston College's blocking of Connecticut's move to the Atlantic Coast Conference was.

"We didn't want them in," Boston College's athletic director, Gene DeFilippo, told The Globe. "It was a matter of turf. We wanted to be the New England team."

The most stunning comment in the article was DeFilippo's public admission that ESPN guided the A.C.C.'s decision to add Syracuse and Pittsburgh last month. "We always keep our television partners close to us," DeFilippo told The Globe. "You don?t get extra money for basketball. It's 85 percent football money. TV - ESPN - is the one who told us what to do. This was football; it had nothing to do with basketball."

DeFilippo's comments give credence to the popular theory that ESPN encouraged Pittsburgh and Syracuse's exit from the Big East in the wake of the Big East's turning down ESPN's billion dollar television deal in May during an exclusive negotiating window. ESPN has a billion dollar deal with the A.C.C., making that move either savvy business or collusion, depending on one's perspective...

http://articles.boston.com/2011-10-09/sports/30261029_1_acc-officials-expansion-bcs

Power move by ACC
October 09, 2011|By Mark Blaudschun, Globe Staff

The Atlantic Coast Conference's expansion to 14 teams with the inclusion of Pittsburgh and Syracuse from the Big East is being portrayed as a simple move to expand its footprint in the Northeast. Like almost all of the other moves in conference expansion over the past few years, it is also driven by the football-dominated television contracts - reaching into the billions of dollars - that have been negotiated with the Bowl Championship Series conferences.

And while ACC officials say that is the main reason for the expansion, there is also a strong sentiment that this was also a basketball decision.

According to sources in the Big East and ACC, the idea is to reestablish the ACC as the preeminent conference in college basketball and was a predatory strike at the Big East, which, while struggling to improve its BCS rankings in football, had established itself as the runaway leader in basketball.

The ACC's action reestablished the conference's power base in the Tobacco Road area of North Carolina, where Duke and North Carolina have reigned for years as its most influential forces. In this instance, it was the voices of Duke Hall of Fame basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski and athletic director Kevin White that rang the loudest.

It also demonstrated the growing influence of Boston College, if not as an athletic power, then as a strong character in a passion play of intrigue, negotiations, and power moves - one of which was to successfully block Connecticut?s potential membership in the ACC.

BC athletic director Gene DeFilippo, who was part of the 12-member ACC expansion committee, adamantly denied that the move was dictated by basketball interests, but he did concede that the effects of it may boost that sport more than football.

"It had nothing to do with basketball," said DeFilippo. "It was football money which drove expansion. It was football money and securing our future."

DeFilippo said the move was dictated in part by the expansion of the Southeastern Conference to include Texas A&M, which prompted the Big 12 to inquire about Pittsburgh, which is in the Northeast, an area in which the ACC felt it necessary to expand.

"We wanted new playmates and we wanted Eastern playmates,?" said DeFilippo. "When the Big 12 inquired about Pittsburgh, we asked, 'Why let them come into our area?...

Also, Big East focused on 12 football teams: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/11/s...-to-12-football-members.html?ref=ncaafootball ; Navy, Air Force, Temple, Central Florida and East Carolina all listed as targets...

 

[ScriptOhio]

Great idea for a TV soap opera:

 

[broken24]

UCF coach: ?Everything in place? for Big East move

UCF to save the Big East!!:!

 

[Woody1968]

UCF to save the Big East!!:!

Heh Heh, everything is in place...except, you know, an actual invite.

 

[knapplc]

Guys, guys, wait! You've got it all wrong. DeFilippo didn't really say that ESPN was the puppetmaster in the latest expansion decisions. That was a mistake:

AD Apologizes for Saying ESPN Influenced Expansion

Boston College Athletic Director Gene DeFilippo has sent a letter of apology to the presidents and ADs of the Atlantic Coast Conference for saying in a newspaper interview that ESPN told the league to add Pittsburgh and Syracuse.

Boston College released DeFilippo's short letter on Tuesday. In it, he apologizes for "any negative effects caused by my recent interview with a Boston Globe reporter."

He adds that he "spoke inappropriately and erroneously regarding ESPN's role in conference expansion."

See? You've got it all wrong. ESPN is completely blameless in this matter. No need at all for anyone to get all lawyered up now.

 

[jlb1705]

Guys, guys, wait! You've got it all wrong. DeFilippo didn't really say that ESPN was the puppetmaster in the latest expansion decisions. That was a mistake:



See? You've got it all wrong. ESPN is completely blameless in this matter. No need at all for anyone to get all lawyered up now.