Thegreatone
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B10 to meet tomorrow to discuss expansion
- Thread starter Little Danny
- Start date
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yanks26ngoin
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The Big East or the Big 10 could receive some excellent news soon. According to ESPN CFB's rumor page, Big East football coaches have increasingly asked/told the conference to deliver an ultimatum to Notre Dame, either be a full fledged Big East member and get into the football conference or get out.
Actually this could be great news either way for the Big East. If the conference does indeed deliver this ultimatum, and ND says no, then its out of the conference, and would be forced to join the Big 10, since it can not support itself as an independent for all sports, and the Big 10 would force them to move football into the conference as well, or ND risks all its programs going under outside of football. If Notre Dame joins the Big 10, which could almost be inevitable if the Big East does whats best for the conference and delivers this ultimatum, it would be the only school taken by the Big Ten.
As a result, the Big East Conference is spared big time, and this time gets to go on offense and gets another school to, this time, become an all sports member of the conference.
If this happens, what are the possible choices for the Big East? Could the Big East be able to get Miami or BC back? Does it get someone from the ACC? Or does it go to CUSA, MAC or A10 and gets a school from their?
Actually this could be great news either way for the Big East. If the conference does indeed deliver this ultimatum, and ND says no, then its out of the conference, and would be forced to join the Big 10, since it can not support itself as an independent for all sports, and the Big 10 would force them to move football into the conference as well, or ND risks all its programs going under outside of football. If Notre Dame joins the Big 10, which could almost be inevitable if the Big East does whats best for the conference and delivers this ultimatum, it would be the only school taken by the Big Ten.
As a result, the Big East Conference is spared big time, and this time gets to go on offense and gets another school to, this time, become an all sports member of the conference.
If this happens, what are the possible choices for the Big East? Could the Big East be able to get Miami or BC back? Does it get someone from the ACC? Or does it go to CUSA, MAC or A10 and gets a school from their?
Lobot
Well-known member
And this is why you hire Paul Tagliabue to consult for you. Great Move!
I am fairly certain that you could hire anybody to consult and they would tell you to give ND an ultimatum.
JasonS
Football Moderator
adrock
Well-known member
From what I've been hearing, BC has been wanting to come back to the BEast for the past 2 years. If asked, I believe they would come. In more ways than one.
JasonS
Football Moderator
LOL. Forcing ND's hand could be the best possible thing the Big East could do. I think ND leaves and I think either BC comes back or they go get a UCF or ECU or Memphis. BC would have first refusal I would think.
Little Danny
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I don't buy the BE schools are kicking out ND. First of all, the majority of the 15 other teams would have to approve it. The basketball schools would never allow it as it would give the all sports teams a majority vote on decisions. On the all sports side, Pitt, Syracuse and Rutgers are now praying the BE blows up so they can be off to the B10 or the ACC. It is now in their best interest not to play ball, so to speak.
Even if somehow all the stars are aligned and the BE schools get the guption to kick out the Irish, Notre Dame is going to stay an independant. The only thing that will change that would be if the BCS revokes the ND rule which allows them access to a BCS Bowl Game if they have a certain record.
Even if somehow all the stars are aligned and the BE schools get the guption to kick out the Irish, Notre Dame is going to stay an independant. The only thing that will change that would be if the BCS revokes the ND rule which allows them access to a BCS Bowl Game if they have a certain record.
JasonS
Football Moderator
JasonS
Football Moderator
The only way Notre Dame would stay independent is if another conference would be willing to allow the rest of their sports teams to play but not require football to play in conference as well. I don't see a single conference willing to do that. Brian Kelly was asked about joining a conference on the Dan Patrick show last week (maybe the week before) and he said that they did not want to join a conference but he would not oppose it if the University needed it done for the other sports.
I actually think the Big East is going to blow up regardless of Big 10 expansion. My thought is that, if ND is booted, the basketball only schools are going to split and form their own conference, leaving the other 8 football schools on their own. The Football schools then add up to 4 other schools (BC, ECU, Memphis, UCF come to mind) and get a championship game. The basketball schools (only 7 now) either keep ND, allowing football to stay independent, and add a couple more schools (Xavier, Dayton) or are done with ND and add three schools to get to 10. My guess is the A-10 would be raided.
I think the Big East needs to be proactive and not reactive. Splitting up the league would be good for everyone (except maybe ND) IMO.
Thegreatone
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If the Big East did this it would at least show they are being proactive in trying to save the league.
david aka the TYZ
Well-known member
I said this a few days ago about them needing to be the first to make a move. I know there are contracts involved with being associated with a conference. Does anyone know the current terms of any or all of the Big East teams. I seem to remember when the Big East was raided before BC had to wait an extra year because they were tied in a year longer than the other guys. I completely agree the Big East needs to give ND an ultimatum. Force some hands before your hand is forced, plus I hate ND. And that was before the stole BK from us.
Big10 controls UC's Fate
University of Cincinnati athletic director Mike Thomas says he's not losing any sleep over the possibility of a seismic shift in college athletics - at least not yet.
Thomas is confident the Big East Conference will survive as the home for UC athletics but concedes that at this point, "It's difficult to speculate on what will happen."
Conference realignment has been one of the hottest topics in college athletics, and everyone seems to speculate as to what will transpire.
But at this point, only one thing appears certain: The Big Ten Conference - which could increase its current 11-member configuration to 12, 14, or 16 schools - is calling the shots in this unfolding drama. And what it decides, as early as this December, about expansion could have a major impact on UC and the other Big East schools.
That's why John Marinatto, the first-year commissioner of the Big East, hired former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue as a consultant in an attempt to help position the conference to absorb whatever shock might be coming.
Membership in the Big East has been good to UC, both from a financial standpoint and a competitive standpoint, especially when it comes to football. It allowed the Bearcats to elevate their football program to the point where it played in the Orange Bowl two seasons ago and the Sugar Bowl this year.
"It has branded us in a different way," Thomas said.
Unfortunately for UC and the Big East, there's very little the league could do to protect itself if the Big Ten decides to expand, according to Bill Carr, who heads a search and management consultant firm for intercollegiate athletics.
"They can't prevent it," Carr said. "They can just be prepared to deal with the aftermath."
The Big Ten can offer its members annual payouts of $22 million, compared with the $7 million Big East members receive.
And the Big East has what the Big Ten covets - major Northeast television markets, including five of the nation's top 14. Marinatto sees that as the conference's strength, and Carr agrees. But Carr says it's also what makes Big East teams such an attractive targets for the Big Ten.
Much of the impetus for possible Big Ten expansion is coming from the Big Ten Network, a major revenue source the league is hoping to expand. The best way to do that is to add large television markets, with New York as one of the prime targets.
The Big Ten could accomplish that by plucking Rutgers, across the river from New York City in New Jersey; Syracuse, in upstate New York; or nearby Connecticut - all members of the Big East. It also could pursue the Pittsburgh market, or enhance its national TV appeal by adding Notre Dame, an independent program in football but a Big East member in all other sports.
"The configuration of a Connecticut and a Rutgers in the Big Ten would bring huge numbers in the Northeast," Carr said.
Domino effect
It's not only the Big East that could be affected. Missouri, Nebraska and Texas from the Big 12 all have been mentioned as schools that could be in play once the Big Ten dominoes begin to fall, setting off a chain reaction that could extend to the Pac-10, the Mountain West and even the Western Athletic Conference as the six BCS football conferences attempt to shield themselves from extinction.
"I think every conference except the Big Ten and the SEC (with its CBS/ESPN TV deal) is vulnerable," Carr said. "Those two conferences are the 800-pound gorillas. The sequence is the only difference between the SEC and the Big Ten. The Big Ten's agenda is a little different because they've got a network they're trying to build. They have a whole new paradigm which they're considering."
Marinatto and most of the eight Big East members that play BCS football - UC, Connecticut, Louisville, Syracuse, Pittsburgh, West Virginia, Rutgers and South Florida - derive solace from the fact that the conference prematurely was declared dead just five years ago when Boston College, Virginia Tech and Miami fled for the Atlantic Coast Conference, leaving the Big East with only five football schools.
The Big East responded by raiding Conference USA for UC, Louisville and South Florida for all sports, plus Marquette and DePaul for all sports except football, and has flourished since.
"When we went through this whole situation five years ago, there were so many people who believed it would never work," said Marinatto, who was the league's senior associate commissioner at the time. "There were even some people internally who thought that under its own weight it wouldn't survive because it was too unwieldy, too big. Everyone was talking about the negative. Quite the opposite has been the case. We've done extremely well. I feel like déjà vu in so many ways."
Follow the money
In an attempt to prevent schools from leaving, the Big East rewrote its by-laws in 2005 so that instead of having to wait one year and pay $1 million to leave, a conference member now must wait 27 months and pay $5 million. But with the money to be made from a move to the Big Ten, those requirements are unlikely to dissuade a school from moving.
"If Rutgers and Connecticut have an invitation and can see they're going to get X-million dollars per year and be a part of such a prestigious conference, there's no way the Big East can prevent that from happening because money talks," Carr said.
With Tagliabue at the point, Marinatto said, the Big East is putting everything on the table in an attempt to enhance the league. That includes studying the ramifications of expansion, adding a football championship game and increasing from its current 16 basketball teams to a 20-team league with four pods of five teams each.
The league also is studying the benefits of starting its own television network, despite its close and long-standing relationship with ESPN.
"The Big East and ESPN were both born in 1979, in the same month," Marinatto said. "We've grown up together. We have a terrific long-term relationship with them. We're the oldest partner they have. But we have to analyze what's out here and determine what, moving forward, is the best situation for us."
Carr said it's significant that the Big Ten has hired the Chicago investment firm William Blair & Company to do research.
"They're the resource you go to when you have a big corporation and think about buying other companies and you want to know which are the strongest," Carr said. "That's what they do. With them, it's not an emotional thing or a rah-rah issue. It's dollars and cents."
Ultimately, that's what drives college athletics on the BCS level, with football as the engine.
ACC possible for UC?
Some think Big Ten expansion ultimately could lead to the formation of four 16-team football conferences that will break away from the NCAA, conduct their own national championship and keep the money for themselves.
If that happens, UC's Thomas said, he's confident the Bearcats would be among those 64 schools.
Under one scenario put forth this week in Sports Illustrated, the Big Ten would raid the Big East for two teams and add Missouri and Nebraska from the Big 12, essentially killing the Big East and forcing Notre Dame to align with the Big Ten.
The Atlantic Coast Conference would then add UC, Louisville, West Virginia and Syracuse to complete its version of a super-conference.
But at this point, nothing is guaranteed.
"I don't think there's any way to predict that at this point," Carr said. "It is entirely possible that UC could be left out. UC just got there. It's the last-in, first-out principle. Louisville could be in the same boat. All of those schools could be in the same dilemma. The whole sequence is going to be determined by who is taken by the Big Ten, which direction they try to go, who they take and how many do they take."
Marinatto remains confident the Big East will survive. But for now, these are anxious times for everyone in the conference, especially for Marinatto, whose job is to make sure the Big East can withstand whatever happens.
"My role is to manage the anxieties that exist among our 16 schools while trying to keep a clear head and do what's best for all of our schools," Marinatto said.
In the end, after all the hand-wringing and sky-is-falling, the change to the Big East could be minimal.
As UC basketball coach Mick Cronin said, "I think people are assuming they know what the Big Ten is thinking. Remember, everybody thought the NCAA Tournament was going to 96 (teams). Not one person thought it was going to 68. And it went to 68."
http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20100503/SPT0101/5020389/1064/Big+10+controls+UC+s+fate
University of Cincinnati athletic director Mike Thomas says he's not losing any sleep over the possibility of a seismic shift in college athletics - at least not yet.
Thomas is confident the Big East Conference will survive as the home for UC athletics but concedes that at this point, "It's difficult to speculate on what will happen."
Conference realignment has been one of the hottest topics in college athletics, and everyone seems to speculate as to what will transpire.
But at this point, only one thing appears certain: The Big Ten Conference - which could increase its current 11-member configuration to 12, 14, or 16 schools - is calling the shots in this unfolding drama. And what it decides, as early as this December, about expansion could have a major impact on UC and the other Big East schools.
That's why John Marinatto, the first-year commissioner of the Big East, hired former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue as a consultant in an attempt to help position the conference to absorb whatever shock might be coming.
Membership in the Big East has been good to UC, both from a financial standpoint and a competitive standpoint, especially when it comes to football. It allowed the Bearcats to elevate their football program to the point where it played in the Orange Bowl two seasons ago and the Sugar Bowl this year.
"It has branded us in a different way," Thomas said.
Unfortunately for UC and the Big East, there's very little the league could do to protect itself if the Big Ten decides to expand, according to Bill Carr, who heads a search and management consultant firm for intercollegiate athletics.
"They can't prevent it," Carr said. "They can just be prepared to deal with the aftermath."
The Big Ten can offer its members annual payouts of $22 million, compared with the $7 million Big East members receive.
And the Big East has what the Big Ten covets - major Northeast television markets, including five of the nation's top 14. Marinatto sees that as the conference's strength, and Carr agrees. But Carr says it's also what makes Big East teams such an attractive targets for the Big Ten.
Much of the impetus for possible Big Ten expansion is coming from the Big Ten Network, a major revenue source the league is hoping to expand. The best way to do that is to add large television markets, with New York as one of the prime targets.
The Big Ten could accomplish that by plucking Rutgers, across the river from New York City in New Jersey; Syracuse, in upstate New York; or nearby Connecticut - all members of the Big East. It also could pursue the Pittsburgh market, or enhance its national TV appeal by adding Notre Dame, an independent program in football but a Big East member in all other sports.
"The configuration of a Connecticut and a Rutgers in the Big Ten would bring huge numbers in the Northeast," Carr said.
Domino effect
It's not only the Big East that could be affected. Missouri, Nebraska and Texas from the Big 12 all have been mentioned as schools that could be in play once the Big Ten dominoes begin to fall, setting off a chain reaction that could extend to the Pac-10, the Mountain West and even the Western Athletic Conference as the six BCS football conferences attempt to shield themselves from extinction.
"I think every conference except the Big Ten and the SEC (with its CBS/ESPN TV deal) is vulnerable," Carr said. "Those two conferences are the 800-pound gorillas. The sequence is the only difference between the SEC and the Big Ten. The Big Ten's agenda is a little different because they've got a network they're trying to build. They have a whole new paradigm which they're considering."
Marinatto and most of the eight Big East members that play BCS football - UC, Connecticut, Louisville, Syracuse, Pittsburgh, West Virginia, Rutgers and South Florida - derive solace from the fact that the conference prematurely was declared dead just five years ago when Boston College, Virginia Tech and Miami fled for the Atlantic Coast Conference, leaving the Big East with only five football schools.
The Big East responded by raiding Conference USA for UC, Louisville and South Florida for all sports, plus Marquette and DePaul for all sports except football, and has flourished since.
"When we went through this whole situation five years ago, there were so many people who believed it would never work," said Marinatto, who was the league's senior associate commissioner at the time. "There were even some people internally who thought that under its own weight it wouldn't survive because it was too unwieldy, too big. Everyone was talking about the negative. Quite the opposite has been the case. We've done extremely well. I feel like déjà vu in so many ways."
Follow the money
In an attempt to prevent schools from leaving, the Big East rewrote its by-laws in 2005 so that instead of having to wait one year and pay $1 million to leave, a conference member now must wait 27 months and pay $5 million. But with the money to be made from a move to the Big Ten, those requirements are unlikely to dissuade a school from moving.
"If Rutgers and Connecticut have an invitation and can see they're going to get X-million dollars per year and be a part of such a prestigious conference, there's no way the Big East can prevent that from happening because money talks," Carr said.
With Tagliabue at the point, Marinatto said, the Big East is putting everything on the table in an attempt to enhance the league. That includes studying the ramifications of expansion, adding a football championship game and increasing from its current 16 basketball teams to a 20-team league with four pods of five teams each.
The league also is studying the benefits of starting its own television network, despite its close and long-standing relationship with ESPN.
"The Big East and ESPN were both born in 1979, in the same month," Marinatto said. "We've grown up together. We have a terrific long-term relationship with them. We're the oldest partner they have. But we have to analyze what's out here and determine what, moving forward, is the best situation for us."
Carr said it's significant that the Big Ten has hired the Chicago investment firm William Blair & Company to do research.
"They're the resource you go to when you have a big corporation and think about buying other companies and you want to know which are the strongest," Carr said. "That's what they do. With them, it's not an emotional thing or a rah-rah issue. It's dollars and cents."
Ultimately, that's what drives college athletics on the BCS level, with football as the engine.
ACC possible for UC?
Some think Big Ten expansion ultimately could lead to the formation of four 16-team football conferences that will break away from the NCAA, conduct their own national championship and keep the money for themselves.
If that happens, UC's Thomas said, he's confident the Bearcats would be among those 64 schools.
Under one scenario put forth this week in Sports Illustrated, the Big Ten would raid the Big East for two teams and add Missouri and Nebraska from the Big 12, essentially killing the Big East and forcing Notre Dame to align with the Big Ten.
The Atlantic Coast Conference would then add UC, Louisville, West Virginia and Syracuse to complete its version of a super-conference.
But at this point, nothing is guaranteed.
"I don't think there's any way to predict that at this point," Carr said. "It is entirely possible that UC could be left out. UC just got there. It's the last-in, first-out principle. Louisville could be in the same boat. All of those schools could be in the same dilemma. The whole sequence is going to be determined by who is taken by the Big Ten, which direction they try to go, who they take and how many do they take."
Marinatto remains confident the Big East will survive. But for now, these are anxious times for everyone in the conference, especially for Marinatto, whose job is to make sure the Big East can withstand whatever happens.
"My role is to manage the anxieties that exist among our 16 schools while trying to keep a clear head and do what's best for all of our schools," Marinatto said.
In the end, after all the hand-wringing and sky-is-falling, the change to the Big East could be minimal.
As UC basketball coach Mick Cronin said, "I think people are assuming they know what the Big Ten is thinking. Remember, everybody thought the NCAA Tournament was going to 96 (teams). Not one person thought it was going to 68. And it went to 68."
http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20100503/SPT0101/5020389/1064/Big+10+controls+UC+s+fate
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports....column?page=2
"Sports Illustrated referred to the $22 million as football TV revenue, but I don't think that is right. The Big Ten's ABC/ESPN deal that began in 2007 is worth a reported $1 billion over 10 years. So that's $9 million per school if you go on the (probably faulty) assumption that the deal will not appreciate as years go by (unlike Kosuke Fukudome's contract). The Big Ten Network is believed to have distributed between $7 million-$8 million per school last year. So that total is shy of $17 million.
The Big Ten has declined to confirm the $22 million. What it has released is a figure of $220 million ($20 million per school) for 2010 that covers revenue from national television contracts, bowl games, the NCAA basketball tournament, licensing and the Big Ten Network."
"Sports Illustrated referred to the $22 million as football TV revenue, but I don't think that is right. The Big Ten's ABC/ESPN deal that began in 2007 is worth a reported $1 billion over 10 years. So that's $9 million per school if you go on the (probably faulty) assumption that the deal will not appreciate as years go by (unlike Kosuke Fukudome's contract). The Big Ten Network is believed to have distributed between $7 million-$8 million per school last year. So that total is shy of $17 million.
The Big Ten has declined to confirm the $22 million. What it has released is a figure of $220 million ($20 million per school) for 2010 that covers revenue from national television contracts, bowl games, the NCAA basketball tournament, licensing and the Big Ten Network."
Rutgers to pay stiff penalty for leaving
In 2003, when Mulcahy was the athletic director at Rutgers, he crusaded successfully for a painful loyalty clause that now requires Big East schools to pay a $5 million penalty to leave the conference.
Mulcahy — angry when three other schools bolted to the Atlantic Coast Conference — called the schools “traitors” and questioned the ACC’s ethics. Vowing others wouldn’t leave the Big East without scar tissue, Mulcahy helped write the new rules, which raised the exit fee from the original $1 million.
Of course, now there’s a good chance Rutgers will be the next traitor — if the wealthier Big Ten invites the Scarlet Knights to join.
Mulcahy has stumbled like this before. He over-paid for football coach Greg Schiano and hired basketball coach Fred Hill, who recently resigned after four losing seasons. Hill quit only after the school gave him an $800,000 goodbye kiss.
Mulcahy wasn’t around to clean up the Hill mess because he had been fired as athletic director in 2008.
Now, of all things, the governor has asked Mulcahy to sit on a panel to figure out how to stop the taxpayer bleeding at the Sports Authority, where he served as chairman for many years. Let’s hope he’s learned some lessons in frugality.
http://blog.nj.com/njv_editorial_page/2010/05/big_east_penalty_could_come_ba.html
In 2003, when Mulcahy was the athletic director at Rutgers, he crusaded successfully for a painful loyalty clause that now requires Big East schools to pay a $5 million penalty to leave the conference.
Mulcahy — angry when three other schools bolted to the Atlantic Coast Conference — called the schools “traitors” and questioned the ACC’s ethics. Vowing others wouldn’t leave the Big East without scar tissue, Mulcahy helped write the new rules, which raised the exit fee from the original $1 million.
Of course, now there’s a good chance Rutgers will be the next traitor — if the wealthier Big Ten invites the Scarlet Knights to join.
Mulcahy has stumbled like this before. He over-paid for football coach Greg Schiano and hired basketball coach Fred Hill, who recently resigned after four losing seasons. Hill quit only after the school gave him an $800,000 goodbye kiss.
Mulcahy wasn’t around to clean up the Hill mess because he had been fired as athletic director in 2008.
Now, of all things, the governor has asked Mulcahy to sit on a panel to figure out how to stop the taxpayer bleeding at the Sports Authority, where he served as chairman for many years. Let’s hope he’s learned some lessons in frugality.
http://blog.nj.com/njv_editorial_page/2010/05/big_east_penalty_could_come_ba.html
Matt Hayes (Sporting News) on B10 expansion
How does the Big Ten expansion play out, and what happens to the Big East? Is there any way the Big East keeps (its) BCS spot?
— Sharon Simmons, Boston
Hayes: The problem with the Big Ten's potential expansion—and that's all it is right now—is the process is full of what-ifs and not nearly enough concrete evidence.
The crux of expansion: The Big Ten Network wants to expand its base (see the current Sporting News magazine for an in-depth report). Yet here's the intriguing issue: The BTN already is available on nearly every major cable television provider in the key metropolis of New York City south to Philadelphia (roughly 10 million homes).
So Rutgers—or any other combination of schools not including Notre Dame—joining the Big Ten suddenly will make all of those cable subscribers want to call their local providers and demand the BTN? I'm not buying it.
This whole process is a well-orchestrated maneuver by a proactive, shrewd (and yes, brilliant) commissioner (Jim Delany) doing his best to take one last run at Notre Dame without being publicly rebuked yet again. ND is the golden egg sitting out there; no other school, or combination of schools, can give the Big Ten Network enough juice (subscription revenue, advertising revenue).
By scaring Notre Dame into thinking the Big East will dissolve—and therefore end ND's cushy non-football relationship with the league—the Big Ten is hoping Irish honchos will panic and join to save the program.
I still say the league will stay at 11 and petition the NCAA to play a championship game with fewer than 12 teams. The NCAA will say yes, and everyone can go back to whining and complaining about the BCS. The only way the Big East is affected is if the Big Ten takes multiple teams from the conference.
In that scenario, the Mountain West would get the sixth BCS automatic bid (and could still earn one after this year regardless), and the Big East—as a football league—would be mortally wounded.
How does the Big Ten expansion play out, and what happens to the Big East? Is there any way the Big East keeps (its) BCS spot?
— Sharon Simmons, Boston
Hayes: The problem with the Big Ten's potential expansion—and that's all it is right now—is the process is full of what-ifs and not nearly enough concrete evidence.
The crux of expansion: The Big Ten Network wants to expand its base (see the current Sporting News magazine for an in-depth report). Yet here's the intriguing issue: The BTN already is available on nearly every major cable television provider in the key metropolis of New York City south to Philadelphia (roughly 10 million homes).
So Rutgers—or any other combination of schools not including Notre Dame—joining the Big Ten suddenly will make all of those cable subscribers want to call their local providers and demand the BTN? I'm not buying it.
This whole process is a well-orchestrated maneuver by a proactive, shrewd (and yes, brilliant) commissioner (Jim Delany) doing his best to take one last run at Notre Dame without being publicly rebuked yet again. ND is the golden egg sitting out there; no other school, or combination of schools, can give the Big Ten Network enough juice (subscription revenue, advertising revenue).
By scaring Notre Dame into thinking the Big East will dissolve—and therefore end ND's cushy non-football relationship with the league—the Big Ten is hoping Irish honchos will panic and join to save the program.
I still say the league will stay at 11 and petition the NCAA to play a championship game with fewer than 12 teams. The NCAA will say yes, and everyone can go back to whining and complaining about the BCS. The only way the Big East is affected is if the Big Ten takes multiple teams from the conference.
In that scenario, the Mountain West would get the sixth BCS automatic bid (and could still earn one after this year regardless), and the Big East—as a football league—would be mortally wounded.
http://www.startribune.com/sports/go...:kD:aU1ccmiUiD...
Marlin Levison, Star Tribune
Last update: May 11, 2010 - 7:02 AM
University of Minnesota Athletic Director Joel
Maturi said he "would be shocked" if a Kansas
City radio station report saying the Big Ten had
extended offers to four schools was true.
Citing sources close to negotiations, Sports
Radio 810 WHB reported Monday that the Big
Ten has asked Notre Dame, Missouri, Rutgers
and Nebraska to join the 11-team conference; if
Notre Dame agrees, the report said a fifth school
would be asked to join. The report said Big Ten
officials told sources close to the Missouri Board
of Regents that they'd like to "have the entire
expansion process wrapped up this summer with
a formal announcement coming no later than
July."
Said Maturi: "Then again, I've been shocked
before. I just don't think that Big Ten expansion
is that far down the path. I don't think it is based
on conversations we've had and meetings we've
had."
Nebraska officials issued a statement that the
school "has not been offered any opportunity to
move from the Big 12." The statement said the
school would have no further comment until the
Big Ten announced its plans.
Marlin Levison, Star Tribune
Last update: May 11, 2010 - 7:02 AM
University of Minnesota Athletic Director Joel
Maturi said he "would be shocked" if a Kansas
City radio station report saying the Big Ten had
extended offers to four schools was true.
Citing sources close to negotiations, Sports
Radio 810 WHB reported Monday that the Big
Ten has asked Notre Dame, Missouri, Rutgers
and Nebraska to join the 11-team conference; if
Notre Dame agrees, the report said a fifth school
would be asked to join. The report said Big Ten
officials told sources close to the Missouri Board
of Regents that they'd like to "have the entire
expansion process wrapped up this summer with
a formal announcement coming no later than
July."
Said Maturi: "Then again, I've been shocked
before. I just don't think that Big Ten expansion
is that far down the path. I don't think it is based
on conversations we've had and meetings we've
had."
Nebraska officials issued a statement that the
school "has not been offered any opportunity to
move from the Big 12." The statement said the
school would have no further comment until the
Big Ten announced its plans.
What if Big 10 does nothing?
The SEC has become a counterbalance in the expansion issue. It has basically threatened a mega-expansion of its own if the Big Ten becomes too big, too fast.
So what if nothing happens in conference expansion? Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe considered the question Tuesday and rated the chances of his conference staying together.
"Very high," he said at the conclusion of the first day of the Big 12 spring meetings.
In the Big East, UConn is somebody. In the Big Ten it is "inventory". That's Delany's term for conference games to be bartered over and sold to the highest bidder.
Missouri, a middling football program for most of its history, doesn't figure to rule the Big Ten. What happens to Nebraska's tradition of championships in a 16-team Big Ten?
For all the Michigan-Ohio State games, there are also going to be a lot of Michigan State-Rutgers matchups. Is any of that enough to keep the Big Ten from offering and candidates from accepting? Probably not. The Chicago Tribune reported earlier this year that the Big Ten expects to double its revenue (currently at $22 million per year) in coming years.
The Big 12 probably could get by with 10 teams. (Suggested new conference name: Pure Prairie League.) There suddenly seems to be a lot of money available, even outside the Big Ten. In the next 12 years, Beebe's is only one of three major conferences that have TV deals to renegotiate. The Pac-10 and Big East are the others.
A Big 12/Pac-10 partnership, already in discussions, seems like a no-brainer. If that occurs, there would be no point in Colorado switching leagues. CU's athletic department is rumored to be upside down financially. It might have to fire and buy out Dan Hawkins in less than a year, then spend $3 million (on the low end) to hire a new staff. That's not counting the $5 million-$7 million it would pay to buy out of the Big 1
http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/story/13468269/without-evidence-big-12-commish-has-reasonable-doubt-about-big-ten-growth
The SEC has become a counterbalance in the expansion issue. It has basically threatened a mega-expansion of its own if the Big Ten becomes too big, too fast.
So what if nothing happens in conference expansion? Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe considered the question Tuesday and rated the chances of his conference staying together.
"Very high," he said at the conclusion of the first day of the Big 12 spring meetings.
In the Big East, UConn is somebody. In the Big Ten it is "inventory". That's Delany's term for conference games to be bartered over and sold to the highest bidder.
Missouri, a middling football program for most of its history, doesn't figure to rule the Big Ten. What happens to Nebraska's tradition of championships in a 16-team Big Ten?
For all the Michigan-Ohio State games, there are also going to be a lot of Michigan State-Rutgers matchups. Is any of that enough to keep the Big Ten from offering and candidates from accepting? Probably not. The Chicago Tribune reported earlier this year that the Big Ten expects to double its revenue (currently at $22 million per year) in coming years.
The Big 12 probably could get by with 10 teams. (Suggested new conference name: Pure Prairie League.) There suddenly seems to be a lot of money available, even outside the Big Ten. In the next 12 years, Beebe's is only one of three major conferences that have TV deals to renegotiate. The Pac-10 and Big East are the others.
A Big 12/Pac-10 partnership, already in discussions, seems like a no-brainer. If that occurs, there would be no point in Colorado switching leagues. CU's athletic department is rumored to be upside down financially. It might have to fire and buy out Dan Hawkins in less than a year, then spend $3 million (on the low end) to hire a new staff. That's not counting the $5 million-$7 million it would pay to buy out of the Big 1
http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/story/13468269/without-evidence-big-12-commish-has-reasonable-doubt-about-big-ten-growth
