Big East basketball schools get what they wanted
by On the Banks on Sep 16, 2011 11:46 PM EDT
in Big East Conference
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PrintKeeping the Big East football programs under their thumb in perpetuity was never going to happen. Instead of a light touch, the Providence cabal went in whole hog, perhaps rightly recognizing that they were in no way viable without the undermining half of the league at every opportunity. The eight dwarfs forced an incompetent John Marinatto onto the conference as commissioner, and were determined earlier in this year to not only shoehorn an inept Villanova football program into the conference (aided by a generous subsidy from the other football teams.) As such, Pittsburgh and Syracuse are now flirting with (who else), the ACC, acting presumably in preemptive measures to stave off a looming SEC raid. Guess that talk of raiding Maryland/BC or of colluding with the ACC will all be for naught.
They may be greedy, short-sided, and pathetic, but they were not necessarily stupid; that power play, along with a single-minded determination to sign with ESPN for pennies on the dollar were surely motivated by the fear that this precise scenario would play out. They wanted to lock in one last payday for basketball, with zero concern about upping football revenues through competitive bidding. So no, this isn't BC-esque treachery.The Big East forced Pittsburgh and Syracuse's hand, just as they forced the hand of the six other football programs that would bolt from the conference like rats off a sinking ship. It's no indictment of Big East football. The parties involved made the best of a bad situation considering they were being sabotaged and undermined at every turn from internal enemies.
The Big East isn't dead yet, but with the Big XII on life support, any looming speculators will inevitably start moving on to the next-weakest party. If Eastern Football (tm) is to survive in some form, the eight football schools need to act immediate to force a split in the conference and expand. The ACC is locked into a crummy television deal. The Big East is the only property hitting the market soon, and that makes adding a Kansas or Missouri realistic and feasible in a conference not run by leaders actively rooting against football. Such an all-sports conference would have legitimate negotiating leverage over possible television partners if they added more game inventory, and that remains the only hope if these rumors are true. Maybe, just maybe, this is one last power play to force the issue to a headway. Marinatto has to go and the conference has to split, and these headlines may be the last, best, only hope to force change before it truly is too late.
Update: according to Brett McMurphy, who's practically been a mouthpiece for Marinatto over the past year, Syracuse and Pittsburgh are gone. That's what'll happen when you run the conference as a dictatorship, with half of the members having no say and completely subservient to the other half.
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Just a pipe dream
Think there’s any way that the BE can poach Texas if (when) Oklahoma bolts for the Pac 12 by letting them keep the Longhorn Network and it’s revenues for itself?
Quick! To the Schianocopter
This is ridiculous
The basketball schools did not get what they wanted. Don;t blame them. They bent over backwards for the football schools. Agreeing to expansion where the football schools increased revenue while the hoops barely did. The Big East is a basketball conference that made a football accomodation. Everyone was dying to get in. Anyone who wants to leave should just go. If the football schools were loyal to each other, they should have split and built. But they didn’t want to do that because a.) they didn’t trust each other that all would stay and b.) they didn’t want to lose 18 million television sets located in NY, Philly, DC, Chicago, etc. – the markets where the basketball schools reside. Don’t blame this on the hoops schools. We voted against our interests many tiimes to accomodate football, including bringing in TCU. Even so, the football schools continued to look to walk, and now have. If I’m Rutgers, I’m annoyed at Pitt and Cuse who called you guys partners and then said see ya later.
reply to redmen9194
You don’t get it redmen, Football pays the bills. It is where the money is!.
Come on, forced to add Depaul and Marquette amd having to share our basketball revenue with them in order to get Cinn and LU for football was the lowest of the low put on us by the basketball schools! We should have gotten rid of Seaton Hall and Providence years ago. Just dead weight costing us money.
What were we running a Catholic Charity? (I’m Catholic)
I want Rutgers in the new ACC too. It is better for travel and makes more sense than them Midwest rust belt.. What does Rutgers have in common with Neb?
I get it. What you don;t get is the Big East was a basketball conference that made accomodations for football. And Rutgers has been taking Marquette’s basketball revenue, not the other way around. Same for Seton Hall and Providence. All three have earned basketball credits for the conference multiple times during Rutgers stay here. Rutgers has not earned a DIME for the hoops schools – not one dime. So stop talking about who we should have gotten rid of. It was Seton Hall’s conference from the beginning. It was Providence’s conference from the beginning. Marquette has been a great member for the league. Rutgers has been a feeder, not a producer during it’s entire membership. Twenty years and not one NCAA appearance? I can see why the ACC and Big Ten are fighting to get their invitation to you guys first.
it wasn't their conference
it was Syracuse and Pitt’s conference.
The bottom line is the BE’s choice was either 12/20 or no conference. They chose the latter. The end.
by On the Banks on Sep 18, 2011 10:19 PM EDT up reply actions
No it was their conference too. And they did not choose “no conference” because they are in one – The Big East. Which will continue with or without football. Your silence on my analysis of the massive contributions Rutgers made to the conference and how they dwarfed those of Marquette and Seton Hall speaks volumes.
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