Interesting Article which could open doors into C-USA

[Thor444]

http://bonesville.net/Articles/Denny...107_OBrien.htm

PART ONE OF TWO PARTS
Opportunity may dictate Big East expansion

Editor's note: This is the first article in a two-part examination by senior columnist Denny O'Brien of the dynamics that will influence Big East Conference decision makers as competitive factors and market forces prod them to consider league expansion. In part two, which will be published next Monday, O'Brien will analyze the likely criteria and logical candidates for membership.

Slowly but surely, the major players in Big East football are getting it.
First there was Pittsburgh athletics director Jeff Long. He caved over a year ago, citing the difficulties of finding five non-conference opponents to fill a 12-game schedule.
Next it was West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez, the poster boy for Big East football. Having completed two seasons with the league's new configuration, he recently expressed his displeasure with the current setup during a radio interview.
Their conclusion? The Big East must expand its undersized football membership.
It's an idea that's been debated since the conference added Cincinnati, Louisville, and South Florida to replace the three ACC defections. With the national trend moving towards the super conference setup, many have insisted the Big East simply can't sit tight with eight football members.
Can the Big East survive in the long run as an eight-team football conference? Absolutely. As long as it has automatic access to the Bowl Championship Series, its member schools will continue making sizeable deposits into their athletics coffers.
But this isn't a question about survival. The pressing issue the Big East faces is the fact that it isn't maximizing its monetary potential, and it's the league's undersized football membership that is holding it back.
Take the ACC for example. Conference Commissioner John Swofford didn't add Boston College, Miami, and Virginia Tech just for jollies. With the league's television rights coming up for bids, he knew that the only way to gain bargaining power was to add appealing football markets to sell the TV suits.
It worked, too. If you haven't seen the ACC's television schedule, just take a peek at the slate for Sept. 8, a day on which eight league games are scheduled for TV.
And Swofford is likely to spend that day somewhere in a luxury box counting his deposit slips.
Think Big East Commissioner Mike Tranghese can relate to that? Hardly. Aside from the annual paycheck from the BCS, there isn't another source of revenue that remotely compares to those the ACC, Big XII, Big Ten, PAC-10, or SEC have been able to secure.
Truthfully, it's highly unlikely the Big East will ever compare financially to those leagues outside of adding Notre Dame to the football roster. But the chances of that happening are as good as filmmaker Michael Moore joining the John McCain campaign.
Even so, that doesn't mean the Big East can't position itself for a better overall payday. And the first step in doing so is adding a ninth football member.
That's at a minimum. If Tranghese really wants to milk the cash cow, increasing the membership to 12 is the path to take. Otherwise he couldn't package a league championship game into the next television contract.
Adding four markets and a title game drives the Big East's price high enough to more than compensate for the extra mouths it must feed. Not only does it up the ante on the bidding war between interested networks — it also opens the door for more financially rewarding partnerships with deep-pocketed sponsors.
Not to mention it generates opportunities to secure more bowl guarantees. Sitting tight doesn't.
Some AD's don't like the current Big East setup because of the migraines associated with filling a five-game non-conference docket. Coaches don't like it because seven league games creates a competitive imbalance.
Big East administrators shouldn't like it because it far from maximizes the bottom line.
The logical way to cure these deficiencies is to add more seats to the table.

[StrayDawg]

If they were to expand to 12 football teams, then CUSA would lose almost all of its current appeal.

But, assuming they only take one football playing school, who do you think it would be? Memphis could be competetive in football, and basketball would fit right into the Big East. But, geographically East Carolina makes more sense, and ECU has been trying to position themselves for this for quite sometime.

[johnnylightnin]

Only way Memphis takes that deal is if there is some under-the-table promise of full membership within 3-5 years. ECU would accept as a football only unconditionally.

[DONW]

I'd pick Memphis, ECU, UCF, and Marshall. If they only add one, it will be Memphis.

[johnnylightnin]

I'd pick Memphis, ECU, UCF, and Marshall. If they only add one, it will be Memphis.

The deal is, they won't be adding an all-sports member. In all liklihood, the basketball only schools wouldn't vote for an additional all-sports member. If it's football only, only the football schools are required to vote the team in. That's why I say ECU. They'd take football-only with no strings attached. I don't don't believe Memphis would.

[9701Dawg]

what about army and navy? Will they remain indies?

[johnnylightnin]

what about army and navy? Will they remain indies?

I think Army could be lured, but I'm not sure they add anything to the BE. Navy has a Notre Damesque fan base (to a much lesser extent obviously) and they don't really need conference affiliation. There are several bowls that will take them if they are eligible and they get to keep everything they make. Navy's football is strong enough for consideration...I don't think Army's is.

[JAY]

i think ecu will (and would have all along) take a football only deal and put their other sports in the colonial (which conveniently has 11 teams)


ucf would be another good football only candidate, not sure where they would put their other sports. they may be a little more commited to other sports than ecu since they have been shelling out the $$$ for facilities.

marshall will surely be blocked by wvu, unless the state legislature gets involved, like when vatech got in the acc.

temple would be the logical choice for football only, because thats what they used to be. they wouldnt take quite the same pounding they did when miami, b.c., and vatech were there.

no way memphis takes football only.


if they go 12, it would be memphis, ecu, ucf, and then either marshall or temple.


they had talked about navy and army splitting the 9th football spot, with each team playing two home and two awaygames. i dont know why that didnt work out, it made a lot of sense.

[The Historian]

Here's the original quote From Pitt AD Jeff Long in the (3/2/06) Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

There is a growing sentiment among Big East schools to add a ninth member for football only. The idea was thought to be dead, but scheduling issues revived it. "Now that we know what we're dealing with and what the reality is and the challenge is out there, there are some minds that are changing," Long said. "The reality is, it is very difficult to try and schedule five non-conference football games every year."

Could Central Florida or East Carolina end up in the Big East playing football only with their other sports in a conference other than CUSA?

[The Historian]

In a discussion in 3/06 about Big East expansion, I posted most of the following. I still think it holds true today.

Expand by 1 school or 4 schools?

I think the Big East basketball schools will split beginning with the 2010-2011 academic year, the year after the current TV contract runs out. What I don’t know is how the football schools will want to proceed in adding members, whether to add one or four new schools. While they stand to lose at least $1 million per year in revenue without a football championship game, going to 9 rather than 12 members has a lot of advantages.

• If you added UCF as a football only member and stayed at 8 for all other sports, you would protect the league’s basketball RPI, which would be hurt as much by adding UCF, East Carolina, and Marshall as much as it would be helped by adding Memphis. It would also allow those 8 schools more leeway in non-conference scheduling.

• By adding UCF as a football only member, the Big East football schools would add their TV market and probably get the same benefit, if not close to it, financially from a TV deal with or without having to add their other sports, as well. I don’t know if adding Marshall, Memphis, and East Carolina would really add so much more that it would be worth splitting the total TV revenue pie another three ways.

[The Historian]

This was also from the discussion in 3/06. I don't think anything has changed here, either. If one school is added, UCF is the logical choice.

Which school is the logical choice?

• I don’t think East Carolina is going anywhere, but to their credit they’ve done everything in their power to make themselves as attractive as possible from a facilities standpoint. But they’ve never been a men’s basketball power, to say the least, and they’re football program is still suffering from the end of the Bill Lewis era.

• The Big East might have an interest in Navy, but Navy has been able to implement a formula that has gotten them to bowl games without having to be in a conference. The money that would be on the table would not be as important in Annapolis as winning.

• Marshall will either be helped or hurt by WVU, much like Virginia Tech was helped in its ACC bid rather than hurt by Virginia.

• Memphis would obviously be a basketball power and would be a big men’s RPI boost. I don’t know if it would happen in the next six months for several reasons. 1) They’re not in the Big East’s footprint geographically and with USF in Tampa, UCF is in that footprint. 2) They don’t bring the TV market Orlando brings to the table. 3) They will insist upon an all-sports membership, which is something UCF won’t do.

• UCF will accept a football only membership if it were to come from the Big East either in the spring or summer. They have also been lobbying for it like there’s no tomorrow since they were turned down for a football only membership in 2003. In the next six months, they are the logical choice.

[Bigdog13]

The logical choice is for the football playing schools to split from the basketball only schools. Then the football schools can cherry pick the 4 more teams they need. Adding Memphis will somewhat help make up for the loss of the basketball schools.

UConn.
W. Virginia
UCF
Memphis
Marshall
Syracuse
Louisville
E. Carolina
Pitt.
Cincinatti
S. Fla.
Rutgers

I think that is a pretty good football and basketball conference. Definetly good enough to get a few NCAA tourney credits and retain AQ BCS status in football.

BTW, it also almost assures us of CUSA membership. But even if I had no rooting interest for it I still think it is the best for all of the teams involved.

[9701Dawg]

The logical choice is for the football playing schools to split from the basketball only schools. Then the football schools can cherry pick the 4 more teams they need. Adding Memphis will somewhat help make up for the loss of the basketball schools.

UConn.
W. Virginia
UCF
Memphis
Marshall
Syracuse
Louisville
E. Carolina
Pitt.
Cincinatti
S. Fla.
Rutgers

I think that is a pretty good football and basketball conference. Definetly good enough to get a few NCAA tourney credits and retain AQ BCS status in football.

BTW, it also almost assures us of CUSA membership. But even if I had no rooting interest for it I still think it is the best for all of the teams involved.

I really hope that if we get into CUSA, Memphis is still there. It keeps the conference stronger in basketball and prevents another BCS school from being in our recruiting area.

[Bigdog13]

I really hope that if we get into CUSA, Memphis is still there. It keeps the conference stronger in basketball and prevents another BCS school from being in our recruiting area.

I do too. But if I were a football playing member of The Big East I would want the conference I just outlined instead of an unwieldly 16 team BBall conference and a small 8 team football conference.

[Thor444]

Considering how much ECU is pouring into facilities and playing games against Big East teams, I think there is a plan or at least some type of thought process of moving to the Big East. I think if there are additions ECU is in. I think Navy could be another team in the mix as well. (BTW their coaches visited WVU several times this Winter) Possibly some MAC teams could be involved as well the longer this goes. Many of the MAC schools are upgrading their facilities like mad. A team that I know won't be involved is Marshall. As long as WVU is in The Big East it will NEVER happen. There are also some hard feelings among Big East schools toward UCF, but with South Florida in the Big East they would have a natural rival that could change minds about whats best for the conference. Also their new stadium could help them in as well.

There has been some rumors floating around in Morgantown that there are some teams in the ACC that is thinking about where they fit in the ACC and they feel they are not a good fit, so who knows about that.