[JK37]

Here's an article for all you Big East fans (me included).

http://www.projo.com/pc/content/Big_Eas ... 8c163.html

Not a lot of new information, but a good update on proceedings. And, a couple things I wasn't aware of, such as Congressional involvement, and the connection made last week between UConn and Illinois.

[JK37]

How good a case does Rutgers really have for the Big Ten? How much do they even care about their current conference?

The Big Ten Flirts With Rutgers
With a 5-Year Bowl Streak and Ties to the New York TV Market, the Knights are Shinier Than Ever

By DARREN EVERSON And ADITI KINKHABWALA

Rutgers doesn't have much of a championship tradition, to put it mildly. Its stadium doesn't seat 100,000—more like half that. And it's not exactly driveable to Iowa City, unless you've got 17 hours to kill.

But the school makes more sense in the Big Ten than you may think.

Click Here for Story

[JK37]

How well do you know the Big Ten's leader, Jim Delany?

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports ... enDocument

[Sly Fox]

Yeah, the comparisons to Kyle are almost uncanny.

[flamesbball84]

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball ... 12meetings

After daylong discussions regarding the possible breakup of the Big 12, a scheduled news conference was abruptly canceled, fueling speculation that the 12 schools are far from agreement.

A short time earlier, Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione had indicated the member schools did not reach the unity that many had hoped these meetings would achieve.

Perhaps also complicating the process was a report out of Texas on Thursday afternoon that the Pac-10 might invite six Big 12 schools to join and form two eight-team divisions. Some Big 12 and Pac-10 officials met informally several few weeks ago to discuss a possible scheduling and television alliance between the leagues.

[SumItUp]

http://www.buffzone.com/ci_15222068

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Colorado athletic director Mike Bohn said he and other school officials have been led to believe the Pac-10 Conference is on the verge of issuing invitations to six members of the Big 12 to join its ranks.

Bohn said CU has not had any contact with the Pac-10 or its representatives and he was not clear on how he came to believe invitations could be forthcoming. But he said Colorado, Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech could receive invitations possibly as soon as this weekend when Pac-10 officials meet in San Francisco.

"The longer that we were together in Kansas City it appeared that that rumor or speculation did have some validity to it," Bohn said in an
University of Colorado Athletic Director, Mike Bohn, talks to reporters about the search for a new CU men's basketball coach on April 14, 2010 in Boulder. Cliff Grassmick / April 14, 2010 ( CLIFF GRASSMICK )
interview with the Camera as he left the Big 12 spring meetings here today.

[LUconn]

Wow. KU is screwed. Didn't see that coming.

[WinthropEagleFan]

I really don't like this obsession by all of these conferences to get to 16 teams. I don't really like 12-team leagues either...what good is having a conference where you don't even play everyone during a seaspn (like in football) or have really strange unbalanced schedules in other sports...I know it's all a money thing, but as a fan, it really seems to start to disconnect you from what's going on in a league when you may not get a chance to see a large portion of the other teams in the conference.

[bigsmooth]

so the big ten invites nebraska, missouri, kansas, rutgers and one other school, (ND, pitt, syracuse) to make 16?, then maybe the rest of the big 12 goes to the mountain west?? this is crazy stuff.

[ATrain]

More rumors and speculation. In this scenario, I see:
PAC-16:
Stanford
Arizona
Arizona State
Cal
Washington
Oregon
Oregon State
Washington STate
UCLA
USC
Texas
Texas A&M
Texas Tech
Colorado
Oklahoma
Oklahoma State

Big Ten(14):
Ohio State
Wiscosin
Michigan
Michigan State
Iowa
Purdue
Penn State
Indiana
Illionois
Minnesota
Northwestern
Missouri
Nebraska
Pittsburgh

New Big East All Sports Conference (12):
East Carolina
Cincinnati
Rutgers
UConn
Syracuse
Memphis
Kansas
Kansas State
Iowa State
South Florida
Central Florida
West Virginia

Baylor reluctantly joins the Mountain West.

Notre Dame joins the other non-football Big East schools in a new conference and remains independent in football.

SEC waits to evaluate the revenue figures from the new alignments.
ACC waits to evaluate the revenue figures from the new alignments.

And my coffee still hasn't kicked in yet, so my apologies if all that seems completely wacky.

[JK37]

ATrain, as much as I am allied to the Big East, I just can't see the Big East suriving all this. If, as it seems, the Pac-10 invites six (and we're all presuming that all six invitations would be accepted - no guarantee of that), then the Big 10 would indeed increase it's numbers. What's left of the Big East (WVU, Pitt, Syracuse, etc.) would be gobbled up, I believe, by the ACC.

The SEC might actually move the least in all this, maybe scooping up one or two of the Big 12 programs left behind. In this scenario, the most I can see them doing is MAYBE also picking up a Mountain West team.

And then, what's left joins the Mountain West, or stays in the realigned Conference USA. But back to my main point, the Big East is in real danger of reverting back to the old catholic school basketball league of years gone by. And maybe an FCS football league. Boy, what a fall from grace that would be!

[4everfsu]

If all this happens I will probably find something else to do on Saturday

[JK37]

If all this happens I will probably find something else to do on Saturday

You know, I began feeling the same way even as I was typing my previous post. But to tell the truth, I would probably simply adjust.

[blwall1416]

While I'm not in favor of this, there is no way I could give up my Saturdays in the fall. If I did that, I'd have no football the whole weekend.


CFN gives their opinion of certain scenarios:

http://cfn.scout.com/2/974716.html

[ATrain]

ATrain, as much as I am allied to the Big East, I just can't see the Big East suriving all this. If, as it seems, the Pac-10 invites six (and we're all presuming that all six invitations would be accepted - no guarantee of that), then the Big 10 would indeed increase it's numbers. What's left of the Big East (WVU, Pitt, Syracuse, etc.) would be gobbled up, I believe, by the ACC.

The SEC might actually move the least in all this, maybe scooping up one or two of the Big 12 programs left behind. In this scenario, the most I can see them doing is MAYBE also picking up a Mountain West team.

And then, what's left joins the Mountain West, or stays in the realigned Conference USA. But back to my main point, the Big East is in real danger of reverting back to the old catholic school basketball league of years gone by. And maybe an FCS football league. Boy, what a fall from grace that would be!

Well Big East survival is dependant on the BigTen going to only 14 teams with 2 of the 3 being leftovers from the Big12. If the BigTen does go to 16, then there is probably no chance of Big East survival as a BCS football conference. I can see the ACC picking up UConn and/or West Virginia from the Big East, but that's about it. Maybe Syracuse if they don't move anywhere, but that's about it. The SEC might try and take Kansas and/or Kansas State, but they probably don't want Baylor and I really think the only way KSU gets in is if Kansas insists on it.

[ATrain]

While I'm not in favor of this, there is no way I could give up my Saturdays in the fall. If I did that, I'd have no football the whole weekend.


CFN gives their opinion of certain scenarios:

http://cfn.scout.com/2/974716.html

I'm not so sure CFN's prediction of the ACC losing GT is entirely accurate. From what I understand, GT tried to rejoin the SEC at one point and UGA was adamantly opposed. Conference politics will definitely play a factor if any ACC teams are to go to the SEC.

[ALUmnus]

New Big East All Sports Conference (12):
East Carolina
Cincinnati
Rutgers
UConn
Syracuse
Memphis
Kansas
Kansas State
Iowa State
South Florida
Central Florida
West Virginia

Don't forget Louisville, they're very important to the Big East.

[LUconn]

I've pretty much decided that the inevitable ACC/BE leftovers merger is going to be some kind of football laughing stock. Top 3 in basketball every year (like they both are now) but just a joke football wise.

[jcmanson]

If all this happens I will probably find something else to do on Saturday

The FCS is always taking new fans!

[ATrain]

New Big East All Sports Conference (12):
East Carolina
Cincinnati
Rutgers
UConn
Syracuse
Memphis
Kansas
Kansas State
Iowa State
South Florida
Central Florida
West Virginia

Don't forget Louisville, they're very important to the Big East.

Crap, I knew I was forgetting someone. Take out Central Florida and put in Louisville.

[Schfourteenteen]

Prediction:

The Big South will make an offer to the NCAA to become a part of their organization. The NCAA, who we would have thought to have so much power, crumble to the demands of the mighty Kyle Kallander. A new just as flawed tournament system will be put in place for football that involves wins per dollar spent on football, and somehow UNCA will be crowned World Champions every year. In addition, the Big South will generate a new rules system. Fans will no longer be able to make fun of opposing players, and football teams with less than 10,000 seats will be given a 70 point advantage. This will make Florida actually work to beat Charleston Southern. All athletes are limited to 2 practice hours so they can practice their camera skills for promotional videos such as this:
[youtube]

[/youtube]

Then, NAIA will sign a TV deal with ESPN to cover their basketball tournaments. In doing so, they will become the most powerful brand in college sports.

[ALUmnus]

Add to that a report Friday from the Columbus Dispatch that Ohio State president Gordon Gee has had an e-mail conversation about expansion with his counterpart at Texas, William Powers, and the Big Ten's future is also in the news.

"I did speak with Bill Powers at Texas, who would welcome a call to say they have a 'Tech' problem," Gee wrote in an e-mail sent to Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany and obtained by The Columbus Dispatch through a public-records request for documents and correspondence related to Big Ten expansion proposals. The Tech problem presumably involves Texas Tech, a school some feel would have to come with Texas and Texas A&M in any bid for those schools to join the Big Ten.

The day before writing about his conversation with Powers, Gee wrote Delany to say he was "of the mind that we control our destiny at the moment, but the window will soon close on us. Agility and swiftness of foot is our friend."

Delany said: "We are fast-tracking it but need to know the $ and observe contracts," according to the Dispatch.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=5251329

[Sly Fox]

Big shock to hear this coming from me but Texas is the key to everything. UT really wants the bank that would come from having their own cable network and with them being the big target of both Big Ten & Pac-10 they sit in position to possibly get what they want.

[Sly Fox]

Guys, the past 72 hours have been nuts on the realignment front. I've been talking about what is going down now for the past ten years and its finally arrived.

Nebraska & Mizzou have an ultimatum from the Big XII to make up their minds ... the Big Ten has putting pressure on Notre Dame to man up .... the Pac-10 tells their commish to have it .... said commish eyes six Big XII schools ... Texas legislators try to save Baylor and throw the Buffs under the bus ....

What's next?

Frankly I am having a blast watching it all go down. Anybody else enjoying it or dreading it?

[ALUmnus]

Some guy on the radio said that if Notre Dame caves to the pressure and joins the Big Ten, then this all could cool down and the status quo will reign. I can see that. If the Big 10 gets ND (who they really want), then they don't really need Nebraska & Missouri, and the Big 12 can survive. It may be wishful thinking, but I hope that this is the scenerio that wins out.