Some notes before I go off on a tirade. The old trusted HP computer has been out of commission for the last few weeks. A new computer is coming on Christmas Day. It's been hard being quiet during a fun and controversial regular season. I hope to be back to full speed before the BCS Bowls. I will be blogging more religiously during the college hoops season. With that said- there is ONE story that has gotten me to a keyboard. ONE story that makes my blood boil. ONE conference. The Big East. The Big East is one of the lucky six to control an Automatic Qualifying (AQ) bid to a BCS bowl. The winner of this conference goes to a multi million dollar BCS bowl no matter what its record is. The Big East is the worst conference in football. Three teams are defecting from the Big East, 2 of which are considered to be the perennial powers. Every conference has dabbled in expansion during 2011. Every conference has then made moves to ensure survival. For a while it was the Big 12 that appeared to be on the verge of extinction. After all, the Big East poached TCU when they were hot. Then Oklahoma and Texas decided to stay, Pitt, Cuse, and WVU decided to go and just like that the Big East was on life support. The dilemma became too big to ignore. In the end, the Big East chose to expand- a lot. They added a lot of quantity, but did they add quality? The answer is no. The Big East also chose to throw its basketball tradition down the drain too. So what did they do? Observe...
Where?
Football and Basketball Big East States: Ohio, Kentucky, Connecticut, New Jersey, Florida, Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois, D.C, New York, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Texas, Idaho, California.
Makes sense right?
Let's break it down...
Football
The sport that drives the madness. The Big East is losing WVU, Syracuse, and Pitt. They will be adding (In Football Only) Boise and San Diego State. They will also be adding in both sports Houston, UCF, and SMU. They could potentially be adding Air Force or Navy. So what does it all mean? Nothing.
Boise State: This is the ONLY good thing about this expansion. Boise gets into a (for now) BCS AQ conference. Boise does lift the profile of the league a little bit. Will they keep winning without Moore? Will they be able to compete against "better" competition week after week? I guess we will see.
Houston: Coach Sumlin has done a GREAT job over the last four years at Houston. However, he has done all that with his standout quarterback Case Keenum. Good things are happening at Houston under Sumlin. Except now Sumlin appears to be heading to the SEC with Texas AM. What happens to Houston now?
SMU: The Pony Express. Remember them? The school made headlines in the 80's for its NCAA violations and were levied with the death penalty. SMU has been irrelevant ever since. June Jones has done a hell of a job with the Mustangs taking them to consecutive bowl games after starting his first season 1-11. He has rebuilt the Stangs and has made them a force in the CUSA. This could be a competitive team in the Big East moving forward. HOWEVER, June Jones is rumored to be heading to the PAC12. So what happens to SMU now?
San Diego State: Brady Hoke is at Michigan now but Rocky Long has picked up the pieces and is actually doing quite well. The Aztecs are a competitive team in the Mountain West and actually could compete in the Big East. Maybe.
Central Florida: UCF has actually been on the uptick lately under head coach George O'Leary. The Knights have been to several CUSA title games and have appeared in bowls on a yearly basis. This year was the first losing season in some time. From a facilities standpoint, The Knights are on a BCS level. New football and basketball facilities have sprung up on campus and are considered to be some of the best in FBS and D1 athletics. The talent level has also gone up. The Knights tried to get into the Big East before but were overlooked for USF. The Knights now have the chance to compete in a BCS league and look to be ready. The only problem is that the NCAA is sniffing around campus and they might be onto something. Welcome to the big time boys...
Basketball
The Big East IS a basketball conference. The size of the league makes it so strong. The quality of the teams makes it stronger. Top to bottom the Big East is a basketball FIRST league. The new expansion does not help its basketball image. Instead, it deeply hurts the league. Losing Pitt, Syracuse and WVU hurts a lot. Adding SMU, Houston, and UCF doesn't replace the loss. Even if they get Navy or Air Force, you aren't adding ANYONE of the caliber of the teams that you are losing. San Diego State would have been a good addition but they are only coming in football. The only decent team you are adding is UCF, but again, they are under investigation by the NCAA. So instead of drudging through the terrible teams the Big East is adding in basketball, let's look at who they should have gone after in basketball only.
Memphis: Pitino kept them out when the league expanded a few years ago and now it has come back to haunt him. Memphis brings instant credibility to a league desperately looking to hold onto a little dignity. Josh Pastner is young and looks to be building his own program there. This would have been a slam dunk pickup.
Xavier: Would they have left the A10? Maybe, maybe not. Xavier is a good fit for the league- a BASKETBALL school in Cincinnati. It fits geographically and culturally. More so then Houston.
Temple: Oh Temple, the team you dumped already. Temple basketball (and football) is back on the rise. The thing is, would they want to come back? It would be nice to get the old Philly teams back together again.
Reality: They never would have accepted any of those teams. Memphis maybe, but Memphis football is terrible. Conference expansion is all about football. The league is going to take a backseat in basketball because of the economics of college football which is a shame.
But there is more...
The New Big East
The Big East is a joke. The new expansion is a joke. You want to give a BCS bowl bid to the winner of the league whose teams are Louisville, Rutgers, Connecticut, Cincy, Boise, SMU, Houston, San Diego State and forgive me if I forgot another mediocre team over a third more deserving team from the Big Ten or the SEC? It doesn't make sense. Especially to the BCS who seem to worship at the church of money. Connecticut could not sell out their allotment of tickets to the Fiesta Bowl last year. They had to eat the bill. Louisville v Wake Forest in the Orange Bowl... who remembers that? The ratings for games involving Big East teams are the lowest of the BCS bowls. Who is going to tune in to watch SMU play Oregon?
They better pray that when the BCS meets next year to determine their next evolutionary step that they vote to keep the Big East AQ bid. If they don't, they are going to be hurting for cash. BCS bowls bring in A LOT of money to a league. Those new Big East schools are going to need it. Why?
Boise to South Florida: 2,628 miles
San Diego State to Rutgers: 2,740 miles
Houston to Cincinatti: 1,056 miles
It REALLY hurts to be San Diego State...
to Boise: 954 miles
to Houston: 1,469 miles
to SMU: 1,361 miles
to Cincinnati: 2,170 miles
to Louisville, 2,074
to Orlando: 2,431
to Connecticut: 2,518 miles
The Big East was a joke in football before and will probably be more of one now. Losing Pitt, WVU, and Cuse hurts a lot because you lose a healthy football fan base. The rest of the schools are basketball schools (Hell Pitt, WVU, and Cuse are too). UConn, Cincy, and Louisville have all been to BCS bowls but are more known for their basketball programs. Ask the fans, they will agree. Basketball is the life blood in Storrs. I say it again, they better pray that they hold on to their AQ bid because if they don't, they are in trouble.
Poor Boise State. They can NEVER catch a break. Maybe they should get a deal like Notre Dame and get an AQ Bid if they finish ranked 14 or higher. Then again, we wouldn't be looking to hard at crazy expansions had Notre Dame just decided to bring their football team into the Big East with their other athletic programs.
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