The Incline got it right on his very first blog.

Houston, SMU & UCF is the way to go if you want to get to 12 teams, get a conf. championship game, increase TV exposure many fold and create more than just ‘beachheads’ in Florida & Texas.

Even considering little Villanova with it’s 6500 student enrollment is thinking small and in reality an utter joke. This IS A BCS Conference.

Like they say in Texas, you gotta think ‘Big’.
It’s time the football schools say ‘Adios’

Couldn’t agree more. Plus, more games for me to see each year. Please bring the Big East or whatever we’ll call this thing to Texas. Small, private schools in existing and stagnant markets need not apply.

I stumbled on a couple of ideas online the other day that I hadn’t thought of before. I know that geographically, this idea is absurd. But we already threw geography out the window when the BE added TCU. So anyway, after UCF, isn’t the most attractive school out there BYU? Look at their home attendance figures. Wow. And good tradition in football and somewhat in basketball. The other thought about them is that maybe they’d want to stay where they are in the other sports, and just join in football. Then we don’t have the basketball schools getting all pissy, and we keep the same structure. Just get to 10 with them, perhaps. UCF might balk at the thought of joining in just football, whereas BYU might not. I still prefer UCF, but I think we have to be more open-minded about a geographically poor fit. And that’s whether we go to 10 and stay with the basketball schools, or whether we split and try to get to 12.

I don’t think I would have really understood the true meaning of the “welcome” if someone sent that to me when I started blogging, but damn. I sure do now.

BYU would be a great addition but they will never be able to join a major conference because they will not allow any sport (or any practice) to take place on a Sunday. Not so much a problem for football, but its a big problem for other sports…I say go get Navy…Great school, great kids, and a national following.

BYU should have been the last addition to the Pac-10. The idea of the Pac-10 not adopting the existing in-state rivalry of Utah/BYU is a little strange to me. I don’t understand the Colorado thing. But, I digress.

BYU would be an awesome addition, but the logistics of adding a western team wouldn’t be feasible. The travel alone would be way too grueling for the better part of the conference. That’s not even to say how strict BYU is on their own program’s travels. BYU would never allow that much time away from campus.

But, what we COULD do is create a Script Pitt University and invite them into the BigEast. That way the Pitt administration would be forced to see what they have tried so hard to suppress. The universe would then implode on itself.

HTscriptP

Would likely have to change the name of the league with the inclusion of BYU and…Yeshiva.

Any suggestions?

Look around you and think about what is happening in our world. Transportation costs are impacting both industrial and personal decisions. A gallon of milk has gone up 10% in three months and not because the cows threatened to go on strike. Unlike previous times, the cost of fuel is not coming back down this time. And, fuel is the biggest variable expense which exists. It will take time, but sooner or later the insanity of these geographic footprints (TCU in the Big East? Nebraska in the Big 10?) will crumble under the realities of economics. Nebraska should be playing Oklahoma every year, just like Penn State should be playing Pitt. It will all come full circle if we only live long enough. Somehow I just don’t see an electric plane any time soon.

From a purely selfish point of view, a roadtrip to Central Florida in the fall with the golf clubs packed sounds real nice.

TCU really isn’t that much worse off travelling wise in the Big East than the MWC. Remember that Boise just got added which is almost as far as Fort Worth to Storrs I believe and Hawaii is getting added for football in 2012. Also, in the Big East, the only travelling sports are the team sports. Individual sports, like track, tennis, and rifle (TCU has a rifle team) can have most their season locally, only travelling for the conference championships

To echo what Greg says…even if the non-revenue teams have to travel…they are travelling commercial. You can find a decently priced flight from Dallas to Philly, Pittsburgh, Washington, or New York. It isn’t like they will be travelling to ice station zebra by sled dog.

One more point about BYU. For the existing BE teams, it’s maybe one trip per year. But for them, it’s travel all the time. Still, why not find out if they’d join? I think higher travel costs and a BCS membership still beat the heck out of being independent.
As far as not playing on Sundays… they already work around that in the MWC anyway. So why would it be a problem in the BE?

BYU people? Seriously? They opted for their own independence. They have their own channel. They have a different mission (literally and figuratively).

One of the reasons the Big 12/10 and Pac 12 never opted for them is their refusal to bend on Sunday. Respect the religious convictions for that, but no way should a conference bend over like that for them. Especially given their geographic isolation, it creates a bind for the conference. For tournaments and scheduling. There’s more to athletic department scheduling than just the football.

Thanks for the link Chas, we’re not big on parties, more of the wallflower type. So, please don’t throw us out a window.

If we wanted to add a football-only member and keep everything else status quo, then BYU’s scheduling issues wouldn’t be a big problem at all. As I said, I’d still prefer UCF, even in football.
Second, I know they opted for independence. But that was as compared to the MWC. Why wouldn’t they consider a BCS conference membership?
And third, as I think about it a little more, if the football schools did split AND try to get to 12, they’d have to consider all possibilities. Beyond UCF, there isn’t much out there, IMO. If you look at the attendance and drawing power of BYU, it’s well beyond the likes of Memphis, ECU, SMU, and Houston. So I’d still have to consider it.

I’ve looked into my crystal ball, and I see many, many more years of DePaul, Providence and Seton Hall games at the Pete and the almost nill crowd noise and lack of excitement they generate.

Lollard, I like your innovative thinking and throwing ideas out there, however, when you think of the Big East and the powers to be, think: Path of least resistance!!!

They all blew it 30 years ago, Pitt, Penn St. et al.

What the Big East should be:

Pitt
Penn St.
WVU
Syracuse
Boston College
UCONN
Rutgers
Temple
Army
Navy

if you wanted 12, back then, will all of the independents, Notre Dame may have been persuaded, and Maryland had a good rivalry with PSU, and Pitt played them a few times.

If not them, then later on, maybe Cincy or Louisville.

The 10 above were the Eastern Independents and all involved effed up big time, over petty b.s..

Why talk about the past, better than the future. Oh, it’s not so bad, good hoops, TCU is a nice addition, but, one thing I’ve learned, don’t ever count on the Big East suits to come up with anything exciting towards a real conference.

I’ll believe it when I see it.

Sans UCONN, but, if developed, perhaps UCONN and even Villanova would have moved ahead to D1 earlier. Anyhow, the other teams had been playing each other for years, almost a conference without being called one.

I still think they should put all their effort into getting Notre Dame in for football

No BYU please. And, Notre Dame will forever remain an independent in football as long as they have a conference to affiliate themselves for other sports.

I don’t think BYU would be a viable BE member,but when they announced the move to independent I remember thinking that the BE should jump in and offer some type of schedule agreement, maybe 4 games a year against BE schools.

I dont see whats wrong with the 9 teams we have now. Just leave it alone and don’t dilute the conference with mediocre teams. TCU was a great addition and for that matter the only possible great addition

Nothing wrong with 9 Tony, I respect your opinion, and I’m sure many have your same view.

Myself, and I believe, many others, have always wanted, and would still like to see, the Big East, a conference, not a league. A conference of 12 like minded universities, in all sports, instead of the mish mash we’ve had for all of these years.

Would be nice, to have two, six team divisions, a championship game, and look like a real BCS conference.

Don’t think we need to worry much, the Big East is going to stay just the way it is for years to come. How they ever pulled off TCU, I don’t know. A great pick up, but, definitely an anomaly for the league big wigs.