Glad you agree. I don't. I was trying to imply that the BE is in such a piss poor position right now that everyone is going to consider all their other options before they consider the BE.
PS re the NCAA hoops contract that contract is with the NCAA, not the individual conferences or teams so, the conferences or teams are free to walk away based upon their contracts with the NCAA, and I don't think that will be a very hard thing for the BCSers to do if they get further pissed off.
WHO is everyone? There are about 5 schools in contention for "possible" additional membership spots, outside the Big East. The SEC is smart enough not to dilute its revenue sharing so it may add ONE team. The Big Ten is set from all indications. The Pac12 is not expanding. The ACC MAY add two but if they listen to rat-face coach K they will be "basketball" schools. Which leaves us with the Big 12 that may or may not be able to hold on to lowly Missouri! I would surprised if three conferences in the above scenario actually pull the trigger and invite three or four new members this year. The Big East is looking at over 8 programs, so what is the problem?
Yes our commish is a meathead and does not deserve his salary but it is what it is.
Every single BE football school and every school that's being discussed about being added as two sport schools would jump to any of the other BCS conferences without thinking twice. That's what I mean by everyone.
You missed my point! After the scenario I outlined, there is NO PLACE else to go once those three conferences close membership!!
You are assuming every lowly Big East team in football is wanted by the ACC, Big 12 or SEC. The ACC and SEC have already rejected 3 of the six remaining teams. No one has made a pitch for USF. Cincy and UWV? Houston and SMU have better football programs. The biggest coup for the Big 12 would be BYU and Boise State----why aren't those schools jumping at the chance to play in a premier football conference? The answer is projected TV revenue and the chance to be top dog in the BCS AQ conference you end up in once all the plundering has stopped.
Schools like Cincy, Louisville, Uconn, Rutgers will be bottom feeders in the SEC or Big 12 in football. They will never have a chance to supplant at Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama, TCU, etc. In those conferences I think they will rise only to their highest level of mediocrity. If I were a college president and AD I would think twice about placing my school in position to be perennially at the bottom......regardless of the incremental increase in revenue distribution.
A good example of this is the dearly departed Big East members Miami and Boston College. In the past six years neither has accomplished much in basketball in the basketball centric ACC. Being in the ACC has not cornered the northeast recruiting market for BC. Their football program has deteriorated vis-a-vis Florida State, Clemson and Va Tech. Miami is now embroiled in a huge football scandal and does anyone even know they have a basketball team?
It is easy to knock the Big East since their loss of Syracuse and Pitt but they are easily replaceable in football. So are Rutgers and Cincy for that matter. Like it or not, after the plundering, there will still be a Big East in both football and basketball because the BE knows it needs to be a part of the next BCS AQ series in football.
If the NCAA cannot come up with a true playoff formula in football, the remaining power conferences will come up with one of their own. That is why the Big East will want to maintain a football presence.
I doubt the super conferences will ever be cooperative enough for a separate basketball championship since the NCAA formula is now profitable to all schools even with the NCAA taking a huge chunk for itself. To supplant the NCAA, the super conferences would have to set up their own version of the NCAA and that is where their ability to get along for profit-sake would end. Who would dominate decision-making? That is the challenge!
One thing is certain in all these financial maneuverings, the college athletes that allow these greedy college presidents to sell their schools to the highest bidders (conferences and TV) are at the bottom of the benefits pile when all is said and done in the name of the "student-athlete".
Big East mistakes of the past: committing to football, throwing Temple out of league, allowing ND to join all sports except football, making it easy to leave league, adding new members with no thought to geography.