Any option for Buffalo in the Big East?
by fracas on Oct 30, 2011 7:32 PM EDT
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I think Buffalo and the Big East should be talking each other.
Division A & Division B
Cincinnati & Louisville
Connecticut & Massachusetts
Buffalo & Rutgers
South Florida & Central Florida
Southern Methodist & Houston
Villanova & Temple
Navy & Army
Each set represents matched cross division annual games. The first column is one division, the second column the other.
Note both Buffalo and Rutgers are the only AAU members and in my opinion nicely matched by geography as well.
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Your link is broken, I'd like to see what you are talking about...
The only way Buffalo gets a look is if Boise says no (with a looming 21 million dollar buyout they just might) and that forces Air Force, and the CUSA schools to say no.
This might push the Big East, oddly, east. Then maybe Buffalo gets a look but at this point I don’t know if I want Football Only in the Big East. Sure you get to Play UConn every year, but we already do that ;). Warde does his best to get those kinds of match ups in the OOC so what the real benefit?
Still I like the institutions match to UB, not so mush the athletic power, of this conference.
Also keep in mind that if UB went FB Only to the BE
Then we would have to move all other sports out of the MAC..
Maybe to the MAAC or the A10/CAA if they will have us….
sorry for broken link
http://www.bigeastcoastbias.com/2011/10/30/2525600/a-new-big-east-rebuilt-for-synergy
agree with all sports move, not just football
The way the Big East is thinking
The Big East is becoming more adventurous in flirting with more and more far flung schools.
When TCU was added to the Big East, they were kind of far but hey a Florida/Texas presence we can dig it. Next you heard BYU to the Big East, well if TCU can fly why not the Cougars and a 65,000 seat stadium.
Now Boise State is all but a done deal to the Big East. At first that was an odd idea to swallow until BCS points started entering the calculation. The Big East has been kind of weak lately with no legit top 10 teams hence Boise looks good through a pair of beer goggles.
What is the next step for the Big East? Now they are looking at San Diego State. People are balking at the idea now but building on that western front starts to make sense because now your opening up anybody East or West to membership.
I: Louisville, Cincinnati, Rutgers, UConn, South Florida, Central Florida
II: Houston, SMU, Air Force, BYU, Boise State, San Diego State
This is basically the merger of Big East/CUSA/MWC that Mont-USA is talking about only taking the most viable 12 teams. The MWC and CUSA both lose 3 schools to the Big East. They are talking about absorbing the WAC’s football schools. SDSU, Boise and Air Force then can join the WAC as a western non-football conference.
What does this then mean for Buffalo? The waiting list for BE membership is continuing to grow longer. Not only is Buffalo behind the 6 rumored schools (UCF, SMU, Houston, Air Force, Boise, Navy) and Memphis/Temple in the pecking order it now has to consider itself behind BYU, SDSU and even Tulane (because of superdome) and ECU. UNLV may not even be out of the question for the Big East. BYU, UNLV, SDSU, Tulane, Memphis, ECU, Temple gives the BE another 7 schools standing behind its 6 candidates to work with.
The Big East is attracted to schools that play in large markets and NFL sized stadiums (60,000+). They’ll make an exception for a service academy or a BCS buster. While Buffalo makes sense in a conventional model, the BE wants to be “National”.
i think regionality is an undervalued factor in realignment
a conference stays stable not just because of money or status
not because the teams play each other regularly
but because of a shared culture, which frequently is linked to shared regionality.
B1G midwest
ACC coastal
SEC the deep south
PAC the west coast
perhaps both the Big East and the Big 12 have problems because of lack of a shared culture among their respective members
Big East partly because it is first a BB conference that hobbled together a football league (which was never vary regionalized)
the Big 12 was really great plains Big 8 and Texas. Oklahoma did better because it was culturally close enough to work. Ofcourse it could be UT’s culture that is the problem as well.
but back to the Big East. Going far and wide for “national” pickups will only result in a mercenary culture among its member. They will all sooner or later seek more regional conferences if they can. Just like TCU did.
would have been better for the Big East to risk losing AQ by taking regional teams like UMass, Buffalo, Army, Navy along with UConn and Rutgers and rebuild regionally for stability rather than relying on money/AQ status to draw members.
just my thoughts.
Wll the pool is getting thin and that AQ status is worth a bundle.
Lets face it all this shuffling has just assured that, at most, the Big six keep their monopoly on the BCS. Why not pick off teams that strengthen your football only presence if they have no other options?
PAC12 is not going to be giving Boise or BYU a Call and the Big-12 is nearly as unattractive as the BigEast
That would eliminate most of the issues
And with TV money, rather than BCS payouts, becoming the real funding source for athletic departments.
Like the article says, this would let the SEC put four teams in BCS Bowls, and life much of the criticism.
The down side is that you sitll have a BCS ranking system which keeps an undefeated Boise behing a one loss Alabama, Oklahoma, or Oregon in a year like this (eve though two of those teams lost to #1)
I'd like us to go ACC
All we have to do is get better than UConn and Rutgers in football and facilities…
I feel Pitt and especially Syracuse are vital conference rivals.
Kent State, Temple, Akron too, they can't do it like we do.
Falcons, Bobcats and Redhawks talk a lot can't back it up.
Better than Rutgers and UConn..
Is that all?
First I don’t think there is any way we can match them in the current political environment. UConn was basically handed a blank check to get themselves up to Big East Quality stadium / facilities. We cant raise 30 Million for a nice field house (apparently about half way there).
Second keep in mind that the ACC wants good basketball, not just football and hoops at UConn is amazing, Rutgers is pretty solid.
If the ACC expands again Rutgers and/or Uconn will be on the menu.
I guess I'd like to go ACC - MAC - New Big East
in that order…if someone was going to invest in athletics, I feel we’d be most successful with an East coast centric conference, and we’d prosper with 2 very close rivals.
If we go the mid-west route, I’d prefer to dominate and build in the MAC on the TCU/Boise route, than fly around the country as a Big East member…although I don’t imagine fostering any great rivalries with our geographic neighbors at EMU, Akron or Kent.
If we continue with unfunded athletics, then we have no business talking about conference realignment.
Also, back in my day we practiced in the rain the cold and the snow, we didn’t need a field house…we just wish we had one really bad.
Kent State, Temple, Akron too, they can't do it like we do.
Falcons, Bobcats and Redhawks talk a lot can't back it up.
The field house is emblametic of the problem and the solution..
Kudos to Warde and company for not settling on the EMU ‘golf bubble’ field house to cut cost. But its been on the board for years.
UCF got to where they were by winning games and building infrastructure.
Your biggest problem is Syracuse
Only under highly unusual circumstances will an AQ conference be willing to take in a school in a state that it already has an existing member.
TCU only got into the Big XII because they were staring down the barrel or no other major options. They got to the point where they’re performance forced them into the conference.
The ACC also has some pretty strict academic requirements. If you look at their latest adds between Syracuse, Pitt, BC, VT and Miami. VT was the lowest rated school at top 75 UNWR, while the other schools are all top 50. I think West Virginia was told that ranked #164 they would NEVER be accepted by the ACC. Since rated about #100 and while and AAU would probably make the school though on the lower range of what they would be willing to accept academically into the conference.
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