What’s interesting about this is that had this gone through, perhaps they go after some of the other big independents such as Florida State and South Carolina.
What if TCU joined the Big East?
- Thread starter HailToPitt725
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Maybe instead of UConn, because I think at that time, UConn was D2 in football.
From a basketball perspective it is a great conference, and if you prefer basketball over football I can understand wanting this hypothetical conference. But even if you are a basketball guy, football still pays the bills at all but maybe 5 P5 schools. The tv deals are really football deals that has basketball added in. The conference you propose, brings in no football money.
Nova declined ramping up to the BE in FB. Of course, under Fat Rollie, they kept temple out of the BE. Their campus stadium is a cramped 13K, so they'd need to rent the Link like Temple at this stage.
Evillainova had shot themselves in the foot on that one. They weren't getting the Linc because Temple has exclusive (the exception being the Army-Navy game) use of it for college football (part of the conditions for Philadelphia putting up public money to build it). And Temple, having LOOOONG memories, wasn't going to budge on that.
IIRC, they were going to play their games at the ~18K PPL Park in Chester, home of the MLS’ Philadelphia Union.
Seems like a nice setup but still pretty small.
IIRC, they were going to play their games at the ~18K PPL Park in Chester, home of the MLS’ Philadelphia Union.
Seems like a nice setup but still pretty small.
Not that they had much of an alternative if they were going to go through with stepping up to FBS football . . . but if you know anything about the Evillainova fanbase, can you imagine them trekking to CHESTER for football games?
Villanova declined the Big East’s original invitation. However, by the late aughts, they had a change of heart and were all set to go FBS football in an effort to keep the league together.
However, their plan involved not ramping up their training facilities or their recruiting budget and playing their home games in the home stadium of the Philadelphia Union – an MLS team. That stadium, located 30 minutes away in Chester, seats just 18,000 fans.
That was a bright red line for the Pitt administrators – I guarantee you that much. However, Louisville, which was a massive pain in the ass in the old Big East, tried to portray it like Pitt was afraid of in-state competition.
That was not remotely true. Pitt’s concern was that the schools that Pitt regularly recruits against — Penn State, Ohio State, etc. — would use Villanova against Pitt on the recruiting trail with high end local recruits.
The Pitt people were right because that is exactly what would’ve happened.
Yes, they did it strictly for market share. Although Rutgers never really brought the NYC/NJ market, Notre Dame is more the college team for New York. And Delany was on record as saying that was the reason that drove expansion and why Pitt wasn't high on the list since they felt PSU delivered the PA market share.
How did he/they read the PA/PGH market so correctly yet misread the NY/NJ market so wrong?
Switch BC and Syracuse and Duke and UNC. Who objects? UNC because they would be in with Clemson? It seems like any fix if something is, in fact, broken.
That + switch Louisville and Georgia Tech or Miami. If Notre Dame ever joins full-time and the ACC adds WVU, it’d look like the old Big East
ACC North: Bos. College, Louisville, Notre Dame, Pitt, Cuse, UVA, Va Tech, WVU
ACC South: Clemson, Duke, FSU, Ga Tech, Miami, NCST, UNC, Wake
And Virginia wasn’t even in it. Those divisions are just regional-based; just saying with WVU, Syracuse, and BC it’d give the north division a Big East flair to it.
Not so. From Wikipedia:
The original Big East Conference was founded in 1979, when Providence College basketball coach Dave Gavitt spearheaded an effort to assemble an east coast basketball-centric collegiate athletic conference.[14] The core of the Big East formed when Providence, St. John's, Georgetown, and Syracuse invited Seton Hall, Connecticut (UConn), Holy Cross, Rutgers, and Boston College (BC). Holy Cross turned down the invitation, as did Rutgers initially, while BC, Seton Hall, and UConn accepted.[15][16][17] Gavitt became the Big East's first commissioner, and Villanova and Pittsburgh joined the conference shortly thereafter.
Miami didn't join until the conference expanded to sponsor football.
Several schools object. Primary, Florida St and Miami. They want separate divisions. Once you do that, you are kind of stuck. Plus, Virginia Tech opposes it also. They cut their travel budget in half when they joined the ACC.Clemson also wants to play Florida St and Georgia
Tech annually. Too many moving parts for some of these alternative alignments.
My ideal conference would be The Appalachian Conference...
Pitt
WVU
PSU
KY
Tennessee
Clemson
VT
VA
Louisville
Vandy
Pitt
WVU
PSU
KY
Tennessee
Clemson
VT
VA
Louisville
Vandy
If Notre Dame joined then yes, I would be in favor of the north-south split.
I think that could be cool – especially Notre Dame’s existing rivalries with Boston College, Miami and Pitt. Also, I could absolutely see them being interested in playing Syracuse every other year in Yankee Stadium.
However, I just don’t see that ever happening.
With that in mind, I am not for any sort of realignment because I think it’s important for Pitt that we keep Miami, Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech in our division for as long as possible for recruiting purposes. The rest, to me, are all interchangeable.
However, I am absolutely not in favor of any realignment scenario that removes Pitt from playing in South Florida, metro Atlanta or Tidewater every year. That seems like a really bad idea for the University of Pittsburgh.
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Has anyone else ever been to the University of Connecticut? With all due respect, their campus is about as impressive as Slippery Rock’s campus.
I’m not kidding – that’s what it reminded me of an oversized PSAC campus.
It has like 30,000 students but the campus itself is a postage stamp and it is in the middle of nowhere.
An old friend of mine grew up just a few towns over from Storrs and was getting married, so we spent a long weekend in Connecticut. My wife and I hung out for the day on the UConn campus and I literally could not understand how on earth they were getting New York City studs to go to school there? It was just totally bizarre.
They also have a little statue of a Husky right in the middle of their tiny campus. That was weird too. His name is Jonathan – they named him after one of their former governors — also odd. I remember the whole thing.
I left that weekend with more questions than answers.
Also, up until that weekend I had always advocated for a return of the Hartford Whalers. I just loved their sweaters – which I always thought were the best looking sweaters in the NHL. Also, I just loved their rivalry with the Bruins.
However, after spending a weekend in Hartford, they are never coming back. Hartford is like a less glamorous version of Detroit.
I’m not kidding – that’s what it reminded me of an oversized PSAC campus.
It has like 30,000 students but the campus itself is a postage stamp and it is in the middle of nowhere.
An old friend of mine grew up just a few towns over from Storrs and was getting married, so we spent a long weekend in Connecticut. My wife and I hung out for the day on the UConn campus and I literally could not understand how on earth they were getting New York City studs to go to school there? It was just totally bizarre.
They also have a little statue of a Husky right in the middle of their tiny campus. That was weird too. His name is Jonathan – they named him after one of their former governors — also odd. I remember the whole thing.
I left that weekend with more questions than answers.
Also, up until that weekend I had always advocated for a return of the Hartford Whalers. I just loved their sweaters – which I always thought were the best looking sweaters in the NHL. Also, I just loved their rivalry with the Bruins.
However, after spending a weekend in Hartford, they are never coming back. Hartford is like a less glamorous version of Detroit.
Assuming WVU is stick in the B12 and the ACC somehow went to 16 full members...
Pitt, ND, VT, Syracuse, BC, Louisville, Miami, WVU OR Cincy.
Clemson, FSU, GT, UVa, UNC, NCSU, Wake, Duke.
9 conference games. Pitt's crossover partner is GT. Other one rotates. UVa is VT.
Pitt, ND, VT, Syracuse, BC, Louisville, Miami, WVU OR Cincy.
Clemson, FSU, GT, UVa, UNC, NCSU, Wake, Duke.
9 conference games. Pitt's crossover partner is GT. Other one rotates. UVa is VT.
I’d actually really like that alignment. Wouldn’t be completely regional, but it’d DEFINITELY feel like the old Big East.
Only thing I’d change is that I’d rather just have two rotating cross-conference games a year than a permanent crossover game and one rotating opponent. That way you’d be able to play every ACC team in a four year span. But that’s just my opinion. From a recruiting standpoint, having Ga Tech as a permanent game would likely be a plus.
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