Yes, I did. A faux pas in board decorum that I was well aware of the likelihood of you responding to in time. You didn't disappoint.

Just pointing out that the WWL was not the one manipulating the Catholic 7's decision to leave the Big East as I thought they were in the initial post. Instead it was FOX. A surprise to me and maybe not a big deal to you and most on here. Sorry.

Sometimes responding to yourself is the only way to have an intelligent conversation

wrcwolf wrote: Yes, I did. A faux pas in board decorum that I was well aware of the likelihood of you responding to in time. You didn't disappoint.

Just pointing out that the WWL was not the one manipulating the Catholic 7's decision to leave the Big East as I thought they were in the initial post. Instead it was FOX. A surprise to me and maybe not a big deal to you and most on here. Sorry.

Wow. Thicken thy skin, wrc. There's really no need to take such a relatively innocuous comment that seriously. 

Next time, I'll remember to include the winkie. Really, no offense was intended - just giving you a good natured hard time.

Not jovial. Flu-ridden. Beer has zero taste. Sucks. Sorry.

On the MWC front, Murphy, Idaho Statesman, talked to the deputy commish of the MWC and this move that they are trying to make could just be for Boise State. Basically a throw everything you can at Boise and hope they continue to win. Possibility of Boise St home games being a seperate package with a TV network that just Boise would get revenue from. Only add Boise so, at 11, no chance of them getting tripped up in a championship game.

If that is indeed how this plays out, I imagine those at San Diego State are fuming. Aztecs spent a great deal of capital helping to get the Broncos' Olympic sports into the Big West.

Aztecs committed to Big East:

www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/d...ports-boise-st/

McMurphy, ESPN, says sources told him, Boise is indeed trying to secure it's own package (home games) in either the Big East or MWC. Great program, have had great success, have TV value, not sure I'd let them have their own package within a conference, however.

espn.go.com/college-sports/sto...cording-sources

PiedmontPirate1 wrote:

wrcwolf wrote: Dodd article on the race to #6. That's the next step for those in the "group of 5". Try to get the best group together to become the clear #6 in the FBS.

www.cbssports.com/collegefootb...conference-no-6

Aresco likely selling 'Big East' name to C7, adding ECU all-sports, etc...


http://ajerseyguy.com/

I'm surprised they are considering selling the name.  It'll be interesting to see what new name they come up with if the league is even able to stay together.

In related news, ND is also staying in the Big East until 2014. Nothing all that surprising in that they would have had to pay a fee to leave this year.

Creighton and Richmond are being considered as members of the new conference after the obvious of Xavier and Butler.

VCU, Dayton and St Louis further down the list right now

MegaPack wrote: In related news, ND is also staying in the Big East until 2014. Nothing all that surprising in that they would have had to pay a fee to leave this year.

I wish they'd stay until 3014 unless they're going to join in all sports.

dunlow66 wrote: Creighton and Richmond are being considered as members of the new conference after the obvious of Xavier and Butler.

VCU, Dayton and St Louis further down the list right now

Shaping up to be a real powerhouse.

With the "Catholic 7" (Villanova, G'Town, St. John's, etc...) going to a start-up cable TV network away from the WWL and Maryland joining a Midwestern conference, one would think a great opportunity awaits some ACC schools in the coming years to recruit the very fertile basketball areas of NYC, Philly and Balt/DC. Who get's the jump?

As a side note, wonder what conference ESPN tries to persuade to move into the primetime Saturday night championship game spot. IMO, it's the best spot of the Tourney weekend. Sunday has become ho-hum with everyone more worried about the selection show than the games.

FrankTheTank blog on FOX's role in deminishing the Big East. The WWL doesn't have bloody hands in this instance.

frankthetank.wordpress.com/201...one-in-bristol/

Do you see what occurred here if this is true?  Fox approached the Catholic 7 before they split off, which means it’s not so crazy to believe that Fox wanted them to split off.  So, if you believe that Fox is overpaying for the Catholic 7, then you might be right.  However, the point is that Fox needed to overpay the Catholic 7 in order to serve as a catalyst for them to split off.  If Fox just merely offered “fair market value” to the Catholic 7, then they likely would have stayed in the hybrid.  (Anyone that thought that the Catholic 7 would have split off without the knowledge that they’d be getting paid more compared to staying in the hybrid Big East isn’t thinking straight.)  There needed to be an extraordinary financial windfall from Fox in order for the Catholic 7 to take the extraordinary step of splitting off from the Big East football schools.  As a result, it’s almost pointless to try to compare the on-the-court basketball quality of the Catholic 7 versus the New Big East.  The amounts that are being offered by Fox to the Catholic 7 reflect a “blood money” premium offer that they couldn’t refuse, whereas the Big East isn’t going to garner any premium at all and will be subject to the “normal” market forces in play.

That leads to a corresponding question: why would Fox do this?  Why would it want to pay this much for the Catholic 7 instead of, say, simply bidding for the entire hybrid Big East?  Well, let’s take a step back and examine what Fox actually needs in terms of sports content.  The reality is that Fox (and when I say “Fox”, I really mean its new cable networks Fox Sports 1 and Fox Sports 2 as opposed to over-the-air Fox) already has a fairly full sports slate in the fall with Major League Baseball, NASCAR, Pac-12 football and Big 12 football rights.  As a result, they don’t have much of a need for other college football games.  The biggest programming gap that Fox has right now is during the winter, where its cable networks are pretty much wide open outside of some Pac-12 basketball rights.

I’ll put on my own tinfoil hat here, where my semi-educated guess is that Fox: (a) no longer had much interest in the New Big East football product after Rutgers and Louisville left, (b) still had interest in the Big East’s basketball product in order to provide winter programming and (c) didn’t want to get into a bidding war with NBC and/or ESPN to buy a Big East package for both basketball and football when all it really wanted was basketball.  As a result, Fox went straight to the Catholic 7 (who represented most of the schools that they wanted to showcase for basketball, anyway) and offered up enough money that would simultaneously be a financial boon to those schools while allowing the cable network operation to save money compared to a competitive bidding situation for the all-sports hybrid Big East rights.  It’s the very essence of a “win-win” for both the Catholic 7 and Fox here.

Emails show Boise State tried to get sweetheart deal with Big East.

www.cbssports.com/general/blog...kup-emails-show

Big East emails obtained by CBSSports.com show the league's reluctance to accommodate Boise State's demands in the days before the Broncos returned to the Mountain West.

In the process, Boise floated to Big East Commissioner Mike Aresco a potential three-game television deal with NBC built around Notre Dame games.

“[Boise State President Bob Kustra's] preferred tactic is to still put pressure on us,” Aresco told his membership [presidents and athletic directors] in a Dec. 30 email.

Boise rejoined the Mountain West after the league restructured its revenue sharing, including a bonus system for teams playing football on national television and a 50/50 split of revenue paid for making a BCS bowl game.

Boise proposed to sell its own home games while the Big East sold Boise away games. Lulla said research showed Boise's football value justified the requests.

“Mike tried, but membership didn't support a special arrangement,” Lulla said. “There was just no chance Boise could stay in the Big East without some sort of incentive of a bigger payout.”

Two division,12 team conference looks to be target of former Big East Catholic schools

East

Georgetown
St. John
Seton Hall
Villanova
Providence
Richmond or Sienna

Midwest

Marquette
Depaul
St. Louis
Xavier
Dayton 
Butler(if no Butler then Detroit?)


Creighton may be just too far West(Omaha) for non-revenue sports.

^Davidson should try to get in there. It's obviously not Cathloic schools only.

abcfan2005 wrote: ^Davidson should try to get in there. It's obviously not Cathloic schools only.

Davidson wouldn't even move to the CAA, so they're not leaving the Southern conference.

dunlow66 wrote: Two division,12 team conference looks to be target of former Big East Catholic schools

East

Georgetown
St. John
Seton Hall
Villanova
Providence
Richmond or Sienna

Midwest

Marquette
Depaul
St. Louis
Xavier
Dayton 
Butler(if no Butler then Detroit?)


Creighton may be just too far West(Omaha) for non-revenue sports.

Huh...that's actually a very interesting basketball conference.  Much more interesting that the picked over remains of the "Big East".   Don't know why they wouldn't try to get VCU instead of Richmond or Siena in their eastern division.

---------------------------------------------
--- 48wolfpacker wrote:

abcfan2005 wrote: ^Davidson should try to get in there. It's obviously not Cathloic schools only.

Davidson wouldn't even move to the CAA, so they're not leaving the Southern conference.

---------------------------------------------

If asked to join the "Catholic 7" they'd have to say yes, I would think. Don't think they'll be asked, however. SoCon to CAA was not as big of a move (CAA still better than SoCon in what is important to Davidson).

Thom, VCU was mentioned before as a possible addition. Think Dunlow got his info from Fienstein, not sure how accurate. Could be that the Catholic schools don't want a big state university in their group. Stick with your own kind.

wrcwolf wrote:

---------------------------------------------
--- 48wolfpacker wrote:

abcfan2005 wrote: ^Davidson should try to get in there. It's obviously not Cathloic schools only.

Davidson wouldn't even move to the CAA, so they're not leaving the Southern conference.

---------------------------------------------

If asked to join the "Catholic 7" they'd have to say yes, I would think. Don't think they'll be asked, however. SoCon to CAA was not as big of a move (CAA still better than SoCon in what is important to Davidson).

Thom, VCU was mentioned before as a possible addition. Think Dunlow got his info from Fienstein, not sure how accurate. Could be that the Catholic schools don't want a big state university in their group. Stick with your own kind.

That is what I hear, they want to try and stick with the private schools to keep the same 'feel' at each school. VCU would fit as a team, but not as a university.

Looks like the "Catholic 7" will get to keep the Big East name, begin play Jul. 1 of this year and have 10 teams. Xavier, Butler. May stop at ten or go on to 12 with options of Dayton,St Louis,Siena, and maybe Creighton vying for the final spot or spots in the '14 season.


May just push Notre Dame to the ACC in '13 as well. If unable to join the ACC in 2013-14, the Fighting Irish would consider spending one season in the Catholic 7 league before moving to the ACC in 2014

The conference formerly known as the Big East is going to be sorry looking once all this plays out. The ACC is next.

dunlow66 wrote: Looks like the "Catholic 7" will get to keep the Big East name, begin play Jul. 1 of this year and have 10 teams. Xavier, Butler. May stop at ten or go on to 12 with options of Dayton,St Louis,Siena, and maybe Creighton vying for the final spot or spots in the '14 season.


May just push Notre Dame to the ACC in '13 as well. If unable to join the ACC in 2013-14, the Fighting Irish would consider spending one season in the Catholic 7 league before moving to the ACC in 2014

I'm not understanding why the football schools would give up both the Big East name AND the basketball tournament contract for MSG.

Because Madison Square doesn't want the football schools and MSG has a clause in the contract that gives MSG an out if there were major changes in conference membership.

Looks as if the "football schools" will be getting the majority (maybe all) of the exit fees and NCAA basketball units for the name and ability to leave early for the "Catholic 7". That's a significant amount of coin for UConn, USF and Cincy.

FOX gets their wish and needed inventory for their start-ups Fox Sports 1 and Fox Sports 2 should the "Catholic 7" start next year. Will be very difficult for the AD's of those schools and the conference office, which they don't have yet, to get things started, however. Good luck.

For those worried about the ACC Tourney going to MSG for multiple years, this is good news for you most likely.

As for the "football schools" conference being "sorry looking", they will be fine in basketball. UConn, Cincy, Memphis and Temple will still be national players to some degree. Getting Houston back to their Guy Lewis' days, would help as well. For football, they will be battling the MWC for the #6 conference on a yearly basis and the automatic spot in one of the big bowls.

Any word (or random speculation) on what the new name of the football conference will be?

Zhuge1 wrote: Any word (or random speculation) on what the new name of the football conference will be?

Conference USA.... oh umm, errr... wait, how about Conference America?

Zhuge1 wrote: Any word (or random speculation) on what the new name of the football conference will be?

The Little East

^^^ I'd bid it out to the highest corporate offer. Similar to naming rights for stadiums and arenas. Why not? It's not like college athletics is afraid of corporate logos anymore. Get some extra revenue.

Possible ramifications of the "Catholic 7" move. An A-10 offer to Davidson will be more difficult for them to turn down than the CAA offer.

www.usatoday.com/story/sports/...action/1955419/

ESPN reported Thursday that Butler and Xavier would be added to the Catholic 7 immediately, with Creighton, Dayton and St. Louis coming behind them in 2014-15.

If that comes to fruition, the new league would be acquiring four schools from the A-10 and one from the Valley, leaving those leagues with 10 and nine schools, respectively.

For the A-10, in particular, it would be a difficult blow given that the league's reputation as a basketball power is an at an all-time high this season with the additions of Butler and VCU. But there was nothing commissioner Bernadette McGlade could do to keep it together once the Big East broke up, especially with Fox offering significantly more television revenue for that league.

And now with Charlotte heading back to Conference USA to start up a football program and Temple heading to what's left of the Big East as an all-sports member next season, the A-10 will look much different going forward.

If the A-10 wants to replace schools, it will have options in the Horizon League (Detroit Mercy), the Metro Atlantic (Siena, Fairfield, Manhattan), the Colonial (George Mason, James Madison) or the Southern Conference (Davidson, College of Charleston).

If Creighton leaves, the Valley would love to add St. Louis, but it appears the Billikens are likely headed to the Catholic 7. The replacement would likely come from a pool of Midwestern schools such as Valparaiso (Horizon), Oakland (Summit) or perhaps Oral Roberts (Southland).

Wonder how things will shake out for ECU and Davidson.

Guess Charlotte is set in CUSA. Although, the UCONN/USF/etc group might want to consider adding them. They could turn into a nice football program in a decade or so.

what a great New league to compete with the New ACC in basketball. Did someone say Big??.........what?

abcfan2005 wrote: Wonder how things will shake out for ECU and Davidson.

Guess Charlotte is set in CUSA. Although, the UCONN/USF/etc group might want to consider adding them. They could turn into a nice football program in a decade or so.

Not sure about Davidson, but for ECU it will still be a much better league and more revenue than we are use to getting. As stated above, our hoops league is going to be much better than existing C-USA. UCONN, Cincy, Memphis, Temple, etc are all teams that can be in the top 25 year in and year out.

Football will improve as well with USF being back in our league. Our travel is also going to be significantly improved.

It's really like old C-USA before it was raided by the BE and MWC. That version of C-USA was a very good league.

lostpirate wrote:

abcfan2005 wrote: Wonder how things will shake out for ECU and Davidson.

Guess Charlotte is set in CUSA. Although, the UCONN/USF/etc group might want to consider adding them. They could turn into a nice football program in a decade or so.

Not sure about Davidson, but for ECU it will still be a much better league and more revenue than we are use to getting. As stated above, our hoops league is going to be much better than existing C-USA. UCONN, Cincy, Memphis, Temple, etc are all teams that can be in the top 25 year in and year out.

Football will improve as well with USF being back in our league. Our travel is also going to be significantly improved.

It's really like old C-USA before it was raided by the BE and MWC. That version of C-USA was a very good league.

So, ECU is basicly just going back to  C-USA of a few years ago, what is the improvement again?

Cincinnati, Memphis, Tulane, USF, UCF, Houston, SMU all C-USA alumni

ECU is really just adding Temple and UConn(for now) to the schedule of just a few short years ago while losing Louisville,TCU in football and Marquette, Depaul and St Louis in basketball. WOW what a Coup.

this means that this years ACC season and tourney will be the last one of the old (semi-old) ACC. Just next year we would have all 4 schools playing in the league - Syracuse, Pitt, ND, and Louisville!

wow

OldWolf wrote: this means that this years ACC season and tourney will be the last one of the old (semi-old) ACC. Just next year we would have all 4 schools playing in the league - Syracuse, Pitt, ND, and Louisville!

wow

Louisville has to stay until '14, would mess up the ACC football schedule otherwise

if I was reading correctly, some of the linked articles were indicating that they could be leaving for basketball for *next* basketball season

This fall's football is already set.

dunlow66 wrote:

OldWolf wrote: this means that this years ACC season and tourney will be the last one of the old (semi-old) ACC. Just next year we would have all 4 schools playing in the league - Syracuse, Pitt, ND, and Louisville!

wow

Louisville has to stay until '14, would mess up the ACC football schedule otherwise

Yes, ND had said they were staying with the Old Big East/New Conference USA until 2014, but now that the New Big East is leaving in July of this year all bets are off.
It will be interesting to see if ND joins the ACC this year, the New Big East, or somehow stays with the Old Big East/New Conference USA

OldWolf wrote: if I was reading correctly, some of the linked articles were indicating that they could be leaving for basketball for *next* basketball season

This fall's football is already set.

dunlow66 wrote:

OldWolf wrote: this means that this years ACC season and tourney will be the last one of the old (semi-old) ACC. Just next year we would have all 4 schools playing in the league - Syracuse, Pitt, ND, and Louisville!

wow

Louisville has to stay until '14, would mess up the ACC football schedule otherwise

MegaPack wrote: Yes, ND had said they were staying with the Old Big East/New Conference USA until 2014, but now that the New Big East is leaving in July of this year all bets are off.
It will be interesting to see if ND joins the ACC this year, the New Big East, or somehow stays with the Old Big East/New Conference USA

OldWolf wrote: if I was reading correctly, some of the linked articles were indicating that they could be leaving for basketball for *next* basketball season

This fall's football is already set.

dunlow66 wrote:

OldWolf wrote: this means that this years ACC season and tourney will be the last one of the old (semi-old) ACC. Just next year we would have all 4 schools playing in the league - Syracuse, Pitt, ND, and Louisville!

wow

Louisville has to stay until '14, would mess up the ACC football schedule otherwise

Lot of rumors that Notre Dame will play BBall with the new Big East for one season and then join the ACC as the New Big East expands from 9 to 12 teams. Dont know how feasible that is, but I guess anything is possible right now.

So in keeping the name doesn't that mean that the Catholic 7 schools are actually just kicking the other schools out of the Big East? And saying "SeeYa"

jbwbubba wrote: So in keeping the name doesn't that mean that the Catholic 7 schools are actually just kicking the other schools out of the Big East? And saying "SeeYa"

No, because I think the old schools will still get most of the exit fee money and keep the football automatic bid and NCAA BBall credits

dunlow66 wrote:

lostpirate wrote:

abcfan2005 wrote: Wonder how things will shake out for ECU and Davidson.

Guess Charlotte is set in CUSA. Although, the UCONN/USF/etc group might want to consider adding them. They could turn into a nice football program in a decade or so.

Not sure about Davidson, but for ECU it will still be a much better league and more revenue than we are use to getting. As stated above, our hoops league is going to be much better than existing C-USA. UCONN, Cincy, Memphis, Temple, etc are all teams that can be in the top 25 year in and year out.

Football will improve as well with USF being back in our league. Our travel is also going to be significantly improved.

It's really like old C-USA before it was raided by the BE and MWC. That version of C-USA was a very good league.

So, ECU is basicly just going back to  C-USA of a few years ago, what is the improvement again?

Cincinnati, Memphis, Tulane, USF, UCF, Houston, SMU all C-USA alumni

ECU is really just adding Temple and UConn(for now) to the schedule of just a few short years ago while losing Louisville,TCU in football and Marquette, Depaul and St Louis in basketball. WOW what a Coup.

This isn't a few years ago for starters. The league we're leaving now is a shell of it's former self. Our TV deal is still more money than we've ever been handed and travel will be much better.

Those losses of Louisville, TCU, Cincy, USF, etc from C-USA are now close to a decade old.

^ Correct.

Still better, financially and competively in both football and basketball, than staying in CUSA.

Future Big East football schools conference:

UConn
USF
Cincinnati
Temple
Houston
SMU
Tulane
UCF
Memphis
Navy
ECU

Possible Tulsa addition.

CUSA:

UAB
Marshall
Rice
UTEP (potential move to MWC?)
Tulsa (potential move to Big East football schools)
Southern Miss
Charlotte
FIU
FAU
Louisiana Tech
Middle Tennessee State
North Texas
Old Dominion
Texas - San Antonio

Take out FAU had ECU stayed in CUSA.