The Big East  commissioner, John Marinatto, has resigned.  He's been under fire from the basketball playing members (DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, St. John's Villanova, and Seton Hall) who felt they didn't get enough say in expansion talks. In fact, the basketball schools blocked a TV deal he'd negotiated.  Villanova has football but not at D1; Notre Dame is indepedent in football.

Louisville athletic director Tom Jurich was a close confident of Marinatto and his pending departure has pushed the Cardinals to further consider the Big 12 if they can get an invitation from the current 10-team league, a source said.

Also, Connecticut is known to have coveted a move to the ACC.

Boise State, who's slated to join the Big East in football and the WAC for everything else, is considering a move to the Big West for their non-football sports.  Could they return to the Moutain West?  'No', says the commissioner. 'Boise and San Diego St. can't return unless they do all sports."

The Mountain West, which just added San Jose St. and Utah St., considered Idaho and New Mexico St. also.  New Mexico actively campaigned for N.M. State and it's still possible both schools can be added.

Posted by alblack56 on 5/7/2012 2:00:00 PM (view original):
The Big East  commissioner, John Marinatto, has resigned.  He's been under fire from the basketball playing members (DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, St. John's Villanova, and Seton Hall) who felt they didn't get enough say in expansion talks. In fact, the basketball schools blocked a TV deal he'd negotiated.  Villanova has football but not at D1; Notre Dame is indepedent in football.

Louisville athletic director Tom Jurich was a close confident of Marinatto and his pending departure has pushed the Cardinals to further consider the Big 12 if they can get an invitation from the current 10-team league, a source said.

Also, Connecticut is known to have coveted a move to the ACC.

Boise State, who's slated to join the Big East in football and the WAC for everything else, is considering a move to the Big West for their non-football sports.  Could they return to the Moutain West?  'No', says the commissioner. 'Boise and San Diego St. can't return unless they do all sports."

The Mountain West, which just added San Jose St. and Utah St., considered Idaho and New Mexico St. also.  New Mexico actively campaigned for N.M. State and it's still possible both schools can be added.

Really hoping the change in commissioners brings in some sanity to the Big East.  The desire to mvoe to a national conference isn't something they really wanted to do.  Now that the BCS AQ is dead...or will soon be, having schools from Cali to Conn. really doesn't make a lot of logisitcal sense.  Admit the mistake now while there is still time.

The basketball-only teams should split off and form their own conference. That was the original intent of the Big East, anyway.

DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, St. John's, Villanova, Seton Hall and Notre Dame would be a great start. Perhaps add some strong Midwestern basketball schools like Xavier, Dayton, St. Louis and Butler to give Notre Dame some natural rivals. 

The Big East made a collossal error in 1982, when they rejected Penn State's application for membership. PSU needed 6 of 8 Big East members for acceptance, but they fell a single vote short. Imagine how different things would have been if Penn State football had been in the Big East since the early 1980's. They would have been regarded as a much more legit football conference. Maybe Florida State joins the Big East in 1992, instead of the ACC. Maybe Notre Dame joins as a full-fledged member (probably not, but who knows?). And you almost certainly wouldn't have had the mass exodus of its football-playing members (Miami, BC, Va Tech, Syracuse, Pitt, West Virginia).

Posted by alblack56 on 5/7/2012 4:18:00 PM (view original):
The basketball-only teams should split off and form their own conference. That was the original intent of the Big East, anyway.

DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, St. John's, Villanova, Seton Hall and Notre Dame would be a great start. Perhaps add some strong Midwestern basketball schools like Xavier, Dayton, St. Louis and Butler to give Notre Dame some natural rivals. 

Thought I read somewhere that ND wasn't interested.

Posted by professor17 on 5/7/2012 5:15:00 PM (view original):
The Big East made a collossal error in 1982, when they rejected Penn State's application for membership. PSU needed 6 of 8 Big East members for acceptance, but they fell a single vote short. Imagine how different things would have been if Penn State football had been in the Big East since the early 1980's. They would have been regarded as a much more legit football conference. Maybe Florida State joins the Big East in 1992, instead of the ACC. Maybe Notre Dame joins as a full-fledged member (probably not, but who knows?). And you almost certainly wouldn't have had the mass exodus of its football-playing members (Miami, BC, Va Tech, Syracuse, Pitt, West Virginia).

Just would have been another team to defect later.

Posted by alblack56 on 5/7/2012 5:08:00 AM (view original):

Posted by digitalv on 5/6/2012 7:41:00 PM (view original):

Posted by plane129 on 5/3/2012 4:33:00 PM (view original):
Conference USA has added North Texas and Florida International from the Sun Belt and La. Tech from the WAC.  Charlotte (Atlantic 10) and Old Dominion (Colonial) may join them as well.

If Charlotte leaves, look for the Atlantic 10 to go for VCU and George Mason.  They added Butler yesterday

wonder who the Horizon will add now. Possibly Oakland out of the Summit League?

Oakland seems to be the favorite. DII Wayne State is also being mentioned. Both schools would give the Horizon a presence in the coveted Detroit market.

Without Butler, there are only five Horizon teams playing baseball. They'll lose their automatic bid for baseball if a team isn't added within 2 years.

Can't see Wayne St leaving the GLIAC anytime soon, unless they're not big fans of all the new teams the GLIAC has added over the past couple years

Just read an interesting commentary about Atlantic 10 expansion.  If they only take one....George Mason or VCU, which should it be?

The writer's main points:
1)  Based on the KenPom ratings, only once in the past 5 years would George Mason have finished in the top 6 in the Atlantic 10. VCU would've been in the top 4 each season.
2) George Mason hasn't shown an interest financially towards improving their program.  Their assistant coaches are underpaid and readily leave.  VCU, on the other hand, has invested in their program.

His conclusion:  Go with VCU. George Mason would be another Fordham.

One pitfall: the future of the Big East. If the seven basketball schools split off, Xavier and Dayton would be natural additions. Losing those two programs would make the Atlantic 10 less attractive to VCU.

from Dr. Saturday at Yahoo.sports

If Appalachian State is headed for the Sun Belt Conference, athletic director Charlie Cobb doesn't know about it.

Cobb sent out a message to fans via Appalachian State's athletic website saying the Mountaineers, who are currently in the FCS, are in talks with Conference USA and have been for the past year.

That dispels the rumor that the Sun Belt Conference was considering adding Appalachian State and New Mexico State. Well, the Sun Belt could be considering Appalachian State, but its clear from the not the Mountaineers aren't considering the conference back.

That leaves the Sun Belt with two potential holes to fill for football-playing schools if it wants to play in divisions and have a championship game. Of course, New Mexico State and Idaho, the two remaining football-playing teams in the WAC, are hoping to be those two teams, though Sun Belt commissioner Karl Benson told the Las Cruces Sun on Monday evening that the addition of New Mexico State "has not even been discussed" and that expansion west of Texas was still up in the air. Benson said more expansion probably wouldn't be discussed until the league meetings on May 22.

If — and it's a big if — New Mexico State and Idaho end up in the Sun Belt, it might be as football-only participants. That would actually might allow the WAC to remain together as an Olympic sport conference.

I just came across the bracket for the 1948 NAIA championship.   Louisville defeated Indiana St. in the finals.  Indiana St. was coached by John Wooden who had turned down inviations the previous two seasons because his black player wasn't allowed to participate.  The NAIA relented in 1948. The Final Four also  included Xavier and Hamline

Other teams in the 32-team field included: Gonzaga, BYU, Arizona St. Iowa St., So. Illinois,  Marshall, San Jose, and Montana.

The first NAIA tournament was held  in 1937 and was founded by Dr. James Naismith, the inventor of the game.

The Syracuse Post-Standard summarizes some recent articles about whether Florida St. and Clemson might bolt the ACC for the Big 12, in light of the recent ACC/ESPN television deal.

http://blog.syracuse.com/sports/2012/05/will_the_accs_new_television_d.html

Bud Elliott of Tomahwk Nation summed it up best: 

Florida State needs to make whatever move it can to secure its long-term financial future. Whether that is a move to the Big XII, the SEC, or leveraging a potential move to gain concessions from the ACC, I can't be sure. What I am sure of, however, is that FSU is going to struggle to compete with neighbors Florida and Georgia if SEC schools are earning roughly $100 million more than the Seminoles over a ten-year span. And that may be a conservative number.

VCU is moving to the Atlantic-10.  Good move for them. George Mason will regret staying in the CAA.

A-10 is getting STRONG now. First Butler and now VCU, they could be threatening to move from Mid-Major conference to Major

Butler and VCU more than make up for the loss of Temple and Charlotte

The Colonial Athletic Association may be expanding.  but VMI isn't being considered, primariy from a financial standpoint. VMI basketball coach Duggar Baucom reaped $135,000 in total pay this year and will get a raise of less than $10,000 next season. By comparison, VCU men's basketball coach Shaka Smart earned $1.2 million in total pay this year - one season after steering the Rams to the 2011 Final Four.

Recent losses for the Colonial:

 1) Georgia State will leave in 2012-13 to join the Sun Belt and move up to FBS football.
2) Old Dominion is leaving for Conference-USA
3) VCU is going to the Atlantic- 10
4)  Football-only member UMass is moving to the MAC
5) Football-only member Rhode Island is going to the Northeast

If my count is correct, only Towson, Delaware, James Madison and William & Mary will be playing both CAA football AND basketball.
Football-only members are: Maine, New Hampshire, Villanova and Richmond
Basketball-only schools are: Drexel, George Mason, Northeastern, UNC-Wilmington, and Hofstra.

If the conference wants to add a school for both sports, they could go for Coastal Carolina from the Big South or Stony Brook (Big South for football; American East in basketball) .  If they want a basketball only team, Davidson (Southern Conf) is a possibility