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BIG EAST FOOTBALL APPROACHING CROSSROADS?

Expansion possibilities threaten league’s viability

By Raphielle Johnson

The company line following the BCS meetings in Phoenix last month was that the Big Ten Conference would wait until December to issue invites to possible expansion targets, staying on course instead of accelerating the process as rumored. That may have been thrown for a loop if the report put out by 810 WHB in Kansas City on Monday has any truth to it. According to the Kansas City-based ESPN affiliate the Big Ten will invite four institutions to join the league: Missouri, Nebraska, Notre Dame and Rutgers. Is there truth to the report or is it merely speculation from “sources” that could be wrong? That’s the question and the report was followed by denials from those intimately involved with the process.

All four schools issued denials on Monday and with an issue such as this it’s difficult to find the truth in the midst of so many rumors. But well before this day the Big East had a simple decision to make. Is the league proactive, making a move with the idea of beating the Big Ten to the punch and gaining a little leverage for itself? Or does the Big East go the reactive route, acting only after it knows what the Big Ten’s course of action will be? You can’t blame Big East loyalists who’ve had flashbacks to the ACC’s calling of three schools back in 2003-04 when it comes to the latter course of action.

The first move the Big East made was to bring on former NFL commissioner (and Georgetown alumnus) Paul Tagliabue as a special advisor to help in advancing the conference. Tagliabue’s first “move” was to send a shot in the direction of the Big Ten in an interview last month with Pete Thamel of the New York Times. Tagliabue questioned the worth of the Big Ten expanding with media markets in mind, asking the following question:

“Is Minnesota and Rutgers going to get a big rating on Long Island? Give me a break. Every game isn’t Michigan and Michigan State. Am I going to rush home from a tennis game on Saturday to watch Minnesota and Rutgers if I live on Long Island?”

With all due respect, the same could have been asked about a matchup between DePaul and Providence on the basketball court when the Big East made the move to expand to 16 teams. Big Ten members received in upwards of $22 million dollars from revenues this past year; Big East football-playing members took home just under one-third of that. The main motivation for this move would be to spread the brand of both the conference and the highly lucrative Big Ten Network while also ensuring that the new members are good fits for the conference.

Tagliabue may be correct in that someone who lives on Long Island would have little interest in a Minnesota/Rutgers matchup, but so long as the Big Ten can get cable service providers in the New York metropolitan area to carry its network without charging extraordinary fees to do so the “mission” would be accomplished. Hate to say it but the words seemed a bit similar to what former Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese said in a press conference on the heels of the ACC’s intentions becoming known back in 2003.

“This [Miami’s pending decision] will be the most disastrous blow to intercollegiate athletics in my lifetime,” he said. “It’s wrong. I don’t want to hear about previous pieces of expansion. People were not damaged (then). No one has been hurt. People wanted to leave in those cases (Basketball Warfare by Kevin McNamara, 2007).” Tranghese went on to say that “I’ve heard that what happens to us is an unintended consequence. It is not an unintended consequence. It’s there, they see it and I don’t sense one iota of concern about it (Basketball Warfare by Kevin McNamara, 2007).”

How does this apply to the current situation? If the idea of the Big Ten looking to move to sixteen members is true then Big East Football is in serious danger of falling off the landscape. The four schools above would only make fifteen, meaning that the Big Ten would need one other school to round out the group, and with Pittsburgh and Syracuse being two hot names earlier in the speculation process the Big East could be down to six FBS members. And that’s if Notre Dame does a stunning 180 and decides that they want to give up their independence. But if they do what many expect them to do and stick to their figurative guns the Big Ten either stays at 14 or they go to 16 by adding two more schools.

And a move to sixteen would likely cost the Big East three FBS members, forcing them to decide whether to make their own additions in order to keep Big East Football alive or allowing the remaining members to look for the best possible deal. Sixteen teams would likely set off dominoes throughout the collegiate landscape resulting in the birth of “super conferences” as the SEC, ACC, Pac-10 and Big 12 make moves in order to ensure their places at the table in the future. Another raid of Conference USA (and maybe even looking at teams in the Mid-American Conference) would do little to preserve the Big East’s BCS bid, forcing the remaining football representatives to look towards the ACC (or maybe even the SEC) in order to keep their football programs alive.

What could the Big East do in order to keep its football setup alive? They’ve begun to investigate the viability of their own network, but that would likely fall under the “too late” column. Possible numbers in terms of revenue and cable providers would be of the “hopeful” variety while the Big Ten Network obviously already offers concrete numbers with more likely to follow. Does Big East commissioner John Marinatto make the move of offering schools already in BCS conferences (i.e. – Boston College, Maryland, Penn State, etc.) membership in order to hold off the Big Ten?

Far-fetched to say the least; any reasonable candidate already in a BCS conference takes home more money now than they would in the Big East unless the conference were to offer a financial package they couldn’t refuse. And the idea of prepping a Villanova to move up would be a tough sell to the current membership despite the Wildcats’ success as an FCS member; Georgetown (0-11, 0-6 Patriot League in 2009) being sold as a candidate to move up would get the person who proposed such an idea laughed out of the room.

This leaves one possible move for the Big East to consider, one that Connecticut head football coach Randy Edsall said in a luncheon meeting of the Northeastern Connecticut Chamber of Commerce a couple of weeks ago has been brought up by a few of the football coaches. The idea: the Big East issues Notre Dame the “play football in the league or all of your other sports leave” ultimatum. Big East football coaches have wanted a ninth member for some time due to the relief it would offer in regards to scheduling, and at worst Notre Dame could be nudged towards joining the Big Ten to give them 12 members.

But the success of that hinges on the Big Ten’s willingness to stop at twelve; Monday’s rumor (and other statements recently) show that the conference would have no problem with going beyond that number. And who’s to say that the Irish would automatically join the Big Ten? They could keep football independent and look to join a league such as the Atlantic 10…or end up somewhere else. There are far too many moving parts at this stage to think that pushing Notre Dame out would automatically “save” Big East Football.

The other aspect that would have to come to fruition in order for the ultimatum idea to work: the other BCS conferences telling Notre Dame that they’d no longer have their “own” seat at the table. But what would motivate a league like the Big Ten or SEC to do that when they’re making millions as it is? At first glance an ultimatum looks to be the way for the Big East to go, but the more you look at it (also, keep in mind the seven non-football members) the less realistic that option becomes.

But the Big East has to do something at this point; the question is whether or not they have the ability to do anything of consequence before the Big Ten comes to a decision. The college landscape has Big East Football in check; will it be “checkmate” come December (if not earlier)? Many institutions nervously await the answer.

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