There are two off seasons in college football. The one before spring games and the one after. The one before is bearable because at least there's news about recruiting and your teams big win in the BCS bowl is still fresh in your mind. For me anyway. The one after, however, is filled with long periods of boredom and sprinkles of athletes misbehaving. And then there's stories of the Crimson Permanent Assurance corporate raiders otherwise known as BCS conferences raiding smaller conferences for their best teams. Only this time that story is in reverse as both Memphis and East Carolina are chomping at the bit to get into the Big East.
East Carolina desperately has wanted in to the Big East since the re-formatting a few years ago. They still want to find their way in. Even if just in football.Memphis on the other hand, seems to be in top secret negotiations with the Big East. Even though Mike Tranghese has stated way too many times for me to count that it ain't gonna happen.
The Big East still won't bite. They don't have to. As much as it makes things difficult to schedule in football, even a provisional, part-time new member would likely upset the delicate balance with the basketball schools. Until the conference realizes it has to split, ECU has no chance
Ever since the Memphis Tigers got left behind in the Great Bum Rush to leave Conference USA-- also known as the Big East expansion in 2003-- Tiger fans have had one singular goal. To follow their old rivals from Louisville, and Cincinnati to the greener pastures of the Big East. And here's where it gets interesting. Sources have confirmed to FOX13 Sports that University of Memphis officials have been in serious talks with the Big East about joining the conference.I tend to agree with Charles that there is no way that the Big East is going to move on any of this. East Carolina is a fine football program by Conference USA standards. But would they really bring anything to the table that doesn't already exist? The conference is already littered with programs that seem to be just on the threshold of breaking the top 25. What good would one more do? And if the Big East does split, is there anything else at East Carolina that is Big East worthy?
And as for Memphis, they're kind of the opposite of East Carolina. Good in basketball and not much to speak of in football. And really, does the Big East need another good program in Basketball? Despite what I just said, I'm not down on either school. They both are doing well for themselves where they are at. But it's just not what the Big East needs. The Big East needs another high profile school. Someone that is going to contribute in more than one sport. Yes, I'm looking at you Notre Dame. But since I know you're not looking at me I'm not even going to bother.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-15-2008 @ 10:48PM
ksdksdksd said...
You forget, Memphis would be extremely tough in football if they would ever get a legitimate conference. Right now they are being raided by Alabama, Auburn, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Arkansas, Vanderbilt, Tennessee, and Kentucky. That would change if Memphis was in the Big East. In addition, The other Big East teams would love to infiltrate the rich football recruits of the South.
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5-16-2008 @ 9:28AM
John Radcliff said...
I think that would certainly help, to have a team in that region of the country. But I think recruiting these days has a lot more to do with the realtionships your coaches have with the high school coaches in a region. West Virginia has had some success recruiting in Alabama and Mississippi in recent years. And it has very little to do with West Virginia playing Miss. St. and getting Auburn on the schedule. The assistant coaches (that are mostly gone to Michigan) were from that area or coached there in previous stints.
The schools you have listed are always going to recruit that area, and are always going to win until Memphis has some sustained success and some signature victories. Whether Memphis is in a BCS conference or not.
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6-15-2008 @ 4:00AM
buckpirate said...
Something to consider is that with BCS status an East Carolina program could rise to the level of a WVU or VaTech. What separates these schools from ECU is the dollars that BCS backing brings at this point, plus the cache of being in serious talk for a big bowl game at the end of the year with a successful season, something that ECU currently can't pitch to recruits but still they manage to stay competitive against rival NC programs.
In addition they would bring some successful programs including a baseball program that is always competitive, and BCS money would also possibly trigger a Renaissance within their basketball program. While realistically they may never rival the Tobacco Road schools in hoops, as the only "football school" in the state they could rise to national prominence with time and a bigger budget to work with (and keep coaches with).
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7-27-2008 @ 11:21AM
shake n' bake said...
Well let's look at it this way. The big east has lost a lot, and I mean A LOT of talent to the ACC. That included Virginia Tech, Boston College, and Miami. And currently the ACC is struggling, so that doesn't matter. But now the Big East is not as big as it used to be. They brough in Cincy which is just a mediocure team, not great, not bad. And now, Louisville is starting to enter the Big East cellar with a loss to Syracuse? And South Florida is good, but is not very consistent, with losses to Rutgers (Yay! :) ) at the #2 ranking in the nation and Cincy.
What I'm saying is that ECU being the CUSA football powerhouse that they are and Memphis being the CUSA basketball powerhouse would do plenty good to the Big East in television agreements with better networks and a whole lot more recognition in the middle tier bowls such as the gator bowl or the holiday bowl. Since the big east only has one BCS bowl and all others are lower tier bowls like the sun bowl, meneike car care bowl, papajohns.com bowl, and the international bowl. I think they should add ECU and Memphis to the Big East also because the Big East only has 8 teams and they could become more like the Big Ten or the PAC Ten.
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