And, will they teach Quality? Oh wait, that's Montana, not Idaho.

I think if Notre Dame joined the Big 12 in olympic sports, they would have some openings in their football schedule as the B1G teams drop them from their schedules.
I dont know why I think this, but I dont think the B1G would appreciate Notre Dame joining the Big 12.

Notre Dame routinely only plays Michigan, Michigan State, and Purdue from the Big Ten. I doubt any of them would pass up playing Notre Dame, but other than Michigan, would it really be that punitive towards Notre Dame to not play them? They'd still play their West Coast games against Stanford and USC and East Coast games against Navy, Pitt, and/or BC. If they keep their series with Michigan, are they really losing much by replacing them with a rolling H/H with Texas, plus another rolling game in Texas (probably in Jerry World).

The Big Ten wields plenty of power, but teams like Michigan State and Purdue need Notre Dame on their schedules worse than Notre Dame needs them.

Stop lying Big East. You ain't gonna do shit except roll over and die and kill between 1 and 5 football programs in the process.

If they are intent on holding WVU, Pitt, and Syracuse to playing for three more seasons, what is the logic of adding five teams?

That gives the conference 13 teams for 2013 and 14.

I honestly think Big East will let teams go for 2013, same buyout they initially agreed to, but letting anyone go early is going to cause too much of a scheduling headache since all the Big East teams already need to fill the hole in their schedule caused by TCU leaving.

Exactly. Okie and Texas would be great additions. Im not sure if MSU or Purdue "needs" ND. Its a natural rivalry for Purdue, but monetarily it wouldnt matter. MSU could find someone else.
But, yes, it would be great for ND. It would clear their schedule a little for a Texas and/or Oklahoma.

I don't know enough about those series to comment a whole lot on them, but I do know that Michigan State planted their flag at Notre Dame's 50-yard line a few years after beating them, so I would imagine they see it is a significant rivalry (perhaps just behind Michigan?). I doubt Notre Dame would place Michigan State ahead of Navy, USC, Michigan, or Stanford in their pecking order (and debatably Pitt, BC, or Purdue for that matter).

I feel pretty confident in suggesting that the Michigan State and Purdue alumni, that are paying for season tickets, would much rather see Notre Dame on the schedule than another MAC team or even a middling BCS conference team.

Purdue's not dropping Notre Dame unless Delany pays them to do so and finds another national name that agrees to do home and home series with them. Good luck.

Michigan State has a little more clout, but probably not. Both of those schools have gotten night national TV home games because they played ND early. Michigan State- Kansas State or whatever they'd manage instead is a regional 3:30 game. Purdue is on the BTN instead of ABC.

Michigan can drop them and replace them easily, but the reverse is also true. So ND picks up a 4 year rotation playing home and homes with Oklahoma and Texas instead. Big deal.

If ND isn't #2 for MSU, OSU is. OSU has been a thorn is State's side.

Kansas State is another great case for how football can greatly impact the university. That school was dying until the mid 80s when they changed school Presidents and Bill Snyder led them on their football ascent.

SI

San Diego State is one of the 5 teams?! WTF?

Fuck you, Big East. Go die in a fucking fire. I hope to fuck the Mountain West kicks out Boise State and San Diego State both in all other sports.

Yep, the Big East was the aggressor in this one.

Is it weird to see this paragraph in the ESPN story:


SI

Is it just me, or was every team in the soon to be new Big East a non-AQ school about 5 years ago? Rutgers may have been in the Big East back then, but it just seems like castoffs from Conference USA and the WAC. I can't imagine having those teams is enough to keep AQ status.

But isn't one of the issues that there really is no mechanism to take away AQ status?

So now the Big East has a school in San Diego? Awesome. Can we rename it the Desperate Schools of No Particular Location instead?

BTW...For those who have heard BYU was difficult to work with in regards to the Big East talks, think about the shit storm they were promised with the Comcast/MTN fiasco and nothing lived up to it.

Now the same players are in control with the Big East and was not willing to put anything on paper...so BYU said, we will sign immediately if you agree to this...and they wouldn't obviously..

BYU AD Holmoe in a presser here on 11/28

ksl.com - Cougar Tracks: BYU AD Holmoe on Big East: "There were some uncertainties"

BSU was told that their other sports weren't allowed to remain in the MWC if football left.

I don't really understand the hate here. I am no fan of the Big East, but every other conference is pulling the same shit so what's the difference at this point? I don't blame BSU at all for doing this, they have a chance at AQ status and more revenue. TCU did the same thing if I remember correctly.

I really don't mind whether they strip AQ status or not, but is it possible for the NCAA to step in and remove East from the conference's name?

Oh I don't fault either the conference or the schools for doing what they're doing. I'd do the exact same thing in their case. That doesn't mean I can't despise them for it anyway.

I'm really hoping at this point that the Mountain West just blows up completely. Get out of that shitty TV contract, destroy the piece of shit that is The Mountain, and let the remainder scatter where they may.

Boise's in the Big East? Welcome back to Friday nights on ESPN, Broncos!

"The Big East has been the No. 1 conference in all of basketball, obviously, by the amount of bids," Pitino said. "Now, have you made basketball stronger? No. You're not replacing Syracuse and Pittsburgh, so my hope is that they'll go out there and get a Temple or a Memphis to keep basketball strong."

^--- Pitino, please push for UNLV, then. You want the Big East to stay strong in basketball, go get the best basketball program in the Mountain West.

That probably won't be happening anytime soon considering they recently announced that ridiculous conference merger with Conference USA. A clusterfuck of 30 something crappy football programs with a smidgeon of respectability by a handful of others.

Yeah I know. That shit's going to be ugly. I hate the MW commissioner immensely.

Why doesnt the Big East drop football and remain an Olympic sports conference? They would still make big money from basketball without the revenue drain of below average football?
And then all these new football schools who finally made it into an AQ conference can rename the conference that is fitting.

Rutgers will be the only original team from the Big East left once WVU/Pitt/Cuse leave. Temple was also in the original football conference (along with Miami, VPI, and BC).

I actually think that the BCS has to be quite pleased by this. With TCU, Utah, Houston, UCF, SMU and Boise all now in AQ conferences, the likelihood of a BCS buster has been considerably minimized (BYU, Hawaii, maybe ECU or Tulsa are the only schools that could be a threat now), opening up space for more AQs.

Hey Rick, I'd bet the Big XII would be more than happy to invite Louisville (and Cincy) if you want to be in a basketball conference.

For what it is worth, there have been reports that Louisville coaches have been telling recruits that they will be in the Big 12 in 2013 (not that coaches ever lie to recruits :) ).

One of the WVU insiders indicated that the Big 12 is looking at moving to 12 teams and that they are examining a model that has each team playing 10 or 11 conference games (with 11, each team would play a rotating, neutral site game each year), with no championship. I think that sounds awful, but it would create a ton of TV content to sell, I guess.

I was impressed with how the UNLV basketball team played in the UNC game. Dave Rice has them looking good. This coming from a UNC alumnus.

Boise State got added for competitiveness reasons and to shore up the league's profile. The others got added for media reasons. Houston, Orlando, Dallas and San Diego give the league a chance to vie for a decent TV contract and that's what this was about.

The nomenclature might be silly, but in this landscape it doesn't matter when the Big 10 has 12 teams and the Big 12 has 10 teams and so forth.

I really don't understand how so many people are concerned with the sanctity of the word "east" in the name of the conference. The sports landscape has changed a lot in the last 3 years, let alone the last 30+ since a bunch of northeast basketball schools got together.

Exactly. But they're so annoyed by it, it's the silliest part of this to be annoyed about.

An mid-major team by any other name ...

Can we just call it The Cesspool?

I don't get it either. The Pac 12 has a team in Colorado. I would also argue that Missouri is not really in the Southeast. None of it really matters because in 5-10 years it will all have changed again anyway.

It's obviously because of the east coast bias.

I think one of the more interesting and underreported aspects of the conference shifting is that the state of Texas will go from having four AQ teams, all of whom were members of the Big 12, to now having 7 AQ teams, scattered between three BCS conferences. The state certainly has a wealth of HS talent and I'm sure the University of Texas will continue to get their pick of players, but it will be interesting to see if A&M, Tech, and Baylor (and the out of state schools that have made hay there over the years) will be diminished as local kids in Houston and DFW have better options, closer to home.

I don't like the Boise and SDSU addition for the Big East (although I understand why BSU needed to be added and why it is beneficial for both school and conference), but I would have liked to have seen an all-sports Big East with the three all-sport additions + TCU a few years ago.

As a WVU fan, I would have enjoyed having a conference with multiple Florida and Texas teams and I think it could have really made for a nice, all-sports conference with 12 teams (had it been done before Pitt/Cuse/WVU/TCU moved on).

I'm happy for Boise State that someone was desperate enough to add them to an AQ conference. The rest I really have no opinion on. From my perspective, I'm not sure I see a difference between those schools in CUSA or wherever and the Big East. They're all just "other schools" whose scores whiz by on Saturdays.

That would be better if the South was below the West instead of above the East.

Well, I guess when the Big 10 has 12 teams, it really doesn't matter that the Big East goes to San Diego.

Having mediocre football in the fall keeps the Big East name up there and the non-football schools alone would be a solid Catholic league for basketball but not elite near the top of the conferences. Also, whichever side votes to separate and change the name loses all of the NCAA basketball credits, which was $23 million for the Big East in 2009-10, essentially the equal of getting two BCS bids in a season.

@PreSnapRead Rutgers is about 600 miles closer to Caracas, Venezuela than it is to San Diego State.