Post by elp525 on Sept 21, 2011 7:26:06 GMT -5
September 20, 2011
by Ben Kercheval
CollegeFootballTalk.com
Big East officials, including university athletic directors and presidents from football member schools, are set to meet in New York tonight to “examine every option for every scenario and that they will be ready to act quickly should the opportunity present itself.”
That may, or may not, include opportunities to pursue the following teams: East Carolina, Navy and Air Force.
According to (*winces* please don’t hurt me) Brett McMurphy of CBSSports, both Navy and Air Force were being discussed as football-only members about a week prior to the announcement that Syracuse and Pittsburgh would be departing for the ACC. Reportedly, no formal invitation was extended by the league, but the conversations between the parties were “extensive”.
“There were discussions and dialogues on a number of issues,” said source with knowledge of the talks. “The question now is: what is the Big East going to look like in the future? How do they right the ship? I don’t think they even know that.”
As the Big East has flirted — but mostly sat on its butt — with expansion for the last year, Navy’s name has come up on a recurring basis. So has East Carolina’s, but the Big East has made it abundantly clear that they want the Pirates like the ACC wants West Virginia.
That reportedly didn’t stop the Pirates from applying though for the 27th time.
No, seriously.
Pete Thamel of the New York Times tweets that “East Carolina (again) applied to the Big East today. They didn’t want it a secret, as ’50 people were copied on the e-mail.’”
And you know what? That doesn’t even surprise me in the least bit.
As conference realignment reaches comical proportions, about the only thing we can guarantee is that institutions are talking to whoever will listen. Additionally, only a handful of people — if that — really know what’s going on with each scenario.
So, until something is finalized (and who knows when that’ll be), we get to discuss the possibility of teams like Air Force moving to the Big East.
by Ben Kercheval
CollegeFootballTalk.com
Big East officials, including university athletic directors and presidents from football member schools, are set to meet in New York tonight to “examine every option for every scenario and that they will be ready to act quickly should the opportunity present itself.”
That may, or may not, include opportunities to pursue the following teams: East Carolina, Navy and Air Force.
According to (*winces* please don’t hurt me) Brett McMurphy of CBSSports, both Navy and Air Force were being discussed as football-only members about a week prior to the announcement that Syracuse and Pittsburgh would be departing for the ACC. Reportedly, no formal invitation was extended by the league, but the conversations between the parties were “extensive”.
“There were discussions and dialogues on a number of issues,” said source with knowledge of the talks. “The question now is: what is the Big East going to look like in the future? How do they right the ship? I don’t think they even know that.”
As the Big East has flirted — but mostly sat on its butt — with expansion for the last year, Navy’s name has come up on a recurring basis. So has East Carolina’s, but the Big East has made it abundantly clear that they want the Pirates like the ACC wants West Virginia.
That reportedly didn’t stop the Pirates from applying though for the 27th time.
No, seriously.
Pete Thamel of the New York Times tweets that “East Carolina (again) applied to the Big East today. They didn’t want it a secret, as ’50 people were copied on the e-mail.’”
And you know what? That doesn’t even surprise me in the least bit.
As conference realignment reaches comical proportions, about the only thing we can guarantee is that institutions are talking to whoever will listen. Additionally, only a handful of people — if that — really know what’s going on with each scenario.
So, until something is finalized (and who knows when that’ll be), we get to discuss the possibility of teams like Air Force moving to the Big East.
