TCU to Big East official according to ESPN

[fairweatherfan]

It is just bizarre how the Big East has expanded to the non-East. College sports have become so far removed from education.

Not the most bizarre thing - doesn't the Big 10 have 12 teams and the Big 12 have 10 now (or maybe next year)? 

I hope this is just for football, I don't think the travel or the competition TCU would provide in basketball would help the league.

[Eja117]

TCU to the Big East.....bet they didn't see that coming.

http://sports.espn.go.com/dallas/ncf/news/story?id=5862368

You can probably book your tickets to the TCU vs insert SEC wannabe here for the 2012 BCS championship game.

If the BCS thinks their problem will just go away they are completely wrong.

The Big East also has invited D1AA champ Villanova

[Eja117]

Why not the big 12?

Because the BCS fudged them over for so long they are now going to return the favor. Let's see them make the strength of schedule arguments against them now

[RebusRankin]

Why doesn't your government declare the BSC illegal? Classic monopoly.

[Eja117]

Why doesn't your government declare the BSC illegal? Classic monopoly.

The government is more impotent than Hef without his little blue pills. No way could they solve a simple problem like college football  

[Moranis]

It is just bizarre how the Big East has expanded to the non-East. College sports have become so far removed from education.

Not the most bizarre thing - doesn't the Big 10 have 12 teams and the Big 12 have 10 now (or maybe next year)? 

I hope this is just for football, I don't think the travel or the competition TCU would provide in basketball would help the league.

it is for all 20 sports that TCU plays.

[Eja117]

I could have sworn I heard on WEEI today that Umass will join the MAC, but I didn't see anything about it on the MAC web site, UMAss website, or espn.com.

I think it could hurt their strength of schedule.  Just kidding. Sorta. 

[fairweatherfan]

It is just bizarre how the Big East has expanded to the non-East. College sports have become so far removed from education.

Not the most bizarre thing - doesn't the Big 10 have 12 teams and the Big 12 have 10 now (or maybe next year)? 

I hope this is just for football, I don't think the travel or the competition TCU would provide in basketball would help the league.

it is for all 20 sports that TCU plays.

Uck.  Hopefully they find a way to kick out DePaul before then so at least they can stay at 16 in basketball.

[RebusRankin]

Why doesn't your government declare the BSC illegal? Classic monopoly.

The government is more impotent than Hef without his little blue pills. No way could they solve a simple problem like college football  

Like Canada's then.

[Donoghus]

It is just bizarre how the Big East has expanded to the non-East. College sports have become so far removed from education.

Not the most bizarre thing - doesn't the Big 10 have 12 teams and the Big 12 have 10 now (or maybe next year)? 

I hope this is just for football, I don't think the travel or the competition TCU would provide in basketball would help the league.

it is for all 20 sports that TCU plays.

Uck.  Hopefully they find a way to kick out DePaul before then so at least they can stay at 16 in basketball.

Aw man, don't dog on the Blue Demons.  They're just on a signficant downturn. 

They have a decent basketball history too.  George Mikan, Rod Strickland, Mark Aguirre, even "Q".  I'd hate to see the one link to Big East hoops in Chicagoland disappear.

[fairweatherfan]

It is just bizarre how the Big East has expanded to the non-East. College sports have become so far removed from education.

Not the most bizarre thing - doesn't the Big 10 have 12 teams and the Big 12 have 10 now (or maybe next year)? 

I hope this is just for football, I don't think the travel or the competition TCU would provide in basketball would help the league.

it is for all 20 sports that TCU plays.

Uck.  Hopefully they find a way to kick out DePaul before then so at least they can stay at 16 in basketball.

Aw man, don't dog on the Blue Demons.  They're just on a signficant downturn. 

They have a decent basketball history too.  George Mikan, Rod Strickland, Mark Aguirre, even "Q".  I'd hate to see the one link to Big East hoops in Chicagoland disappear.

DePaul has a *great* basketball history, but they have a lousy basketball present and the future doesn't look good either.  And they have zero Big East history.  I'd like to see it stay at 16 - which is pretty bloated as it is - and DePaul's the weakest link by far.  Not that it'll happen anyway.

[Donoghus]

It is just bizarre how the Big East has expanded to the non-East. College sports have become so far removed from education.

Not the most bizarre thing - doesn't the Big 10 have 12 teams and the Big 12 have 10 now (or maybe next year)? 

I hope this is just for football, I don't think the travel or the competition TCU would provide in basketball would help the league.

it is for all 20 sports that TCU plays.

Uck.  Hopefully they find a way to kick out DePaul before then so at least they can stay at 16 in basketball.

Aw man, don't dog on the Blue Demons.  They're just on a signficant downturn. 

They have a decent basketball history too.  George Mikan, Rod Strickland, Mark Aguirre, even "Q".  I'd hate to see the one link to Big East hoops in Chicagoland disappear.

DePaul has a *great* basketball history, but they have a lousy basketball present and the future doesn't look good either.  And they have zero Big East history.  I'd like to see it stay at 16 - which is pretty bloated as it is - and DePaul's the weakest link by far.  Not that it'll happen anyway.

I really wish they would play their games on their Lincoln Park campus rather than making the trek to Rosemont to play "home games".  They could get such a great crowd and turnout going if they actually played in the city. I think that, in turn, would help recruiting.  However, given the amount of land they have to work with in the city, a quality sized arena will probably never happen. 

I do like the fact there is a Big East presence out here.

[Moranis]

Beginning of the end of the Big East, especially if Villanova doesn't move up from FCS.  Even if Nova moves up, I still think the football schools will break away and form a separate conference at some point though it would probably be delayed a few years.  If Nova says no (and they have until the end of the year), then the football schools will add someone else as a full member if not 3 more (Central Florida, Houston, and Memphis are most likely and are in order of preferance) and more then likely form their own conference.

I would think the remaining 8 non-football schools would then look to add 2 additional schools to get back to 10.  I would think Xavier would be at the top of the list with Butler, UMass, Dayton, and Temple all in the mix as well. 

[nickagneta]

Beginning of the end of the Big East, especially if Villanova doesn't move up from FCS.  Even if Nova moves up, I still think the football schools will break away and form a separate conference at some point though it would probably be delayed a few years.  If Nova says no (and they have until the end of the year), then the football schools will add someone else as a full member if not 3 more (Central Florida, Houston, and Memphis are most likely and are in order of preferance) and more then likely form their own conference.

I would think the remaining 8 non-football schools would then look to add 2 additional schools to get back to 10.  I would think Xavier would be at the top of the list with Butler, UMass, Dayton, and Temple all in the mix as well. 

This is completely wrong Moranis.

The Big East is a gigantic money making entity in basketball and the football schools would never pull away from it to form a separate conference especially given that it could risk losing the automatic BCS bid in football if they did. The revenue lost from Big East basketball would be huge.

I have it on good authority from two people within college athletics that the Big East is not in trouble. On the contrary, the TCU addition has bolstered the entire conference and made it stronger. As mentioned above, a reshuffling of teams on the basketball side might be in order but the conference as a whole is strong and healthy.

[Moranis]

Beginning of the end of the Big East, especially if Villanova doesn't move up from FCS.  Even if Nova moves up, I still think the football schools will break away and form a separate conference at some point though it would probably be delayed a few years.  If Nova says no (and they have until the end of the year), then the football schools will add someone else as a full member if not 3 more (Central Florida, Houston, and Memphis are most likely and are in order of preferance) and more then likely form their own conference.

I would think the remaining 8 non-football schools would then look to add 2 additional schools to get back to 10.  I would think Xavier would be at the top of the list with Butler, UMass, Dayton, and Temple all in the mix as well.  

This is completely wrong Moranis.

The Big East is a gigantic money making entity in basketball and the football schools would never pull away from it to form a separate conference especially given that it could risk losing the automatic BCS bid in football if they did. The revenue lost from Big East basketball would be huge.

I have it on good authority from two people within college athletics that the Big East is not in trouble. On the contrary, the TCU addition has bolstered the entire conference and made it stronger. As mentioned above, a reshuffling of teams on the basketball side might be in order but the conference as a whole is strong and healthy.

First, basketball money has nothing to do with automatic bids in football.  The football schools could easily leave and be just fine and not lose the auto bid. 

Second, I didn't say the conference wasn't strong, I just don't see it surviving as a massive 18 (or 20) team conference.  They never last that long especially when there is a great disparity in the size of many of the universities.  By and large the football schools are very large public institutions, the others are not.  And there will still be plenty of money for the football schools in basketball.  Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Connecticut, West Virginia, Louisville, and  Cincinnati are all strong historical programs and good right now (for the most part).  If you add in Memphis you get even better on that end.  

let's say villanova stays at FCS and the football schools do go to the 12 teams I mentioned.  This is a pretty good division breakdown and would be a very good football AND basketball conference.

North
Connecticut
Syracuse
Pittsburgh
West Virginia
Cincinnati
Rutgers

South
Louisville
Memphis
Houston
Texas Christian
Central Florida
South Florida