From Greg Auman - The Big East athletic directors, coaches, and the interim commissioner meet for the past few days in Ponte Vedra, Florida to discuss the fate of the Big East conference during their annual meeting.
With John Marinatto gone (resigned) and the the realignment talks resurfacing once again, the group met with several issues to address and came away with some interesting notes after voting on some top issues.
With John Marinatto gone (resigned) and the the realignment talks resurfacing once again, the group met with several issues to address and came away with some interesting notes after voting on some top issues.
Probably the biggest topic that was voted on was the site of the league championship game, slated to begin in the 2013-2014 season. With a unanimous decision, the members voted for a campus-site instead of the neutral site such as New York city (as Marinatto had once wanted). For the Big East, this is probably one of their smarter decisions in a long time. With the league expanding to the west coast, having a neutral site like NYC would not attract a lot of fan bases, especially those on the west coast. Allowing the team with the best record host the game will grow fan bases and raise the rivalry levels along the league. The Bulls could host an opponent like San Diego State at Raymond James Stadium for the league title in the very near future.
The other issue that was discussed, but no resolution made on this day was the division alignments. With so many new teams reaching all way to California, splitting the league up into two divisions will be a hard call to make. Members said "dozens" of ideas are being floated, from East Coast vs. West Coast, North vs. South, but it has been made clear that geography won't stop the league from creating the divisions. There could be a chance USF ends up in a division with UCF (in-state foe), SMU (picking up one of the Texas teams), Temple (east coast) and eventually San Diego will have to be added to one of the leagues (most likely with Boise, possibly Air Force down the line, but pure speculation on that part). No one knows what will happen with his division but it will be fun to watch right?
On the basketball side of things (if Pitt and Syracuse don't leave after this season) the Big East tournament could have 18 teams in the 2013-2014 season, making for a packed schedule at Madison Square Garden. The league currently has a 5-day lease on the stadium and may have to increase it an extra day or find another venue to play the games at. There could be play-in games for the lower seeds in the tournament, but it's going to be another item to look at later.
The final task talked about it the number of conference games is that the league could move to 8-games once the new members come in and the others leave. Other conferences are moving to 9-games for the conference portion, but staying at 8 is a good thing for USF. It allows them to schedule 4 non-conference opponents, opening the door to schedule more in-state foes like Miami, FSU, or others.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment