Big East Conference founder Dave Gavitt passed away on Friday at the age of 73. My condolences go out to the Gavitt family.
The only solace that I can take is that he won’t be around to watch the systematic dismantling of the Big East.
Eight years after the ACC raided the Big East, taking in Boston College, Virginia Tech and Miami, they’re back at it again. This time, the ACC is playing the victim card. Now, according the UNC Athletic Director Dick Baddour, the ACC needs to protect themselves amidst all of the uncertainty with conference realignment.
The ACC was the initiator of this uncertainty eight years ago. After losing three programs, the Big East was on the verge of dying as a conference, and reached out, taking schools from other conferences. The realignment process had started. The dominoes were falling.
As the rumors started to float in yesterday, I knew that they would turn out to be true, when it seemed that everyone but ACC Commissioner John Swofford was issuing the ‘no comments’. It was obvious that something was up. The ACC is to be congratulated. They, better than any other conference out there, have played their cards perfectly. That they’ve put in gear a process that I think believe will have a negative effect on college sports is obviously irrelevant.
The old cliche is ‘if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em’. The ACC cliche seems to be ‘if you can’t beat ‘em, kill ‘em’. And they’re succeeding.
I am a UConn grad, and a die-hard UConn fan. At this point, my best hope is that UConn ends up in the ACC. As painful as that is for me to deal with, it’s a fate better than death. I just can’t see the Big East surviving this. It was founded as a basketball conference, with football as an afterthought, added much later. The inclusion of so many ‘basketball only’ schools means the conference gets unwieldy if it wants to expand its football membership.
Any other conference alignment comes with even more significant issues. UConn in the Big Ten? Trips get long and UConn doesn’t really strike me as a Big Ten school. There’s also that issue with the requirement that all schools be part of the American Association of Universities.
UConn in the SEC? I know that ‘Big East’ isn’t much of an apt description with members such as DePaul, Marquette, and TCU, but UConn in the Southeastern Conference? The Huskies don’t fit geographically, or as a football powerhouse.
The Big East could reach out to other castoffs, including Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri and Iowa State. These are all fine schools, and fine programs. But what a geographic mess that would be.
I’m afraid that UConn will be left out in the cold.
If UConn moves, say goodbye to most of the Huskies’ rivalries over the last 30 years. Goodbye Syracuse and Jim Boeheim, along with Pittsburgh. So long Georgetown, Villanova, Seton Hall, St. John’s, Providence and all of the basketball only schools. Regardless of how this plays out, the basketball only schools will be elsewhere.
Rest in Peace, Dave Gavitt. Rest in Peace, Big East. No matter what, it won’t be the same.
September 18, 2011 at 1:48 pm |
If UConn does move, it would probably be to the ACC so the Syracuse and Pitt rivalries at least, would remain intact. However I think the ACC remembers that UConn was the prime initiator of the law suit filed against them after they poached the Big East the first time. If there is a lingering bad taste in Swofford’s mouth from that, then it is be unlikely that the ACC wants UConn. UConn’s best hope would then be to stay in the Big East, absorb those mid-western schools that will be homeless after the Big 12 dissolves, and hope against hope that this comparably weak (in football) geographical anomaly of a conference can retain its BCS status.
September 18, 2011 at 10:05 pm |
Thanks for the comment. I don’t think that the ACC will let the lawsuit influence the decision. It will come down to whether the ACC believes that the Huskies will make the league better, competitively and from a ratings perspective. Personally, I think it makes a lot of sense for the ACC to bring UConn in — they restore a rivalry with BC and retain the Syracuse and Pitt rivalries. Personally, I hate the thought of UConn in the All Carolina Conference — the entire league seems to revolve around the Carolina schools, and not only because UNC and Duke are the perennial top 2.
I’m partly with you on your other comments — absent a move to the ACC, the Huskies may need to stay in the Big East and combine with the cast out Big 12 schools. I think they’ll be strong enough in football, I just don’t like the geographic issues, and I don’t think the television contract will be lucrative enough to compete. It also will still suffer from having so many basketball only schools, which means the basketball conference becomes unwieldy to support enough football teams.
Dennis Dodd from cbssports has an interesting article today in which he accuses John Swofford and the ACC of violating a handshake non-poaching agreement with the Big East and Big Ten, and also says that Swofford didn’t notify Big East Commissioner John Marinatto ahead of time — Marinatto supposedly heard the news from cbssports. Personally, I think that Swofford is a snake.