Legally or morally, it's not unreasonable. It's just that in the circumstance of losing three major schools and trying to convince five or more new ones, it strikes me as lacking vision. I think the clause was mostly intended to cover scheduling quirks should one school leave, whereas this is a widespread revamp of the entire league. Seems to me the best solution would be to milk Pitt/Cuse/WVU for every dollar you can in exchange for the carrot of leaving in 2012, and then focus on rebranding with your new members.
I think letting schools leave early, and thus threatening the stability and future of your conference, especially its AQ status, to grab some short term bucks would indicate a serious lack of vision.
richardjustice Richard Justice BREAKING: West Virginia hoops coach Bob Huggins to help UT counterpart Rick Barnes come up with an inbounds play that works. richardjustice Richard Justice BREAKING: West Virginia legislature to honor Vince Young by giving him the state. richardjustice Richard Justice BREAKING: West Virginia University announces it's accepting designs for a campus statue honoring DeLoss Dodds. richardjustice Richard Justice To the citizens of West Virginia: Demand your cable providers carry the Longhorn Network. If you know what's good for you. UT hearts WVU. richardjustice Richard Justice Doesn't WVU have to pass a Big 12 exam? "Yes, DeLoss. Great idea, DeLoss. You should be king of the world, DeLoss." Welcome to Big 12, WVU!
Eh, the AQ status isn't going to be threatened if you're bringing in more teams than you had before. At least not from a volume standpoint. From a quality standpoint, maybe... but you're going to have to answer that question eventually, regardless, so why not deal with it now?
IIRC, quality trumps quantity in the AQ determination, bigtime. Because keeping Pitt, , Syr, WV on the book for two more years will at least guarantee you maintain AQ through the next round of evaluation. If you let them bail now, you may lose your AQ in the next cycle. Plus, if you keep these teams on the books, in particular WV, and complete the process of adding teams before they leave, then I believe the penalty fee would be much larger, IIRC. So, makes no sense to cut them loose now.
ChuckCarltonDMN Chuck Carlton MT @MitchVingle: Confirmed. WVU to Big 12 is a done deal. Press conference with the Big 12 folks tomorrow. The long wait/mess is over...
No kidding. Next up is Mizzou's decision. After that, depending on what the exit terms are for WVU/Mizzou, things could either speed up or slow down.
The Big East was awful before all the recent realignment. Now it's just garbage. Cincy, Louisville, UConn, USF, Rutgers. That's Mountain East caliber. Merging with CUSA and MWC was funny a couple of days ago. Looks more realistic now.
i think this is pretty strong indication the mizzou decision has been made. they're not going to 11. they know MU is leaving...and they're acting quickly to bring in their replacement.
yea, but the big 12 wants to stay at 10? i think its possible they bring louisville/cincy in soon. if anything, cincy/louisville should be calling the big 12 pleading to get in lol. the big east is done for
read a report earlier today that said they want to go to 16. but i think they know mizzou is gone. i don't think it's any coincidence this happened the day after the big 12 meeting.
If a press conference has been called, I would think that the exit fees for both schools have been negotiated. I'm thinking we'll see Mizzou stay in the Big 12 through next season, after which they'll join the SEC and be replaced by WVU. Big 12 will also announce they're going to stay at 10 for now.
It depends on the exit terms. If Mizzou is leaving immediately, then Big East teams won't be much help for 2012. If Mizzou drags its feet, or the Big East budges on their 27 month clause, then they may stay at 10 for the time being. If the Big 12 thinks Mizzou is leaving immediately, then the Big 12 might try to grab Cinci and Louisville, thus disbanding the Big East rendering the exit clauses moot. That considered, the 11th and 12th teams added may come down to a combination of politicking, money, and timing... and not who has the most going on athletically.
Is the Big East really going to keep its AQ status without WV? They're left with a bunch of mediocre teams
It keeps being reported that OU wants to go to 12, Texas wants to go to 10. Either will be ok with the other if it's good for the conference. I don't think there is any way the big 12 goes to 16 teams. There are not that many teams out there you can add that would increase the value of the league. They reported losing Colorado was addition by subtraction because, despite the denver market, they took in more value than they provided. The whole 16 team super conference idea is driven by talk show hosts and news writers. After the Big 12 lost 3 teams, everyone pegged it for death. Maybe the Big East survives in an ok state. As a longhorn, A Thanksgiving ND game every year would be overwhelmingly fantastic.
Keeping those teams 1 year after the next cycle will make no difference. The BCS is not that short sighted. I don't think anyone will have a problem with making decent programs in WVU and Pitt play in a non AQ conference for a year. We aren't talking about USC or OU here. I still think that the Big East will keep the AQ assuming the Cotton Bowl gets added to the BCS rotation. It's also possible it just replaces the Fiesta Bowl after that mammoth scandal.
