RE: Future Big East Schedule

[Shinkle, Randy]

Regarding Villanova, it takes much longer than you might think to make
the jump to 1A.  UConn had massive support throughout their state.  USF
is a large school with lots of resources and a 1A plan from the outset.
These are the exceptions.  Villanova will not be able to pull it off
without a major, total university commitment, and they haven't shown any
real interest.  Philadelphia and Pennsylvania aren't factors at all.
 
Notre Dame has to decide where their large, successful athletic program
(other than football) is best served.  A solid case can be made for the
post-split football half of the Big East.
 
Randy '78
 

________________________________

From: Brock Schweitzer [mailto:address@hidden 
Sent: Monday, January 30, 2006 6:52 PM
To: address@hidden
Subject: Re: [UC Basketball] Future Big East Schedule


Correct me if I am wrong, but doesn't Villanova have a Division II
football program?  If so, I believe, like UConn, Villanova will bump
their football program up to Div I soon.  The trick is to get Notre Dame
to bite on joining the conference in football, which is NEVER going to
happen.  They probably do not have the schedule room to jump into a
conference since they have already made schedule deals through 2030 or
something like that. 

Ultimately, I think Notre Dame basketball will be relegated to the
Atlantic 10 or Big East II.  Basically, I think the split will begin
brewing in a couple of years when solid basketball programs begin
missing the NCAA due to the brutality of the Big East.  Therefore, I
would expect another school, such as Villanova, to begin beefing up
their football program to make the jump to Div I when the split comes. 


On 1/30/06, Shinkle, Randy <address@hidden> wrote: 

	> When the TV contract expires after next year (I think), I
expect the
	Big East to go
	> to a 15+1 schedule where all teams play each other with only 1
home
	and home.
	>
	> Jon
	
	
	It appears the NCAA is likely to approve a change in the
basketball 
	schedule this year.  Currently, each school may play a maximum
of 27
	regular season games, and one of them can represent an entire
"exempt"
	tournament twice in a 4 year period.  The proposal is to allow
28 
	regular season games and participation in an exempt tournament
every
	year.  See here for details:
	
	
http://www.ncaa.org/wps/portal/newsdetail?WCM_GLOBAL_CONTEXT=/wps/wcm/co

	
nnect/NCAA/NCAA+News/NCAA+News+Online/Division+I/Division+I+gauges+membe
	
r+interest+in+basketball+issue+-+1-16-06+NCAA+News&TITLE=Division+I+gaug
	es+member+interest+in+basketball+issue+-+1-16-06+NCAA+News 
	
	If this change is made, I expect the Big East to move to an 18
game
	schedule, playing 3 teams twice and everyone else once.  The
coaches
	were opposed to this in the past because they believed it would
limit
	the non-conference schedule too much, but with the proposed
change that
	problem essentially goes away.
	
	Along with the 12 game football schedule, this also makes it
more
	feasible for 10 team conferences such as the Pac 10 to play full

	round-robin schedules in football and double round-robin in
basketball.
	Having an even number of teams in a conference makes it much
easier to
	set up a fair and balanced schedule in basketball, where (for
example) 
	everyone plays a conference game each Thursday and Saturday
(this is the
	Pac 10 model).
	
	Therefore, I expect the Big East to split in 2010 with each half
	becoming a 10 school conference.  The 8 current football schools
would 
	be joined by either 2 all-sports additions (playing an 8 or 9
game
	football schedule) or by 1 addition plus Notre Dame, making it a
9 team
	conference for football.  The candidates to be added have been
discussed 
	at length in the past, centering on Central Florida, East
Carolina and
	Memphis.  The remaining 7 or 8 non-football schools would also
go to 10
	by adding schools such as Dayton, Holy Cross, Saint Louis or
Xavier. 
	
	I don't think this was likely to happen this way until the
football and
	(proposed) basketball schedule changes came along.  Now I think
this is
	very likely.
	
	Randy '78