A Big East Update

I have neglected to mention that Notre Dame has dumped the Big East in favor the ACC where it will play it Olympic sports as a full member while maintaining its independence in football.  The ACC was smart and learned from the Big East's mistakes: while the Big East was okay with a gentlemen's agreement from the Irish to face their football programs the ACC insisted that the Irish will play 5 ACC teams a year on a rotating basis.

The ACC is suddenly stable for at least another decade while the Big East is left reeling and the Big 12 is left scratching its head now that their pipedream of landing Notre Dame is gone--not that they ever had a realistic shot at ever landing them.  The Big Ten is similarly infuriated that they have been jilted by the Irish for basketball league.  The Irish added insult to injury by cancelling their series with Michigan and I would not be surprised to see the Michigan St and Purdue games also go by the wayside.  

It once again brings up questions concerning the Big East's stability?  With the Irish gone and no longer providing a bridge between the two factions do the Catholic schools finally consider asking for a divorce settlement?

Then there is the issue of the television deal and that elusive 14th football school.  Aresco is getting desperate.  We are in that exclusive negotiating window with ESPN and it seems that neither BYU or Air Force like the numbers enough to commit to the Big East for football.  Mike got caught airing the conference's dirty laundry when it came out that he was trying to coax Navy into coming sooner than the agreed 2015 date.  Mike needs the national audience that the Midshipmen will draw in order to bump up the dollar value of the media deal and presumably get that 14th school, BYU, interested.  Navy has no interest in coming early; they aren't ready and an early entry date would mean cancelling contracts against scheduled opponents which would both be costly and potentially burn bridges for Annapolis.  The Midshipmen are men and women of integrity and are not about to renig on their contracts.  I am still of the opinion that Navy is better off remaining an independent and staying out of this Big East mess.  The same goes for the other service academies.

Then we have to wonder if the Big East will consider filling Notre Dame's vacancy with a Catholic basketball school.  Xavier and St Louis come to mind.  Scheduling for a 17 member basketball league is sure to be a daunting task