Rumor is Louisville and Cincy to folow, so the Big East is collapsing on itself.  This should accelerate the Catholic Big East schools shrinking around a new basketball-only league relatively quickly, and -- one would think -- taking Xavier, Dayton and possibly St. Joe's with them.  Lots of dominoes about to fall. 

Warm up the Patriot League Bus boys ...

wow.

So does the BE fight for survival and add Navy, Air Force, Temple or other football schools?  Or does it completely collapse and a Catholic basketball league is formed and they add X, Dayton, Butler, or maybe even La Salle or Fordham too?  All the A-10 can do is sit and watch.  The conference is not on a level to compete with Villanova, G'town, St. Johns, Seton Hall and Providence for a new basketball conference line-up.  I think any A-10 school would jump in with them and bail on the A-10 if asked.

And risk losing out being part of the lucrative CBSsports A-10 TV package? Surely you jest, LA Fan

The Big East in any recognizable form cannot survive the lost of Cincy, Louisville and TCU after having lost Syracuse and Pittsburgh.  Adding Navy, Air Force and Temple would be irreleavnt at that point to their main goal -- keeping their BCS status for football. With the Big 12 dissolution no longer happening, they will get no teams from that break up, as looked likely a week ago (ie, Kansas etc). So TCU is the straw breaking the camel's back.  A basketball league built around the Cathoilc schools is now a very real and likely scenrio a lot faster than anyone thought. And any way you look at it, that's not good news for the A-10.

I think the Big East adding the likes of Temple, Navy and Air Force to bolster it as a football conference is a weak strategy. If Temple couldn't draw when it was playing in a pretty strong Big East, I doubt it will draw in a watered-down conference.  Navy and Air Force, except in years when they're really strong, are novelty items.  I'd guess the first few times they play an opponent on the road in football they're a draw, then the luster will fade.  Plus, Navy is almost guaranteed to be a basketball doormat in a pretty good league due to the height restrictions, and both of them have the problem that players can't go directly into pro ball.  It makes more sense to me for the current league to split, with the stronger football schools shopping themselves and the basketball-only or dominant schools raiding other conferences.  But why would they add Fordham or LaSalle?  Two crummy programs that play in small gyms in markets they're already in? 

OR....

We can join too! Is that Father Herve on the bench with the team?

Hope Nero & Co. (and the A-10) has a plan... offense not defense would be nice for a change!

So would a Catholic Leage be: St. John's, Georgetown, Seton Hall, Villanova, Providence, DePaul, Marquette, Xavier, Butler, St. Louis, Dayton and maybe one other?  It would be a hit to the A-10 but the conference would survive.  Maybe they would ask 1 CAA team (VCU, ODU) to join and it would become a slightly smaller conference.

 Why exactly would anybody want Saint Louis? What have they ever accomplished in any sport? I know they have a nice arena but that's not everything. 

I think they won the NIT, with Easy Ed Mccauley, a mere 60 odd years ago. That, and their current coach gives them as much basketball  panache as our dear alma mater. 

GWU is important to the 17 or so regulars on Herve's board, and I love it, too. But we're simply not all that to the rest of college basketball. Hopefully we will see that change soon, and for some considerable time to come.

Why would any national program willingly form a "Chotholic League" conference?  Sounds so very high school and porochial.  I think that's just a dream from Xavier, ST Joes and Dayton as a way to get into a newly formed formed Big East.  I'm not sure Georgetown, Nova and the other BE powers think of themselves in such provincial terms - they are national powers in their own minds.

If there's any way of maintaning a football conference, the Big east will do whatever it takes to keep it so.  That does clearly mean adding Navy, Army, Air Force an Temple.  Maybe UMass can become a viable D1 football program and join as well. 

Football just makes too much money for these schools to do anything but put football first.  Xavier, Dayton, SLU and the other bball programs are going to just have to sit back and wait, hoping that the football side of the BE completely dissolves before they will be getting any invitations to join a new league. 

A. Dayton has a football team - In the Pioneer League.

B. Multiple sources say that Cincinnati, Louisville and West Virginia are excellent candidates to join the Big 12

C. UCONN is a candidate to join the ACC

D. It is hard to see Notre Dame staying in the BE - To the ACC (according to Lev), the Big 12, the Big 10?

D. The BE is having a meeting TOMORROW 10/7 where they will possibly issues invitations to potential new members

I assume people talking about "Air Force" joining the Big Least really mean "Army". AFA is farther away from the east coast than Marquette while Army is in the NYC television market. Funny that TCU may bring about the downfall of the A-10.

Mike Tranghese is very close to Providence College and it's President, Father Shanley.  He's advising PC that the basketball-only league is the way to go. 

 There's still time for GW to become a Catholic school....

GWAA -- you would think so, but no.  It's really Air Force that may join the Big East.

http://www.denverpost.com/colleges/ci_19026889

All of this looked "just ok" with TCU still in the mix.  There is very little hope for the Big East to retain it's BCS status by just adding Air Force and Navy at this point. That drops to zero hope if they lose W. Virginia (or even Louisville or Cincy).  And why would anyone commit to the Big East right now unitl there's some certainty around those questions. Marinatto is getting squeezed, and it's just about over. 

All of this looked "just ok" with TCU still in the mix.  There is very little hope for the Big East to retain it's BCS status by just adding Air Force and Navy at this point. That drops to zero hope if they lose W. Virginia (or even Louisville or Cincy).  And why would anyone commit to the Big East right now unitl there's some certainty around those questions. Marinatto is getting squeezed, and it's just about over. 

for the record, butler is not a catholic school.  it had a protestant base at its inception, as did gw.

IF Air Force can generate a profit being in the Big East, it could work, but in a period where government costs are being heavily scrutinized, and I don't think that's going to ease up any time soon, how could they justify the travel costs of taking a whole team and the usual entourage to the East Coast 5 or 6 or more times a year?  Unless they set up recruiting booths at the game.  Do they do that?  In any case, a Big East that adds these kinds of teams for football has conceded it's not a major bowl conference and it starts not to matter much after that. 

Just FYI, the service academies would join the Big East for football only.

If UCONN, WV and the others do get offers from the other BCS conferences, they are surely gone.  But that doesn't mean that these conferences will actually to add these programs.  How much additional revenenue will a Lousville or a UCONN add to conf from a football standpoint? Remember, basketball doesn't mean shit to these other confernces.

If all the remaining football schools do find homes elsewhere and they need to form a baskeball only confbb, I doubt religious affiliation will be taken under consideration.  The old BE Basketball was built around media markets.  NY, Boston, Phily, DC.  So UMASS (Boston) looks better than Dayton and ODU (Norfold/VA Beach) is better than Richmond but still not as good as Charlotte.  Maybe they do go small (10) and give themselves plenty scheduling flexibility to have robust OCC games vs the BCS schools. 

East Carolina has formally applied to the BE for full membership/  Wonder if they would be accepted before Temple?

Bobo, you're missing the point....the schools that might go all-basketball are all currently Catholic schools...thus they are being referred to as "the Catholic schools".  They are not setting out to form a religious league.  The obvious other candidates to fall in with them also happen to be (for the most part) Catholic schools as well -- Xavier and Dayton (and maybe St. Joe's), but moreso beacuse of their profile in b-ball than for any religious affiiation.  I don't think Villanova would cast in with them given their football aspirations, but that's an open question.  Would they take Butler also?  I think yes, in a heartbeat. Charlotte or Richmond? Good chance I think, just for gerography's sake, and would depend whether they want a 10 or 12 team league etc. 

Jim Jones got a degree from Butler.

how do I say this without sounding like a snob . . . do you remember a time in which the Big East was filled with schools you would love to attend or send your children to?  East Carolina, South Florida . . . my goodness.  They truly should rename the conference at this point.

Alum1 - I do think one team per market could be their rule of thumb for expansion.  So based on that the remaining B.E. schools will take a hard look at X, Richmond, Dayton, Butler, UMass, and maybe even Memphis or Charlotte.  Villanova, Providence, St. Johns and G'town all want to own their markets, so that means no for Temple, GW, Fordham, URI. 

In any event it looks like the A-10 may get raided.  The question is, how bad is it going to be, and what will the A-10 that's left look like?  Are we all going to be a lot less excited if the top 3 or 4 programs leave the conference?  Definitely.  There really aren't any great candidates that come close to replacing them.  So this could be a big blow to the A-10.  Teams like GMU, VCU, ODU, Delaware and others may have to show up on the A-10's radar, which means the conference will head deeper into mid-major land.

For what it's worth I think most of the football watching world sees six BCS conferences that will one day be four.  The SEC, Big10, and Pac12 are solid and ain't nobody going to defect from these money pots.  The ACC, Big 12, and Big East all suck ass hard and cheaply and are willing to throw eachother under the bus as fast as they can to earn the title of worst of the four BCS conferences.  ACC got the early jump in this competition by stabbing the Big East in the neck.  Looks like the Big 12 is going to get the Big East in the gut which will hopefully put the Big Least out of its misery.  Now it's up to the Big10, Pac12, and SEC to decide who they want to put out of their misery next which will leave the dregs of one conference to join the slightly less dreadful remains of the other.

LA - agree with you. Think they would definitely take Charlotte over UMass, however. Better future demographics and -- let's face it -- Amherst isn't Boston.

Not going to take Charlotte.  They play football, and plan to play D-I  eventually.

How about ND to the A-10!!??

;)

Calling Mike Brey!

Jim Jones left his glasses outside my house last night.

Too soon.

Lev, don't get bogged down in your own personal fictions while you peruse this list and tell me how many ACC teams you find.  And if you know anyone at the ACC please ask them to stop calling me.  I teach at a DII school with a decent sports tradition and I received three calls last week from people purporting to be big wigs within the conference offering to toss my salad if I put in a good word for the ACC with our AD.  It's seriously unbecoming.

I see dead people...