UCONN POLL

[BEX]

Uconn ain't going to drop football, so your argument is mute. We are a Basketball league. There's NINE Years left on the contract. Plenty of time to do whatever we want but it won't be adding football schools.

[stever20]

Uconn ain't going to drop football, so your argument is mute. We are a Basketball league. There's NINE Years left on the contract. Plenty of time to do whatever we want but it won't be adding football schools.

If UConn wants to come, it's going to be very difficult if not impossible for the C7 schools to say no. And I'd venture a guess that if all 7 C7 schools wanted them in, there's nothing the other 3 could do about it.

Also, you say there's 9 years left on the contract. True. However, the contract would get negotiated for the future in 7-8 years.

And could easily see Fox pushing UConn. To the point where they would extend the contract with the Big East to get UConn in there.

[GumbyDamnit!]

Uconn ain't going to drop football, so your argument is mute. We are a Basketball league. There's NINE Years left on the contract. Plenty of time to do whatever we want but it won't be adding football schools.

I think we need to separate some things on this issue. First I think this fantasy of considering UCONN is all predicated on them cutting back their major FB aspirations. I agree that we have to be a BB league and would not want UCONN if they are looking to move on to a P5 FB conference in a couple of years. But if they either went down to FCS or another wave of realignment left them clearly on the outside of the P5 with no hopes of getting an invite, I would welcome them back with open arms.

Again I'm thinking purely as a BB school, league and fan. I can't imagine any scenario that I wouldn't want to compete against a program that has 4 (recent) NC banners in their rafters, if it presented itself and FB was no longer a consideration.

[Xudash]

Uconn ain't going to drop football, so your argument is mute. We are a Basketball league. There's NINE Years left on the contract. Plenty of time to do whatever we want but it won't be adding football schools.

I think we need to separate some things on this issue. First I think this fantasy of considering UCONN is all predicated on them cutting back their major FB aspirations. I agree that we have to be a BB league and would not want UCONN if they are looking to move on to a P5 FB conference in a couple of years. But if they either went down to FCS or another wave of realignment left them clearly on the outside of the P5 with no hopes of getting an invite, I would welcome them back with open arms.

Again I'm thinking purely as a BB school, league and fan. I can't imagine any scenario that I wouldn't want to compete against a program that has 4 (recent) NC banners in their rafters, if it presented itself and FB was no longer a consideration.

I can't add much to what you've written here. It's as plain and simple as you've laid it out: we would welcome UCONN openly and enthusiastically under a scenario wherein they would have already publicly and materially deemphasized football, such that there would be (virtually) no going back for them, in terms of attempting to crank up some form of invitation to the P5 fraternity, whatever that may come to look like down the road.

Public disclosures and more paperwork for the private schools should they join us? Who truly gives a crap about that.
Not a like-minded or fellow private school - - the so called marketing issue? I truly could care less about that.

What I would be thrilled about are the following:

1. UCONN's resume, as you clearly pointed out Re their 4 NC banners.
2. A major fanbase - relative to our fanbases, at least - and one that has a heavy presence in the Northeastern corridor.
3. A rather locked in BE Tournament every year.
4. The reestablishment of some strong rivalry games between the C7 and UCONN.
5. A strong lift in our media (viewership) performance, which can only help us down the road.

Might we encounter some flaming from their fanbase? Extra spice for our collective conference soup, I guess. Besides, many of us are already used to putting up with idiots and blockheads.

I'm sorry, but this is a flat out no brainer were the opportunity to present itself.

And I'll go so far as to conjecture that the Presidents were rather farsighted when they put the NBE together a few years ago, insofar as I believe they understood - and understand - the instability that permeates FBS football, and that they saw and see that as an opportunity to add two from a unique, heretofore unavailable group of schools, should any adding end up taking place down the road.

[NJRedman]

Uconn ain't going to drop football, so your argument is mute. We are a Basketball league. There's NINE Years left on the contract. Plenty of time to do whatever we want but it won't be adding football schools.

Are we a basketball league? I had no idea. haha Of course it's only if they drop football. No one wants their bastard FB program hanging on their neck like an albatross.

[whiteandblue77]

Uconn ain't going to drop football, so your argument is mute. We are a Basketball league. There's NINE Years left on the contract. Plenty of time to do whatever we want but it won't be adding football schools.

Are we a basketball league? I had no idea. haha Of course it's only if they drop football. No one wants their bastard FB program hanging on their neck like an albatross.

It's not a "quid pro quo" question, so being that they have a big, smelly, dead, upside-down-on-their-mortgage Pigskin hanging around their neck and using their 4 banners as toilet paper the answer is no sir.

[Fieldhouse Flyer]

If UConn wants to come, it's going to be very difficult if not impossible for the C7 schools to say no. And I'd venture a guess that if all 7 C7 schools wanted them in, there's nothing the other 3 could do about it.

You guessed wrong.

The Big East Conference Amended and Restated Bylaws as of October 17, 2011

Article 4.02 - New Members

“An institution which meets the requirements for membership set forth in these Bylaws may be admitted into the Conference as a new Member by a vote of at least three-fourths of all of the Directors of the Board ...” [i.e., at least 8 out of 10 votes from the Big East Presidents].

That means that the combined votes of the Presidents of Butler, Creighton, and Xavier can block any any school from joining the Big East Conference.

[stever20]

If UConn wants to come, it's going to be very difficult if not impossible for the C7 schools to say no. And I'd venture a guess that if all 7 C7 schools wanted them in, there's nothing the other 3 could do about it.

You guessed wrong.

The Big East Conference Amended and Restated Bylaws as of October 17, 2011

Article 4.02 - New Members

“An institution which meets the requirements for membership set forth in these Bylaws may be admitted into the Conference as a new Member by a vote of at least three-fourths of all of the Directors of the Board ...” [i.e., at least 8 out of 10 votes from the Big East Presidents].

That means that the combined votes of the Presidents of Butler, Creighton, and Xavier can block any any school from joining the Big East Conference.

Not sure why you are quoting the rules of the AAC(which is the legal entity of the Big East from 2011)... We do not know if that is the current rules that the "new conference" are following.

And I really do think the C7 would have protected themselves where if all 7 schools wanted something, they would have been guaranteed to get it.

[BballFan]

That's all well and good and it may be the same, but you posted the bylaws for the old football/basketball Big East from 2011.

Do you have the bylaws for the new Big East post 2013?

[whiteandblue77]

That means that the combined votes of the Presidents of Butler, Creighton, and Xavier can block any any school from joining the Big East Conference.

Well played Flyer and thanks for annotating, especially since it works against you r.e. X...

But hey, and listen, this whole "Newbies vs. C7" thing was invented by stever on this very thread just to stir up trouble.

And to be honest there could be some teeth to his nou·veau riche/ bourgeoisie wanting to "kill the old guard at godspeed" argument. Recent class-jumpers and religious converts are always the most fervent, correct?

I say balderdash. UCONN committed hubris by thinking their hardcourt success--and indeed it was blessed and I too rooted for those fantastic Huskies of old--would translate to the gridiron. It, sadly, did not.

And so my brothers let's raise a glass to the great UCONN Huskies, my beloved Ray Allen (most favorite player of all time), as well as the enchanted Cliff Robinson, Richard Hamilton, Kemba Walker, Ben Gordon, Emeka Okafor, Caron Butler, Jeremy Lamb, Andre Drummond, Shabazz Napier, and Rudy Gay.

To UCONN, paraphrasing Hamlet: "Adieu, adieu, adieu."

In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
Martin Luther King, Jr.