Toledo IS MOVING TO THE BIG EAST!

[ChicagoFalcon]

When? Any updated news on this one?

[TG1996]

One post about this isn't enough?

It's all speculation and Amstutz fantasy fodder for recruits. This bush has been beaten around enough for one offseason.

[Rightupinthere]

This is really getting blown out of proportion.

Did Amstufft mention the possibility of moving to the Big East? Hard to say.

Here are a couple of facts:

*There will be another conference realigning in the future.

*Several MAC teams will be attractive to other conferences.

*The Big East is arguably the most unstable of conferences so there could be a fracturing of schools split down favored primary sports (eg bball and fball).

These are the points to which MOST people would agree. Everything else is just random guesses.

[Touchdown Rockets]

I think you're right with that, RUIT. The article about Barry Church said that there is a chance that UT will move to the Big East. I believe that there's a better chance of UT moving than some of the other schools in the MAC, but at the same time, there is a chance that no MAC teams will go and there's also a chance that the Big East won't add any schools. If they do add schools, I would have to think that Memphis will be the first school to go and UCF will be the second. Even if a MAC school is chosen to enter the BE, we won't likely know for a year or so (I would think).

Of course, '87 could come on here and tell us what the real scoop is rather than leaving us all to speculate.

[Rightupinthere]

Yeah. 87 knows things.

"I gotta secret and I won't tell." What sort of piece of [expletive] journalism is that?

[1987alum]

Yeah. 87 knows things.

"I gotta secret and I won't tell." What sort of piece of [expletive] journalism is that?

j/k

I think I've put a bit more out there than that. But, in a nutshell, I'm getting the sense that the Big East may move sooner rather than later on realigning its conference. Factors involved include friction between the small basketball schools and their larger counterparts (totally independent of football); the large amount of cash being left on the table because there's no football championship game; the football scheduling fiasco that is about to ensue with the advent of the permanent 12-game schedule.

As for specifics, frankly the Big East isn't there yet. There will be a lot of tire kicking and you'll hear wilder rumors before it's all over. I also believe it would be foolish to think that there won't be a "domino effect" that will make the recent shuffle look relatively minor.

[Flipper]

Money really does f*ck things up. Back in 1983 we drew over 30,000 for the UT game. I was one of those people. The game wasn't on TV, it didn't have any national importance outside of playing a factor in who played in the Cal Bowl (the what?). It was just a really exciting football game played between two evenly matched, bitter rivals. It was meaningless in deciding the National Championship, but there wasn't a more important game to be played that day in the eyes of those 33,000 people.

Now everything's about the $$$, everything has to be "big time", our own fans and alumni can't be bothered to turn away from the Big Game on TV to come out to the Doyt....what happened to the purity? What happened to the love? I had hair back then, R.E.M didn't suck, the Gipper was still alive and WE KICKED GRENADA'S ASS!

Things just seems so tawdry now.

[rocketfootball]

This is really getting blown out of proportion.

I agree. There is more talk of this on the BG boards then on the UT boards, because there is basically no talk at all on the UT boards about it.


A lot of things could happen in the future, but who knows what will happen. Remember NIU going Independent in the mid 80's so they could go BIG-TIME? That ended up landing them in the Big West Conference and eventually come crawling back to the MAC with one of the longest losing streaks ever in DI-A football.

[JohnnySwoop '85]

Didn't MTV play video's then too...weren't you going to shake your ass on the hood of Whitesnake's car, ???

[Goose]

Didn't MTV play video's then too...weren't you going to shake your ass on the hood of Whitesnake's car, ???

I hate to correct you, but that Whitesnake song you are referring to (Here I Go Again) came out in 1987. I would say he is more likely the object of desire in the Phil Collins and Phillip Bailey hit Easy Lover.

[FalconFanatic]

When? Any updated news on this one?

haha......good joke

[Im_Full]

Toledo would be a good pick-up for the Big East. As a Syracuse fan and being familiar with the overall talent of the conference, I think they would fit right into the middle tier with the South Floridas and UConns. Not sure they're on the West Virginia or Louisville or even Pittsburgh level yet. Say what you will about Pitt but I think last year was a mirage for them. Those that say that the Big East is "weak" and in major trouble are terribly misguided. The Big East will get it's chance to grow under it's new alignment. Alot of people think the BCS bid will just get taken away because to some fans it looks inferior on paper, but Mike Tranghese won't let that happen. WV winning the Sugar Bowl over a supposedly superior Gerogia team most certainly helped the conference. And if they can live up to their top 5 pre-season billing, all the more. I think in the end there isn't a more qualified conference to take the Big East's bid, so it's really just babble whenever a team from another conference actually cracks the top 15 and their fans cry to kick the Big East out for the Mountain West or Conference USA.