Marinatto: Maryland, BC, UCF and Penn State in the Big East?

[Raetus]

I still doubt ND goes anywhere, even the BE. The reality that their academic standards and the sheer number of FBS schools who can compete for championships has weakened their national power to basically nothing means that they'd rather schedule some easy schedule and hope the yesteryear coattails they've been riding for the last 20 years will get them somewhere.

The one thing to note is that Notre Dame, like all conferences, is reviewed by the BCS committee on whether it should keep its status quo within the system. If they continue to blow it big time, they would be in trouble in terms of cupcake scheduling to make it to a BCS game. Realistically, though, it would take some pretty awful years for anyone to have the balls to kick them out -- too much money involved when it comes to ND.

[Hurricane Mutiny]

I wouldn't rule out Penn State.  The Big Ten gets a large chunk of its revenue due to Penn State.  Certainly not all, but Pennsylvania is a big part of the Big Ten network and PSU is a huge school with a massive following.

It ultimately comes down to if Tagliabue can find revenue for the Big East.  He'd love to bring BC back in the fold because that would lock down the NE.  Penn State coupled with UConn, Syracuse, and Rutgers would pretty much lock down NYC and also give the Big East a lock on Philadelphia and the whole state of Pennsylvania.

Then you take aim at Florida and try to lure Miami and FSU into the fold.  You'd have to negotiate concurrently, but FSU and Miami could be a lure for Penn State just as Penn State could lure them.  But Penn State also has more natural rivals in the Big East.  It all comes down to revenue.  If Tags can find a way to make Penn State richer then they'd bolt the B10 and FSU and Miami would also bolt.  The major question is if BC is a big enough draw in Massachusetts.  It might be better to try to get Virginia and VT in the fold.

Or the Big East could be pre-emptive and become the first 16 team football conference.  Think about it.  Four divisions and a six game conference playoff to determine the champion.  If the NCAA would approve something like that, the Big East could be the first conference to feature playoff football at the collegiate level. 

You can immediatelly discount the article and its author when it says that the Big East would love to have Penn State back.  Penn State was NEVER in the Big East.

As for all the speculation about how the Big East could lure all those teams in, it is NEVER going to happen.  Just on Penn State alone, you have to face facts.  The Big 10 Network is profitable NOW, it is paying dividends NOW because it was set up years ago.  Let's say that magical Paul Tagliabue got the BE Network going tomorrow (on content alone), you'd still face a multi-year battle to get it on enough cable networks, and then you'd have to have a few years of profits to offset the startup costs before member schools see a dime.

Do you still think that Penn State would pay the Big 10 exit fee, forego years of Big 10 profit sharing, and suffer through years of LOW conference sharing revenue, all for the hope that the Big East would eventually be able to pay Penn State more than it already gets in the Big 10?

Seriously?

[Raetus]

I agree... Penn State is a pipe-dream at best.

[smazza]

big east sounds like a bush league