inTransit

Just in time for the beginning of the Big East Conference schedule for hoops. It's a going away tour, I advise anyone thinking about it to jump at the chance to see Gtown, Notre Dame, Syracuse, Louisville, Nova and UCONN hoops in our house. It will be a long time until we see a home schedule like this ever again.

That isn't his job. He is paid by the school to carry out the wishes of the majority of the school presidents, whatever wishes those are. In most normal times, that means doing what is best for the conference. Right now it likely means something else, and we are about to find out what the something else is. If the presidents want him to break apart the conference and get each school into the best conference available, then that is his job. They pay the bills. Its being reported he did the exact opposite. He alienated the 7 non-football schools by extending invites to Tulane and ECU. You can argue they don't represent a majority in a new big east, but as of today they represent a supermajority when it comes to conference secession/dissolution. I say the ACC should hire him after he's through with the Big East.

people can spin this as a positive or negative but you can't argue with this statement What is certain is that programs such as Temple, which is set to join the Big East in basketball next season, Cincinnati, Connecticut and South Florida, are in terrible limbo. Hope we have Stan locked up for awhile

Ok so Im not necessarily a fan of ESPN's Brennan as he seems to homer for the midwest more often than not but this is a perspective I have being a bit more basketball centric than most. I think its a good read to understand why the BB only schools are so important. http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/69838/marquette-ad-no-fan-of-tulane-addition

Only from what has been reported. From the Marquette AD, regarding the Tulane invite: "I was disappointed that I wasn't able to participate as a member of the conference in the deliberation that went into adding that." Williams added that the Big East's other non-football schools felt the same way. From Eamonn Brennans blog Agree or disagree, but it's beside the point. The point is, Williams seems displeased because the Aresco-led Big East has essentially thrown its hands up and started taking any school in a reasonably sized market, regardless of what that school's athletics programs are like, and after a couple of years of sitting around hoping things didn't change too much, the Big East's basketball-only folks are finally deciding enough is enough. And tenuous though their position might be, you know what? Good for them.

Where in what you wrote is what his primary responsibility as BEC commissioner is? Secure the best interests of the conference. Everything you've proposed is equivalent to managing the dissolution of the conference. Yes we lost two teams, and it could be argued not even the best two products the BEC had (Rutgers). The issue being raised is that the decision to add two schools which add next to nothing to the conference may be the tipping point to drive out the BB schools which have defined the BEC for decades, even more than the football product which has been mocked constantly. I was raised on BE basketball so as I see it, there is a lot to be lost here. I disagree rewarding Aresco with a fat bonus for accelerating the conference's demise by adding Tulane and ECU in the quest for TV dollars which will not come. I've tried my best to discern what you're asking with that first question and have concluded that you're asking something to the effect of "In your opinion, what is Aresco's duty as BEC?" If your argument is that he should secure the best interest of the conference regardless of situation, then would you also expect him to halt any defection if there was only one member left? Let's, for fun, just say that it is down to the Big East and its sole member... USF. Should he protect the only asset that the Big East Conference has from going to another conference with litigation? Conferences don't completely act like typical corporations. They are a weird hybrid of corporations and weird school/gang alliances. These aren't typical times. If the basketball schools leave, which they currently have the full right to do so due to a voting majority as per the bylaws, then he will be left with three current members and the new additions. At that point, I believe his priorities drastically shift and he should be responsible for still maximizing the value member organizations receive, albeit through nontraditional means. The new schools being added has little to do with the basketball schools leaving. While they may be using it as a talking point, its a small matter as opposed to the fact that they have seen WVU, Louisville, Pitt, Syracuse and Notre Dame leave their ranks (yes, I know I left out Rutgers... because who cares?) and if they wait too long, they lose their voting majority. It's time to make a decision for the basketball schools and I don't blame them. Your argument is lessened even further by the fact that ECU isn't playing basketball, so it has nothing to do with their RPI argument nor their watering down on the league -- if it was, then they would have been done with Boise State was added as their basketball isn't that great. School Defections + Voting Majority > Anger over Tulane addition Yes the BB schools may have left under different circumstances anyway and the Tulane and ECU adds may be a convenient out. But Aresco made a miscalculation by not consulting the non football members on these additions. He added teams to keep the value of the TV deal as high as possible. Bottom line he is the boss, regardless of what anyone says it didn't have to go down this way and he should be held responsible not be rewarded.

Where in what you wrote is what his primary responsibility as BEC commissioner is? Secure the best interests of the conference. Everything you've proposed is equivalent to managing the dissolution of the conference. Yes we lost two teams, and it could be argued not even the best two products the BEC had (Rutgers). The issue being raised is that the decision to add two schools which add next to nothing to the conference may be the tipping point to drive out the BB schools which have defined the BEC for decades, even more than the football product which has been mocked constantly. I was raised on BE basketball so as I see it, there is a lot to be lost here. I disagree rewarding Aresco with a fat bonus for accelerating the conference's demise by adding Tulane and ECU in the quest for TV dollars which will not come.

Agree with you on that last point. I didn't like those two teams being added either. They happened so quickly, it seemed they were done more to give the perception of stability for TV deals than anything else. If its costs the BEC the basketball only schools, than he has made a big mistake and failed the conference.

Yeah I saw that too. Not thrilled with the prospect of a team full of two stars at the most important position but I don't think there are a lot of options otherwise at this point. Offers from FIU, FAU, FAMU, etc

I like this one. If this happens the BEC had better shrink or die rather than add more CUSA schools.

Who cares what ESPN thinks. Taggart all day and twice on Sunday. Get on the bus-

Its in NPR next to a Walmart. Plenty of Gators fans up there Im sure.

FWIW, Greg Swaim keeps saying that Cincy will not get an invite from ACC over UCONN because Cincy is already within UofL's footprint, which they already have. Now, the same could be said about adding another Florida market in USF. Seems to me if you're overlapping footprints in either case, I'd just pick the larger market. While Tampa clearly picks up FSU and Miami, "locking down" Tampa with some overlap in USF would be better than "locking down" Cincy with some overlap in Cincy (by virtue of UofL). Having said all that, who the hell knows what happens. After the way the Louisville ad to the ACC went down, Cincy and USF would be wise to 'market' themselves to the Big 12 not ACC. Big 12 may have none of it, but Louisville was chosen , in part due to the perception they were being considered by the Big 12. B12 has been publicly saying all along they are happy with their size and membership and theyd be far more likely to pluck from other major conferences than the BE. So takes greater precedence here? Big 12 saying, no thanks we are fine or the ACC saying lets take Louisville because they might goto B12 if we dont (and UCONN and Cincy will just be here waiting). USF - Big 12 or bust.

I still think both FSU and Miami have to go to move us up from third in line to the exit. We may call Cincy for whoring out but I think the perception now is they are next up after UCONN, real or not.

Big East basketball is a premium product. Much like the SEC resides in the most talent rich bed of athletes of its sport, the NY/NJ/Philly urban area is the most talent rich and concentrated pool of basketball players. While losing that you might say, 'its only basketball', it gives this conference an identity and warrants its due respect. Lose that and you can stop separating out the SB, CUSA and BE because they are all the same. Any benefits UCONN, Cincy and USF may have had from their success in the old big east will slowly be eroded due to the level of competition. UCONN basketball may stay strong but remember they have only been relevant in BB for 20 years. There is no way to rationalize its good for USF athletics to stop playing against the highest levels of competition in non-football sports.

That is Stanford type success also ... Let me be more specific because as time goes on the difference between the haves and have nots appears to be growing. Even with a significant turnaround here, for the foreseeable future we are closer to pizza bowls than roses. The new Big East is closer to the SunBelt than PAC-12. There is a line dividing two unstable conferences that separates where we are and where we want to be. Its very difficult to compare anything to Stanford type success. Some of that changes if we get a golden ticket.

I agree in the first year or two I wonder if he would be able to fully implement his offense and should adapt to his teams talent and skill set. However, he has a system and we should not be hiring a coach to change what has brought them success. If coach and his system weren't right for this school we shouldn't be hiring them. Also Im not buying this issue VD5 and others have raised about Florida kids not being the right fit for a power run game. He brought 30 FL kids to WKU and ran his system with success. A good coach will make it work. This is why is was so difficult to maintain any faith in CSH. He wasn't making it work with his talent (good or bad) and the story that we had to wait for his recruits to move into prominent roles on the team was proving to be BS. He had already lost the team.

Will we see Stanford success here? We aren't in a major conference nor offer a world class education from a prestigious school with rich tradition. This is not meant to be pessimistic but maybe we are more in line for WKU success. A annual conference champion contender with yearly bowls. I agree the ceiling is high with Coach Taggart but you have to consider what he has to work with and he doesn't a Stanford toolbox here. We offer some very good resources but we are at the little 5 table, not the big 5.

Went to the Bucs game today and they have the same issue. People filling in seats for the entire 1st quarter. It was like someone posted the wrong game time start in the newspaper. Must be a Tampa thing. When I was up in the northeast it was the same thing, for MLS and football. In the south though I've noticed it's real easy to get relaxed during tailgate and lost track of time. Although it's bad form, having the tailgate run long is a good quality of the game day experience. If those as ses in seats weren't late, would most of those same people be there at all?

He is a prostyle QB and that is the offense we are going to run. He got interest from Oklahoma State and led his team to a top 20 national rank and state championship. Noone is saying this guy is our future but if Asaintii is out we need to bring 2qbs on board. Besides, don't look at what this offense required of a QB during Holtz's time, it's going to be different and a lot more structured.

Looks like op will get his wish, from sb nation: Under Jim Harbaugh, Taggart became a proponent of the power run offense, bringing the same attack to WKU. In 2012, the Hilltoppers were the only offense in the Sun Belt Conference not running some variation of the spread option. Better find a new QB recruit though, does asaintii want to chuck it? If so NC states new coach is the better fit. Hope he still comes here though.

because he went 2-10 in WKU's first FBS season. What do you expect? Heck, we only beat them 24-12 that year. He had them hanging right there with us with much less talent. Some of those other 20 losses include Alabama, LSU, Kentucky a year ago, Nebraska.

Its been written both in this thread and elsewhere he is ready to get back to being a FBS head coach. Its been noted he already lives here. Id have to believe if he wants to coach he would take this job. The only hesitation USF should have with Coach Davis would be his transgressions. Id hope they would thoroughly review that part of his past and accept that risk. Because I see no other reason he should not be our number 1 option at this point.

He's playing Minecraft. Building an OCS

Thanks for sharing. I dont think we need to hurry, rather be right than quick. However, the longer this goes on the more likely we end up with someone off the radar which will send this place into riots. like Jones to UT. But thats a top job in the best conference. USF doesnt offer that. Nevermind, not sure what you mean there-