Per Orl Sentinel: ECU and Memphis not going anywhere

[TyBull]

Per Orl Sentinel: ECU and Memphis not going anywhere

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Oh, that's where it has been! Hiding in Hartford and Greenville, N.C. and Memphis, Tenn.

Conference expansion rumors, how we've missed ya!

If you need to get caught up, the Hartford Courant stirred up much discussion along the Eastern seaboard. OK, maybe not that much, but enough. The Courant reported that Conference USA member (and longtime hopeful Big East/ACC/SEC member) East Carolina is willing to sell all but its soul for any kind of membership in the Big East.

Actually, the details were that the Pirates would agree 1) not to share in revenue; 2) negotiate its own TV contract and not expect any of from the Big East; 3) and not share in any BCS revenue unless it wins a BCS bid of its own.

The second big story came out of Memphis, where the local Fox station reported that Memphis is having "serious" discussions with the Big East about a possible football-only membership.

By dinnertime Thursday, other media were reporting that the report of the Tigers' talks were false. Big East spokesman John Paquette further denied any discussions had taken place or had any merit.

In the meantime, as athletic directors at Memphis and East Carolina finished up C-USA spring meetings in Destin (where both of them denied to C-USA Commissioner Britton Banowsky that what the reports said was true), some of us spent Thursday making phone calls to take the current pulse of conference expansion.

Here's what we found out:

* Memphis and East Carolina aren't going anywhere soon (much as they'd like to).

* The next round of conference expansion -- or realignment -- isn't ready to take off yet. Too many BCS leagues are too healthy. The Big East, the league everyone thought would fold up and blow away, is arguably stronger financially than it ever has been. How the league survived the ACC's raid from five years ago and thrived will be in commissioner Mike Tranghese's obit (which we hope doesn't come for some time.)

* Other BCS leagues ARE talking to schools. The Big Ten, for instance, might have expansion on the back burner. (Or, at least, not on a front burner.) But the league is still talking to a handful of potential 12th members. You know, just in case. Among those on the speed dial: Texas, Missouri, Syracuse and Rutgers. (Notre Dame? Puh-leeze. Don’t think the Big Ten's gonna get embarrassed a third time there. Besides, ACC Commissioner John Swofford has always held out hope he can make Notre Dame an offer the Fighting Irish won't refuse.)

* The suspicion around the Big East is that East Carolina and Memphis, for whatever reason, leaked all of this stuff. That each of them is desperate -- for different reasons -- to get out of C-USA and get into a league that sends out more than $2 million a year in revenues.

* That schools, including Memphis (but maybe not East Carolina or Western Kentucky), are actually not so enthused about a football-only membership in any conference. Football is still the big money driver as the NCAA Tournament's coveted units seem to miss less and less ever year.

* That the Big East's football coaches really, really, really want to find a ninth member -- and maybe a 10th. The difficulty in finding five non-conference games is a pain they're tired of dealing with.

* That any notion the Big East is going to ADD to 16 basketball schools is, well, wrong. There's still a bit of believe that the league will at some point divide into eight all-sports schools and eight non-football schools (including football-independent Notre Dame.

There's a belief that the timing is going to have to be right for the next round of conference realignment. (And there will be a next round at some point.) But that timing will be created by schools or leagues in need and not by the timing of television or bowl contracts. Remember, TV bowl and BCS contracts all got re-written after the last big round of moves, so there's every sense that they could be re-written again.

And, as several people in non-BCS leagues said Thursday: When the time does come for realignment, it will happen because a BCS league feels like it needs to make a move. And not because a school such as East Carolina, Memphis or UCF believes it needs to make a move.

In fact, there are only a handful of schools out there who could produce mass realignment by a decision to change: Texas, Florida and Notre Dame are the three biggies.

[smazza]

smaller is better for big east football

[SRQ]

only the Slantinel could suggest that Florida would leave the SEC.

[bulldad10]

only the Slantinel could suggest that Florida would leave the SEC.

That's not what they are suggesting at all.  All they are saying is that Florida is one of the big schools that could force some kind of realignment if they decided they wanted to change.

[Joe]

Ya as mentioned above I think they were referring and kinda dissing ECU and Memphis for ttying to force a move. A school like UF, Texas, etc could join the ACC or BE tomorrow if they wanted to.

[Jihme]

this would kill us as far as making our conference stronger

[USF-PMR]

We'll take Memphis, Navy, and Marshall for 11 team conference that would compete with all the rest (still).

[Bull Martin]

We'll take Memphis, Navy, and Marshall for 11 team conference that would compete with all the rest (still).

Might as well add Notre Dam, Southern Cal, and Florida while we're at it...