What about Univ. of Houston?

[DELdaBull]

Talk to the 3 Big 12 schools

Kansas, K State, Mizzou

[usf97]

Houston as the 10th Big East team has some legs.

Obviously, this is just message board rumors but just follow this thread.

http://ncaabbs.com/showthread.php?tid=471912

Here is the post.

What I'm hearing from Providence....

I've been getting a lot of PMS on what I've been hearing on the BE. First let me make this clear that none of this is locked. I hesitate to post anything because this is all just rumor, but it is from a good source.

Word is that if the BE is given the go ahead by the NCAA to have a championship game with 10 teams, they will add one more for 2012. If they don;t, then they will likely just stay at 9 teams until Nova is ready to jump. When that happens then both UH and UCF will get invites to get to 12 teams.

If they can have a playoff then it is between UCF and UH as to who will get the nod in 2012.

Word is that that the majority of BE programs would like to add UH over UCF, but there is concern over our facilities. If we can break ground on our new stadium then this will help our case. But not to be concerned, because if we can't then we will get in NLT 2014.

Support to bring UH in ahead of UCF in 2012 has gained momentium since TCU accepted the invite. There are many reasons for this. TCU would rather have UH than UCF.... USF would like more time without UCF in the conference.... BE teams are less concerned about travel expenses.... The only thing holding us back now is our facilities.

[CPR]

"Got a couple of PMs asked why current BE members have had a change of heart about adding UH over UCF, I'll answer it here....Media and PR: Adding UH actually gets the BE better press than UCF, this according to my source is from a PR firm out of NYC. Houston's history and name recognition is better. It's all about perception, UCF might have better programs right now, but Nationwide they have not been around long enough to build a rep.Media deal: Houston's market is better, and because of perception the BE would get a more favorable TV deal with UH than UCF.Travel: BE members were worried about travel costs, but once they added TCU they've sort of warmed up to the idea of traveling to Texas anyway so many of those concerns are mitigated."

I'm in favor of UH over UCF.

[mellobull]

  L no

[DontPushMe]

Id advocate adding Central Michigan, Louisiana State, and San Jose St. if thats what it took to keep UCF out. Unfortunately i think USF is in an uphill battle to keep them out. The fact that UCF is having their best seasons ever in both sports right now just makes it more difficult for us.

[DontPushMe]

Id advocate adding Central Michigan, Louisiana State, and San Jose St. if thats what it took to keep UCF out. Unfortunately i think USF is in an uphill battle to keep them out. The fact that UCF is having their best seasons ever in both sports right now just makes it more difficult for us.

Heh, meant Louisiana Tech.

[RickUSF]

The reason I've always seen cited is that while there are certainly a lot of people in Houston, approximately zero of them give a **** about the University of Houston. And their attendance on the rare chance I see them on TV seems to back this claim up. In terms of fan following, Houston makes USF look like Ohio State.

Eh. They're better than UCF, that's for sure - not necessarily this year but in general. But they still do the same thing UCF does, beating up a bunch of sorry teams in an embarrassingly bad conference. At least they went on the road and beat a ranked Oklahoma State team last year, that was good for them, but overall I see no reason to believe their team is going to sustain its success of the past few years.

1. there are LESS people in TAMPA/ORLANDO, and at the time of our invite to the Big East, even LESS people gave a **** about University of South Florida.  At Least UH has the Run & Shoot/David Klinger/Andre Ware days to look back to and sell to recruits.  Did you ever realize our following has grown exponential simply due to the fact that we are in a relevant (BCS) conference?  Give UH, with their alumni, and that megacity, the same exposure and see what happens

2. UCF is having a great year this year, but my point was that UH has seen success in the past as has as much potential to add to our conference as UCF.  They offer the same type of program that UCF does, but with more history and a bigger city

Smazza mentioned SMU.. I'd be all for SMU if we didn't already offer TCU, which is basically an overlap of the same media market.  But everyone knows the kind of dollars that SMU alumni has willing to invest in that program, and with June Jones, they could be a solid pick for someone down the line.. Just not sure, with the presence of TCU now, if its a good fit in the Big East.  I google mapped it, and it's literally 45 mins (without traffic) from TCU to SMU campus.  I think that might be a little too close for comfort

[usf97]

Don't know if anyone saw this crazy tweet from the Washington Examiner that is going around.

#BigEast football looking at the #HOUSTONCOUGARS, #UCF and perhaps allowing #NotreDame to keep their NBC deal as they expand.

11:28 AM Dec 27th via TweetDeck

#BigEast football may offer in invites to the HoustonCougars, and #UCF invites to join in 2011w/ Notre Dame.(able to keep their NBC deal )

11:25 AM Dec 27th via TweetDeck

http://twitter.com/Wordmandc

I keep seeing this rumor with ND over and over. It sounds nuts but if it is legit I say go for it.

I guess the deal would be ND would join a 12 team football league (split into 2 six team divisions) but they would only have to play 5 league games against the other 5 teams in their division. Thus they would still be able to schedule 7 OOC games. (Would assume Army, Navy, USC, Michigan, Purdue, Michigan State, Boston College/Stanford/upcoming BYU series) They would have to drop one rivalry. Either Boston College or Standford maybe? Or alternate years.

In that scenario, a 5-0 Notre Dame could win the BE over say an 8-1 TCU which would kind of blow but Notre Dame would be bringing a lot to the table so I would still take that deal. They would keep their deal with NBC but still get a slice of the Big East money along with access to all the Big East bowls I would assume.

It would probably help our negotiations more if you had a Notre Dame available to everyone each year. You just have to wonder who the the "lucky" 5 BE teams be? Obviously, Pitt....but from there who knows? Probably UConn since they have 5 games left in their series....3 are neutral site games where UConn is the home team. West Virgina would probably be in the mix since they can seat 60,000 in their stadium. I wonder if USF would have a shot just based on Ray Jay?

It all sounds nuts but I hope it could happen.

[Apis Bull]

That Notre Dame scenario is far worse than the situation we have now.  It would be ludicrous for a 5-0 Notre Dame team to, "win" the Big East over an 8-1 team.  Technically, they would be 2.5 games back.

[Apis Bull]

If the Big East even considers this, they are bigger morons than anyone could even imagine.