Big East Reaches Out to Fresno State and UNLV

[Who'sYourData?]

UNLV is a nice TV market, Good BB school and has the potential to be a decent FB program( bowl team yearly). Oh and they are in the process of building a new FB stadium as well. http://www.lasvegass...d-unlv-stadium/

People need to start realizing this whole expansion stuff is more about what you bring in TV dollars and money to the conference, Not neccassarily product on the field. (Ask Tulane, Cuse, Pitt, MD).

UNLV and Fresno State would join as football only. Therefore BB is a non issue and shouldn't be considered.

Is this a given? Now that the basketball schools have broken away I would this is on the table again. Certainly UConn would like to have some marketable basketball teams in the conference, wherever they are located. If you get a real east/west split going, then the BE could function as more or less two conferences for scheduling purposes, with only a handful of cross divisional games until tournament time.

[Sanford Bull]

I think adding Fresno State and UNLV would force either Air Force's or BYU's hand. But most likely the Air Force as they would have to realize that the Mountain West was raided of all of it's top teams and they would have to then join up for football. We would then be looking at the following:

East

USF

UCF

UConn

Cincy

Temple

Navy

ECU

Memphis

West

Houston

SMU

Boise State

San Diego State

Fresno State

UNLV

Air Force (or BYU)

Tulane

It would clearly place this new conference as the 6th best conference and would provide some good TV markets.

Make it 4 divisions of 4 teams each, with a Final Four playoff system at the end and you got yourself something

[Sanford Bull]

ok screw it. who cares about the quality at this point, we gotta get strength in numbers. this league is already diluted...

- Get rid of the "Big East" name-- we are now a coast-to-coast conference

- Get to 20 teams ASAP- west coast, south, north, i dont care

- Create 4 divisions of 5 teams each, based on geography

- Division winners (4) move onto 4-team conference playoff

- Winner hopefully gets a BCS bid

we gotta create a buzz WITHIN our conference and with a playoff within our conference, hopefully it will generate national attention.

Interesting idea, something along the lines of:

South

USF

UCF

ECU

Memphis

Tulane

North

UConn

Cincy

Temple

Navy

UMass (or Army)

Central

SMU

Houston

BYU

Air Force

Co State (or Tulsa or UTSA)

West

Boise St

SDSU

Fresno St

UNLV (or Nevada)

New Mexico

TV Markets: Tampa, Orlando, New Orleans, DFW, Houston, Boston, Philly, Denver (Co Springs/Fort Collins), SLC/Provo, Vegas, Albuquerque, Memphis, Cincy & San Diego with semi-national draws in Navy, BYU and Boise.

Exactly.

Can't worry about spreading the wealth now.. right now, there is NO WEALTH to be spread. it's all about building a brand/product that will sell in the future.

I like this because even if we get raided in the future, the infrastructure of the conference (4 divisions, Final Four playoff) will remain intact. Just promote from the lower conferences (sun belt, wac, mac) to replace the stolen team.

It's a "best of the rest"/NFL-style system that would be in place from coast-to-coast. Let the BCS divisions incest over each other with their bowl tie-ins-- our playoff system and regular season will mimick that of the NFL and it will generate nationwide interest

Edited December 20, 2012 by FPTGCC

[South_Florida_Flip]

UNLV is a nice TV market, Good BB school and has the potential to be a decent FB program( bowl team yearly). Oh and they are in the process of building a new FB stadium as well. http://www.lasvegass...d-unlv-stadium/

People need to start realizing this whole expansion stuff is more about what you bring in TV dollars and money to the conference, Not neccassarily product on the field. (Ask Tulane, Cuse, Pitt, MD).

UNLV and Fresno State would join as football only. Therefore BB is a non issue and shouldn't be considered.

Is this a given? Now that the basketball schools have broken away I would this is on the table again. Certainly UConn would like to have some marketable basketball teams in the conference, wherever they are located. If you get a real east/west split going, then the BE could function as more or less two conferences for scheduling purposes, with only a handful of cross divisional games until tournament time.

It could be a given if the league goes to 16 and has an East-West setup and you have 1 or 2 cross over games in the other sports.

[Who'sYourData?]

UNLV is a nice TV market, Good BB school and has the potential to be a decent FB program( bowl team yearly). Oh and they are in the process of building a new FB stadium as well. http://www.lasvegass...d-unlv-stadium/

People need to start realizing this whole expansion stuff is more about what you bring in TV dollars and money to the conference, Not neccassarily product on the field. (Ask Tulane, Cuse, Pitt, MD).

UNLV and Fresno State would join as football only. Therefore BB is a non issue and shouldn't be considered.

Is this a given? Now that the basketball schools have broken away I would this is on the table again. Certainly UConn would like to have some marketable basketball teams in the conference, wherever they are located. If you get a real east/west split going, then the BE could function as more or less two conferences for scheduling purposes, with only a handful of cross divisional games until tournament time.

It could be a given if the league goes to 16 and has an East-West setup and you have 1 or 2 cross over games in the other sports.

But in that case they would not be joining as football only.

[charsibb]

I can't imagine the Vegas TV market being that into UNLV. I almost equate it to New York City, there are pockets of college people, but hardly anyone that lives in Vegas is FROM Vegas, they're a mash up of fans from all over the country, so there's probably not really capturing the market - though I know TV doesn't have to "capture" it entirely, and that the Big East is banking on markets in Tampa, Orlando, Houston, and Dallas, even when the teams aren't the first choice in those markets.

There's a reason why there aren't any pro teams in Vegas. There may be a ton of people living there and touring through there, but there's no consistent fanbase methinks.

That said, I'd be cool with UNLV. Vegas as a championship tournament site always DOES work because of the other things to do while in town, same with their bowl game, and the fact UNLV is a good hoops school if added in all sports. Their football needs a lot of work though.

Fresno is the opposite though. They have the football, which is driving the money train, but their basketball sucks. But even in the proposed 16 or 20 member conferences we're all scheming up, there's a collection of good football and good basketball schools in the mix, but only one or two are really decent at both sports. (Cincinnati....and maybe Houston and San Diego State from time to time)

Pretty sure the reason is the NFL said no because they didn't want the taint associated with themob and the gambling.

[South_Florida_Flip]

UNLV is a nice TV market, Good BB school and has the potential to be a decent FB program( bowl team yearly). Oh and they are in the process of building a new FB stadium as well. http://www.lasvegass...d-unlv-stadium/

People need to start realizing this whole expansion stuff is more about what you bring in TV dollars and money to the conference, Not neccassarily product on the field. (Ask Tulane, Cuse, Pitt, MD).

UNLV and Fresno State would join as football only. Therefore BB is a non issue and shouldn't be considered.

Is this a given? Now that the basketball schools have broken away I would this is on the table again. Certainly UConn would like to have some marketable basketball teams in the conference, wherever they are located. If you get a real east/west split going, then the BE could function as more or less two conferences for scheduling purposes, with only a handful of cross divisional games until tournament time.

It could be a given if the league goes to 16 and has an East-West setup and you have 1 or 2 cross over games in the other sports.

But in that case they would not be joining as football only.

True. Figure that Boise, SDSU and ECU would be all sports members

[SilverBull]

I can't imagine the Vegas TV market being that into UNLV. I almost equate it to New York City, there are pockets of college people, but hardly anyone that lives in Vegas is FROM Vegas, they're a mash up of fans from all over the country, so there's probably not really capturing the market - though I know TV doesn't have to "capture" it entirely, and that the Big East is banking on markets in Tampa, Orlando, Houston, and Dallas, even when the teams aren't the first choice in those markets.

There's a reason why there aren't any pro teams in Vegas. There may be a ton of people living there and touring through there, but there's no consistent fanbase methinks.

That said, I'd be cool with UNLV. Vegas as a championship tournament site always DOES work because of the other things to do while in town, same with their bowl game, and the fact UNLV is a good hoops school if added in all sports. Their football needs a lot of work though.

Fresno is the opposite though. They have the football, which is driving the money train, but their basketball sucks. But even in the proposed 16 or 20 member conferences we're all scheming up, there's a collection of good football and good basketball schools in the mix, but only one or two are really decent at both sports. (Cincinnati....and maybe Houston and San Diego State from time to time)

Pretty sure the reason is the NFL said no because they didn't want the taint associated with themob and the gambling.

Teeheehee. He said "taint". Teeheehee.

[usfrob83]

BYU

National following. Their fans will pack stadiums whereever they play.

Big Leftover Conference needs BYU & AF.....

Not sure why people make such a big deal out of BYU. They fill their stadium but they've pulled pretty crappy TV ratings since they signed their contract with ESPN. Their national merchandise sales aren't all that impressive either.

(48.) University of Connecticut

(49.) University of Pittsburgh

(50.) University of Colorado

(51.) Brigham Young University

(52.) University of Cincinnati

(53.) East Carolina University

http://clc.com/clcweb/publishing.nsf/Content/Rankings+Annual+2012

[deathrow95]

Kevin is right this is the line up we need to roll with

East

USF

UCF

UConn

Cincy

Temple

Navy

ECU

Memphis

West

Houston

SMU

Boise State

San Diego State

Fresno State

UNLV

Air Force (or BYU)

Tulane

It would clearly place this new conference as the 6th best conference and would provide some good TV markets.

Navy & Air Force for football only. Might want to look at New Mexico instead of Fresno as well. If Air Force says no take Fresno at football only. This could very easily work. The only wrinkle is baseball Boise and Smu don't have teams.