BCS leagues expanding - yeah?

East Carolina probably felt like it had nothing to lose. Is C-USA getting AQ status anytime soon? If not, why not make the jump? Very little, if anything, to lose for ECU.

It makes finding homes for the other varsity sports dicey, but Terry Holland doesn't come across as the sort who makes moves for shock value now and figuring it out later.

If all that happens, maybe ECU will finally get its wish. If it happens before then, consider it shocking.

 

There is no more AQ status starting with the 2014 season. The Big East will be in the same boat as CUSA when it comes to the "access" bowls at that point. And as a football-only member ECU will get zero basketball money. The move makes zero sense for the Pirates.

Tulane I can understand because they'll get basketball money as a full member. Of course that gets shot to hell if the hoops-only schools move to dissolve the league.

 

So the Big East is basically becoming Conference USA with a new label. Who gains what in all this?

 

I think we are passing the point where self-interest is driving these moves and descending into madness.

 

Grand Canyon is the first school mentioned on this thread in three years I have never heard of.

Do they have a football team or are they a non-football school? Are they just moving to D-1 or whatever they call it now? In what town is this institution and how many students does it enroll.

 

Were any of them football members 10 years ago?

 

Sounds about right. Tranghese, Marinatto and the rest of the Providence Mafia bled enough cash out of the football schools in the way of bowl payouts and TV revenues. Now that the Big East will be losing BCS status, they can do to the football schools what Tony Soprano did to Scatino's Sporting Goods.

 

Temple was. Of course, the Owls were kicked out and banished to the MAC in the meantime.

 

GCU was mentioned a while ago as a possible addition to the WAC, mainly when Karl Benson was struggling to find anybody relevant to join the league. The Antelopes are in Division II right now, but 'in the process' of moving up to Division I. GCU has 6,500 students.

 

GCU was going to start football, but abandoned that. It used to have a lacrosse team in Division II, but moved that to the MCLA.

 

The 13 also includes two former Southwest Conference teams and four former WAC teams.

Edit: and a former SEC school.