StillJonesing Wrote:

Quote:Most Big East schools have had much more success than ECU with various coaches since your last ranked team in 1999. Coaches that can pull an ECU up to BCS levels don't grow on trees

Yet, we have found successful coaches through out our history, Clarance Stasovich, Sonny Randel, Pat Dye, Ed Emory, Bill Lewis, Steve Logan, & Skip Holtz. We screwed up with one really bad hire, but things are clearly back on track.

buckaineer Wrote:ECU was a virtually unkown nationally directional school with poor academics in a state with four major conference teams.

So what's that make West Virginia? A directional 2nd fiddle state with poor people & poor academics by comparison to schools like VT as well, & to a real state called Virginia? It's a new era, enjoy your new coach. I think we are doing just fine without the Big East.

Uh, thought we were talking schools here, not states. WVU athletics has been a nationally known entity for much longer than VT or ECU and is named after the state it exists in, not a made up directional name. I doubt WVU is as far behind academically as you think. Where WVU is behind is in research, mainly because there are virtually no corporations with HQ's there, and WVU must admit state residents from a state with few students and schools. An example of WVUs true academic stature is that has more Rhode Scholars than any school in the Big Ten and many other BCS conference schools as well.

buckaineer Wrote:ECU was a virtually unkown nationally directional school with poor academics in a state with four major conference teams.

Buckaineer,

Saying ECU has poor academics is just wrong.

ECU has one of the best Nursing Schools in the area. ECU has one of the best arts and music programs.

We cant forget the school that ECU was founded on just over 100 years ago. Education. ECU has an amazing education program.

Granted ECU has had a great last few season. Talking about moving up a conference into the BE is great which gives ECU all the more spotlight which we need. It would be great for the ECU program. I think the BE would benefit from having ECU. ECU is a good team an all has been expect for when John Thompson was our HC. We can draw a large crowd when we play in the East, Tulane was an exception with the Hurricane and so on and so forth. We can bring in the money and our Campus is located in a great city with a great location. Sometimes its not all about the "W's"

StillJonesing Wrote:

esayem Wrote:Not so fast my friend. The Big East didn't ditch the Philly market when dumping Temple, they cut off a crappy program (since improved mind you). Villanova has held the Philly market since near the beginning of the league. If there is a split, Temple has positioned itself to be a prime candidate by improving their image. They need some marquee wins to get the city excited. That QB of theirs could be NFL calibar.

Football is the big boy sport, & the sport that drives college athletics & expansion. The ACC didn't expand or add Miami & Virginia Tech for their hoops. If it were so important to the Big East as well they would have picked Memphis over USF for their basketball. It's obviously not nearly as important in the expansion game as you make it IMO, when you look at all the past major expansion shake ups. Villinova does nothing in helping them corner the football market which is the important one, & probably little in hoops when you are talking about what 15k fans. They kicked out the football team is in Philly & didn't seem to worry about that market & why should they when they drew flys in it anyway. Never stopped the Big East from adding VT either when they stunk & had less fans than we do now.The market argument is a stupid one, & there are teams in huge markes all over the country that can't touch our TV situations or deals.

This is an entirely different situation than the last BE additions. This one will most likely happen due to a split between the football and basketball schools. The football school for the most part have excellent basketball programs, but they also will lose some "star" power in schools like georgetown, Villanova etc not being with them.

The Memphis basketball program has achieved a status that it is being mentioned with the likes of Kansas, UNC, Duke etc. There will be down years in basketball like any other sport, but at the level Memphis is, they will be less frequent and with the program reputation still command national interest. We are at a stage where we reload, not rebuild. The football program while presently mediocre by just about any standards, has great potential and in a BCS market should and imo would thrive. The support is there in the Memphis community and would really grow with higher stature for the program.

Memphis would bring money in basketball, and most likely would follow in the steps of our former brothers in C-USA football accomplishments in the BE. We would add the Liberty Bowl as a bonus, and FedEx would most likely be a major conference supporter (not to mention AutoZone).

Memphis has one of the best coaches of all time. Period. Cal would have Charlotte, UAB, VCU any of those schools at the level Memphis is right now. He is a living legend. Some people don't understand this. I hope he stays somewhere, but I don't think he is gonna be coaching forever. Honestly, I love the book Going BigTime, probably like the best sports book of all-time. Memphis is in a unique position, to say the least. They are a little southwest of the footprint, but surely should be BCS, I mean all you have in Tennessee is the Peytons and Vandy???