(10-22-2017 08:36 PM)General Mike Wrote:  

(10-22-2017 06:49 PM)Kittonhead Wrote:  Temple and Rutgers when they were invited into BE football all of those years ago were kind of like what UMass is today a hapless program.

The problem for UMass is the AAC is not the BE. The AAC is more of a Midwest/South type conference like CUSA wanting as much recruiting value as possible, not an attempt at a major conference for the northeast ala the Big East.

I told Steve1981 (in person) that if the AAC loses 2 they'll probably go after Dayton, VCU to perpetuate themselves as a major basketball conference. That would put the A10 out of business as a regular multi-bid conference.

Finding a home is going to be a challenge.

Uhh, no. Rutgers and Temple had been playing the other eastern independents for a good period of time before the Big East was formed. Rutgers played Syracuse every year from 1980 until 2012. They played West Virginia every year from 1980 until 2011. They played Pitt every year from 1985 until 2012, plus 1981 and 82. They played Boston College every year from 1981 until 2004. RU and Temple played every year from 1977 until 2004. If you were making a regional conference at the time, of course you were going to have RU and Temple in the mix.

I think what Kittenhead is saying here is that while in the pre-Big East FB days Rutgers and Temple played big time east coast schools like Pitt, Syracuse, BC, Penn St, and WVU they usually lost and were not considered elite, just part of the club based m proximity and the need to fill dates on the schedule.

The UMass situation is a little different. They are in the same geographic area as several big programs but for the most part no one is rushing to be their friend and conference scheduling makes an ongoing long term series with the Minutemen unnecessary.

UMass screwed up when they turned down full membership in the MAC. What they should have done was counter offered a proposal where the MAC would also bring in some top basketball schools from the A-10 to make for a 16 member league that kept the best of both worlds. Dayton, VCU, and St Louis would have made for a solid group. Temple too if you could convince them that this was a better plan than the American.