Villanova invited to join the BE in football

[X-band '01]

ESPN.com link (http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=5553575)

It appears that Villanova is considering making the jump to I-A and the Big East, although they unofficially have about a year to decide. Should they say yes, that would put the balance of Big East power into 9 football members, 1 independent FB member, and 6 BB only schools.

The hurdles Villanova would have include either upgrading their home stadium up to I-A standards (which would involve adding 3,000+ seats) or possibly sharing another stadium like Lincoln Financial Field with Temple and the Eagles or Penn's Franklin Field. They would also have to add 22 football scholarships and either add 22 women's scholarships or cut 22 men's scholarships.

If they do make the necessary investment to upgrade, will this finally be the domino that causes a Big East rift, or will they still find a way to keep a 16-team conference intact where basketball will still be their chief publicity maker?

[MHettel]

How the heck is the Big East part of the BCS? Their newest memeber has a year to decide if they are going to jump up to 1a?

Thats laughable.

The motive here is simple. Capture the Philly market for football, so you don't lose it in basketball when the split happens.

The Big East HAS to have a team in Philly, and a split between basketball and football would have meant Nova goes with the Bball teams and Philly is left out of the BE.

The remaining basketball teams in the Big East are: Gtown, Marquette, DePaul, St. Johns, Seton Hall, and Providence. Does anyone really think any of these teams would be missed besides GTown?

[xubrew]

i think the motive is for the football schools to gain a political upper hand within the big east. adding a 17th full member wouldn't be easy because all the other full members would have to agree. adding a partial member just for football wouldn't make much sense either because only full members have any real administrative power. in other words, temple wasn't full big east member. it was just that the full members said it was okay if they were a part of the conference in football. much like kentucky and south carolina play soccer in conference usa, and kansas and kansas state's rowing teams are part of conference usa. they still aren't full c-usa members and have no say in it's policies.

so, in order to gain a true advantage in regards to football, the easiest thing to do is have a full member move its football team up.

i think this move helps preserve the big east in its current format. if the league were to disband and/or split in half, it would take a majority vote. now, with nine football schools, why split?? i believe most of the big east schools like being in the big east and like it the way it is.

[gladdenguy]

The Mountain West really gets screwed.

[Masterofreality]

Good, just what the Big Least needs- another mediocre football team that won't help against the big boys.

Wow. Villanova won the Division 1aa championship. That will really help them against Penn State when, or if, they ever play them.

Hell, they might just win the BE championship though. What a joke this league is.

[smileyy]

Wow. Villanova won the Division 1aa championship. That will really help them against Penn State when, or if, they ever play them.


They just need to get Michigan, Va. Tech or Minnesota on their schedule.

[xubrew]

the big east is not a premier conference, but it isn't a doormat either. in its current format, the league has a whole has finished ahead of the big ten in all years but one.

it was 2nd in the bcs standings last year, 3rd in 2008, 4th in 2007, 3rd in 2006 and 6th in 2005. so, in all but one year, it has been about in the middle. not great, but far from pathetic. it's better than what it gets credit for.

the thing is that the big east really isn't adding a school. it's just that one of the schools may end up adding fbs football. for instance, if xavier were to add softball, they'd almost certainly play in the atlantic ten since we are full members of that conference. if nova were to move football up to the fbs level, it's only natural that they'd play in the big east since they are full members of that league as it is. no one really needs to let them in. they're already in. it's not like temple, who wasn't a full big east member and had no vote or say when it came to big easty bylaws. it was just that those who were full big east members said it was okay if temple played in their football conference for a time. nova is different. they're already in the big east. i think the members of the league want them to move up for the reasons i stated earlier, but it's my understanding that so long as they made certain upgrades that it has pretty much always been an option for them in the first place. uconn recently moved up and they moved right into the big east too.

[GoMuskies]

If they can get to the level of UConn or USF, this will be a good move for the league. It's certainly questionable as to whether that is possible or not. Playing games at the Linc would be a complete joke.