The Sky is Not Falling if Pitt Leaves....

[GGGG]

The BIG EAST would be smarter to jump on UCF before EDU.  They have much better facilities (a new arena and a new football stadium in last 2 years), spend huge $$ on athletics, and is the largest university in the Sunshine State now (in terms of kids on one campus).  UCF would give USF a natural rival as well. The Golden Knights have a solid pigskin program while hoops is barely average.  The AD there has been leaning on Speraw for a while now -- and I'd imagine a high profile basketball coach could be in their future soon (their arena is terrific).

Yeah...as soon as I hit "Post" I thought..."No...Central Florida you dummy."

[chapman]

Might be worth considering two of Memphis, ECU, and UCF.  Makes the football schedule balanced instead of four home games /three away games or vice versa like it is now.  Seems a little ridiculous to expand and make the conference even bigger but it would really solidify the football status, the basketball schedule would be the same except only two mirror games which could remain constant each year for USF, UCF, and ECU would work well by creating a southeastern rivalry.

[duanewade]

Yeah, Brady Quinn sucked.  On recruiting, depends who you ask.  Tom Lemming hated Notre Dame's classes.  Phil Steele certainly doesn't agree with you.

You do realize that in his second year, Willingham's class was ranked in the top 5?  I'm sure you knew that, but just in case you might want to look at Steele.  His first class was ranked 24th, his second class 5th consensus (Rivals had it at 12th, others as high as number 2)  At one point under Willingham, they had more top 25 Consensus players than Michigan, USC or Tennessee per Phil Steele....including 15 Parade or USA Today High School All-Americans

He didn't get it done....and neither did Charlie Weiss.  I've enjoyed it.

Like I said please make these claims on ND and Washington's boards & see how it goes.....the one highly ranked Willingham class he had two four & five star prospects that never stayed longer than a few weeks their freshman year camp (Isiah Gardner & Greg Olson - whose father was a ND alumni)...I could rebuke the story behind all your stats that you look up on the internet and so can the fans that follow these teams closely.  Botton line there are plenty of kids who want to go to ND regardless of who the coach is, Brady Quinn was one of them.  Willingham stunk.  Weis stunk overall but his offense was very productive these last two years.

So please surf the net and continue to be the first person to point out articles and quotes that would greatly hurt MU's ability to compete at an elite level going forward as obviously get you excited by this and I don't want to get in the way of that. 

[ChicosBailBonds]

Might be worth considering two of Memphis, ECU, and UCF.  Makes the football schedule balanced instead of four home games /three away games or vice versa like it is now.  Seems a little ridiculous to expand and make the conference even bigger but it would really solidify the football status, the basketball schedule would be the same except only two mirror games which could remain constant each year for USF, UCF, and ECU would work well by creating a southeastern rivalry.

The question would be whether the Big East could keep their BCS bid by bringing those schools in.  That's a big if.  If they can't, then the other football Big East members start looking to join BCS conferences and the dominoes fall.

[ChicosBailBonds]

As someone not from Chicago, you can easily be forgiven for this error ... but Teddy Greenstein is a dolt, both professionally and personally. Don't ever trust him as a source, or think that his speculation is somehow educated.

Fair enough, some of the other comments came from other sources as mentioned.

[ChicosBailBonds]

So please surf the net and continue to be the first person to point out articles and quotes that would greatly hurt MU's ability to compete at an elite level going forward as obviously get you excited by this and I don't want to get in the way of that.  

Doctor, you're comedy gold.  Keep up your analysis.  Let me know where to send the nickel.

[pbiflyer]

The BIG EAST would be smarter to jump on UCF before ECU.  They have much better facilities (a new arena and a new football stadium in last 2 years), spend huge $$ on athletics, and is the largest university in the Sunshine State now (in terms of kids on one campus).  UCF would give USF a natural rival as well. The Golden Knights have a solid pigskin program while hoops is barely average.  The AD there has been leaning on Speraw for a while now -- and I'd imagine a high profile basketball coach could be in their future soon (their arena is terrific).

That's not true, I have it from reliable sources that UCF is one slasher SG/SF away from the final four.