Big East Contract With Memphis

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

A slight break from yesterday's great win against Cincy.  Some interesting notes on the Memphis expansion.  Some interesting basketball scheduling.

Specifics Of The Big East Contract With Memphis

by Mengus22 on Feb 12, 2012 2:12 PM EST
Mark Weber - APMore photos

Kyle Veazey has written a great deal recently in the Memphis Commercial Appeal about Memphis joining the Big East and how it was accomplished. Today, Veazey and Commercial Appeal published a copy of the six page contract that the Big East and Memphis agreed to in welcoming the school to the Big East. You can view the entire contract here. Here are some of the more interesting points in reading over the document:

•Memphis will officially join the Big East on July 1, 2013. Men's and women's basketball, tennis, soccer, track and field, golf, and cross country teams as well as women's volleyball and softball teams and the football team will all play in the Big East conference once Memphis joins.

•Memphis will pay the Big East $2.5 million to join the conference. The total will be paid in five payments of $500,000 each. The last of which is scheduled to be paid in 2018.

•Memphis agrees to pay the Big East $5 million if it decides not to join the Big East between now and the official membership date of July 1, 2013. This is similar to what TCU did in paying the Big East $5 million after deciding to join the Big 12 instead of the Big East.

•Memphis agrees to play a home and home series in basketball with both Boise State and San Diego State. No specific dates were set in the contract, but this is an implicit thank you to those two western schools for taking the plunge with the Big East in football.

•The Big East explicitly states the goal of inviting Memphis and the other members is to have 12 football teams, divisional play, and a conference championship game in football. The contract states, however, that no divisional setup has been determined and will ultimately be decided by the football playing members.

•Notable Memphis booster and CEO of FedEx Fred Smith agree that FedEx will provide "appropriate levels of sponsorship, advertising and similar commitments". Hello, "Big East Championship Game brought to you by FedEx!"

•Memphis also agrees that the Liberty Bowl game, and whatever entity it might become in the future, will make every effort to have a Big East school as a tie in. This is a good move for the Big East as it will need additional bowl tie-ins with the addition of new members, and Memphis will be a somewhat centrally located city for most of the new Big East members.

It sounds like the Big East worked to cover all of its bases with Memphis in terms of maintaining membership as it moves forward. It also sounds like the conference, school, city, and corporate sponsors all worked together to ensure that the Big East is still a financial benefit to all of its members and is trying its best to keep up with the other conferences that are increasingly swimming in money via media rights deals and sponsorships.

[KipsBayEagle]

Memphis is a good grab.  One of the other offerees should really be dropped for temple though, we need the basketball schools.

[JamilJaeJamailJrJuan]

Memphis is a good grab.  One of the other offerees should really be dropped for temple though, we need the basketball schools.

Yeah, like Houston or SMU. They're both awful.

[brewcity77]

Yeah, like Houston or SMU. They're both awful.

Houston is improving and has 2 too-100 recruits in their next class. SMU isn't good, but does have 4-star 7-footer Blaise Mbargorba coming in. But while their basketball is looking improved, either being on the level of a USF or DePaul would be an improvement. But we all know they were brought for football. I can live with a couple bunnies if it helps keep the conference together.

[real chili 83]

If we

[Dawson Rental]

Houston is improving and has 2 too-100 recruits in their next class. SMU isn't good, but does have 4-star 7-footer Blaise Mbargorba coming in. But while their basketball is looking improved, either being on the level of a USF or DePaul would be an improvement. But we all know they were brought for football. I can live with a couple bunnies if it helps keep the conference together.

There are very encouraging signs for basketball improvement at Rutgers, and yes, even DePaul.  So there may be room for bunnies at the bottom.  But, I think that Houston will be on the upswing, as well.  They are certainly putting money into facilities which is always a good sign.

[Dawson Rental]

Yeah, like Houston or SMU. They're both awful.

Sort of like Memphis in football.

[Canadian Dimes]

i think SMU and Houston will be good over time.  heck houston is a great comparison to Depaul .. in that they are bouth historic basketball tradions in recruiting hotbeds in top 5 media markets. 

One thing we have seen is schools improve there fortunes by being in a BCS conference in the sense that they have more revenue and therefore can spend more and their programs become more attractive to more student athletes given new conference status.  heck look at the basketball fortunes of schools like georgetown, uconn, Seton hall, etc. before and then after they joined the Big East.  Even Mu....even thought we were not down like Hou, SMU or Depaul it has definitely raised the level of our program by being associated in the BE.

Lastly, SMU and Houston are great for media contracts and are tremendous footholds for the recruitment of students and student athletes into texas.   

has to help guys like Buzz and the football coaches to say to the recruit that they will be back home 1 or 2 times a year and their parents can watch them all the time as I am sure the texas equivalent of a SNY or a MASN will now pick up the BE games of those two teams.  great move by the BE to getthose schools maybe not tommorow but for sure over time.

[JamilJaeJamailJrJuan]

Sort of like Memphis in football.

I don't give two sh!ts about Big East football.

[muwarrior69]

I'm dreading this summer. If Clemson and Florida State Bolt for the Big 12 as rumored then all this conference re-alignment nonsense will start all over again. As it is, UConn, Rutgers and Louisville would bolt if the opportunity presented itself. They just might get ACC invites anyway just to put the final dagger in the the Beast  and kill it which is their goal from the outset.

[4everwarriors]

Can you be more specific?

[avid1010]

I'm dreading this summer. If Clemson and Florida State Bolt for the Big 12 as rumored then all this conference re-alignment nonsense will start all over again. As it is, UConn, Rutgers and Louisville would bolt if the opportunity presented itself. They just might get ACC invites anyway just to put the final dagger in the the Beast  and kill it which is their goal from the outset.

i'm not sure the ACC is capable of killing the BEAST.  taking Pitt and Cuse made their conf. a worse football conf. and pissed off some of the better football teams in the conference.  if they now lose clemson, florida st., va tech., etc. and the ACC takes UCONN and Rutgers, I don't see the BEAST taking a big hit in football.  i don't follow college football close enough to know who else would want to join, but if the BEAST can somehow come out of this stronger in football, the all bball schools should be enough to keep the basketball side lagit as well.  i do feel more and more comfortable that however the chips fall MU is will have a solid program (as Buzz seems loyal) and the MU bball program has a value that is going up each and every year. 

[Buzz Williams' Spillproof Chiclets Cup]

i'm not sure the ACC is capable of killing the BEAST.  taking Pitt and Cuse made their conf. a worse football conf. and pissed off some of the better football teams in the conference.  if they now lose clemson, florida st., va tech., etc. and the ACC takes UCONN and Rutgers, I don't see the BEAST taking a big hit in football.  i don't follow college football close enough to know who else would want to join, but if the BEAST can somehow come out of this stronger in football, the all bball schools should be enough to keep the basketball side lagit as well.  i do feel more and more comfortable that however the chips fall MU is will have a solid program (as Buzz seems loyal) and the MU bball program has a value that is going up each and every year. 

Iff UConn, Rutgers, Louisville bolt, there's no reason for the basketball schools to stay in the Big East. All the remaining marquee basketball programs are basketball-only, with the possible exception of Cincinnati or Memphis. A Big East without UConn, Louisville, Syracuse, Pittsburgh, and West Virginia is not worth tying ourselves to SMU and USF anymore.

[GOO]

UCONN and Rutgers to the ACC we can overcome.  Add Temple and ?.

However, if Louisville goes to the B12 or Louisville and Cinncinati go, then it may be over.  The ACC may stay where they are at, and I suspect the ACC stays as is... however, the B12 WILL expand and it is just a matter of which teams get added, and Louisville seems to come up a lot with the B12. They want BYU, but BYU is king of like ND now, with a good independent TV contract. 

Now, if the NCAA would allow 5 team divisions and a championship game with 10 team leagues, then the B12 would not expand... but the NCAA probably won't agree to this, which is too bad (all the other leagues that have added teams to get to 12 or more would object).

If the ACC looses two to the B12, it is really too bad then that Pitt and Syracuse left the Big East, as the Big East would have been in a stronger position.

If the BE breaks apart, watch ND.  We and DePaul need to stay close to ND and then hope we can be involved with whatever they do.

[GGGG]

i'm not sure the ACC is capable of killing the BEAST.  taking Pitt and Cuse made their conf. a worse football conf. and pissed off some of the better football teams in the conference.  if they now lose clemson, florida st., va tech., etc. and the ACC takes UCONN and Rutgers, I don't see the BEAST taking a big hit in football.  i don't follow college football close enough to know who else would want to join, but if the BEAST can somehow come out of this stronger in football, the all bball schools should be enough to keep the basketball side lagit as well.  i do feel more and more comfortable that however the chips fall MU is will have a solid program (as Buzz seems loyal) and the MU bball program has a value that is going up each and every year. 

1. Don't include Virginia Tech in the list of schools that want to bolt.  They made it pretty clear when the SEC was looking at a 14th school that they had no interest.  They want to stay in the ACC.  Clemson and FSU may be another story.

2.  The issue with keeping the BE together if UConn, Rutgers, or any other schools leave is that the conference cannot keep adding CUSA schools and calling it the Big East.  In its past, the Big East was a collection of schools that cared a lot about basketball, some of whom played football.  It added football schools as needed in order to keep the conference viable.  If it becomes a bunch of second rate football schools who don't care all that much for basketball, why would MU, Georgetown, etc. even *want* to stay in that conference?

[ringout]

1. Don't include Virginia Tech in the list of schools that want to bolt.  They made it pretty clear when the SEC was looking at a 14th school that they had no interest.  They want to stay in the ACC.  Clemson and FSU may be another story.

2.  The issue with keeping the BE together if UConn, Rutgers, or any other schools leave is that the conference cannot keep adding CUSA schools and calling it the Big East.  In its past, the Big East was a collection of schools that cared a lot about basketball, some of whom played football.  It added football schools as needed in order to keep the conference viable.  If it becomes a bunch of second rate football schools who don't care all that much for basketball, why would MU, Georgetown, etc. even *want* to stay in that conference?

Not sure the Big East has ever been a good football conference.  Not 2nd rate, but, at best, a 1.5 rate football conference.  I believe, in the end, we will be part of a basketball only conference.

[GGGG]

Not sure the Big East has ever been a good football conference.  Not 2nd rate, but, at best, a 1.5 rate football conference.  I believe, in the end, we will be part of a basketball only conference.

I think you are correct...and as more and more of the "core" football playing "basketball schools" leave, that becomes closer to a reality.  (Which is one of the reasons I'm not all that excited about Memphis...just think it delays the inevitable.)