Boise, Aresco, and the BIG EAST's Demise

[MUFlutieEffect]

ESPN recently posted an article on the loss of Boise to the Mountain West.

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/_/id/8801033/big-east-was-unwilling-meet-boise-state-terms-according-mike-aresco


Quoted in said article is our conference's fearless leader: "I don't know the deal with San Diego State," Aresco said.

While I hate to further exploit this already well-discussed issue, this epitomizes the conference's problems.  The commissioner "doesn't know the deal."  If he doesn't know, who does?  Further, if SDSU is unwilling to come clean on their plans, that alone should give Aresco some insight into the Aztec's future in the league.   

[GGGG]

ESPN recently posted an article on the loss of Boise to the Mountain West.

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/_/id/8801033/big-east-was-unwilling-meet-boise-state-terms-according-mike-aresco


Quoted in said article is our conference's fearless leader: "I don't know the deal with San Diego State," Aresco said.

While I hate to further exploit this already well-discussed issue, this epitomizes the conference's problems.  The commissioner "doesn't know the deal."  If he doesn't know, who does?  Further, if SDSU is unwilling to come clean on their plans, that alone should give Aresco some insight into the Aztec's future in the league.   

Yeah, but he can't really admit that in an interview.

[Dawson Rental]

San Diego State is in a unusual situation.  On the one hand, they can leave the Big East without paying an exit fee because there are no other western teams in the league, but they may not have any place else to go.  The Mountain West may not let them back in since they were the first to move to the Big East, were instrumental in getting Boise State to leave, and The Mountain West has committed to paying some of Boise State's exit fee to the Big East in order to get them back into the fold.

I wouldn't be surprised if San Diego State had to reimburse the Mountain West for their portion of Boise State's exit fee in order to get back into the Mountain West.

[GGGG]

True.  But if SDSU joins back, they can go 12 for football and get a national championship game.  (Boise, Air Force, Colorado State, Wyoming, Nevada, UNLV, SJSU, Fresno, SDSU, New Mexico, Utah State and Hawaii*)
*-Football only

They are making noise about adding schools like Houston and SMU too. 

[Groin_pull]

San Diego State is in a unusual situation.  On the one hand, they can leave the Big East without paying an exit fee because there are no other western teams in the league, but they may not have any place else to go.  The Mountain West may not let them back in since they were the first to move to the Big East, were instrumental in getting Boise State to leave, and The Mountain West has committed to paying some of Boise State's exit fee to the Big East in order to get them back into the fold.

I wouldn't be surprised if San Diego State had to reimburse the Mountain West for their portion of Boise State's exit fee in order to get back into the Mountain West.

The MWC has no room for pride in this situation. Of course, you take the Aztecs back. They have a solid football and hoops program...and play in a nice market.

[Dawson Rental]

True.  But if SDSU joins back, they can go 12 for football and get a national championship game.  (Boise, Air Force, Colorado State, Wyoming, Nevada, UNLV, SJSU, Fresno, SDSU, New Mexico, Utah State and Hawaii*)
*-Football only

They are making noise about adding schools like Houston and SMU too. 

It's hard to see how the Big East can survive, if it starts getting raided by the Mountain West, that would mean it was open to getting raided by three different conferences (not including the Big Ten who has the only team that they would want), one of which they were raiding themselves months ago.

How many more teams can you take from Conference USA before you just merge the two conferences?

[ChicosBailBonds]

ESPN recently posted an article on the loss of Boise to the Mountain West.

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/_/id/8801033/big-east-was-unwilling-meet-boise-state-terms-according-mike-aresco


Quoted in said article is our conference's fearless leader: "I don't know the deal with San Diego State," Aresco said.

While I hate to further exploit this already well-discussed issue, this epitomizes the conference's problems.  The commissioner "doesn't know the deal."  If he doesn't know, who does?  Further, if SDSU is unwilling to come clean on their plans, that alone should give Aresco some insight into the Aztec's future in the league.   

He doesn't know what SDSU is going to do, that's all he is saying.  Aresco is one of the sharpest guys out there and universally recognized so in the sports industry. He was handed a pile of crap that got even crappier 6 days on the job when Notre Dame bolted to the ACC and the avalanche started. 

[Groin_pull]

He doesn't know what SDSU is going to do, that's all he is saying.  Aresco is one of the sharpest guys out there and universally recognized so in the sports industry. He was handed a pile of crap that got even crappier 6 days on the job when Notre Dame bolted to the ACC and the avalanche started. 

I have no doubt he's a smart guy, but why did he ever take that steaming turd of a job in the first place? The Big East was already on life support when he became commissioner...now it's DOA.

[ChicosBailBonds]

I have no doubt he's a smart guy, but why did he ever take that steaming turd of a job in the first place? The Big East was already on life support when he became commissioner...now it's DOA.

I think he wanted a new challenge.  I've only spoken to him twice since he took the job and it was only via brief emails.  I haven't talked to him since the C7 split.

I would bet if he knew Notre Dame was bolting, he would not have taken the gig...I could be dead wrong on that, but that's my feeling.  That was a huge domino.   I'm sure that blind sided him.  I know when I was with one of the AD's a few months back from a school that is coming to the Big East, they were floored by ND's move so I suspect it was a surprise to all of them. 

At the end of the day, Mike is so well thought of he can jump back into the business tomorrow and do just fine if that's what he wants to do.  He scratched that itch, hopefully he sees it through, but ND definitely was the final piece. 

[GGGG]

Well, the CUSA is losing Memphis, Tulane, ECU, UCF, Houston and SMU.

But they are adding Charlotte, Middle Tennessee, Florida Atlantic, Florida International, Old Dominion, North Texas, UTSA and Louisiana Tech. (Charlotte and ODU are adding football.)

Most of these additions are from the Sun Belt, so they are at the bottom of the food chain.  The BE will take a couple more from CUSA, CUSA takes a couple from Sun Belt, and the Sun Belt takes new FBS members who are desperate.

The Circle of Life.

[GGGG]

The MWC has no room for pride in this situation. Of course, you take the Aztecs back. They have a solid football and hoops program...and play in a nice market.

Actually, they may not take them back.  Apparently as part of its agreement with the MWC, Boise insisted that SDSU be given an offer to return by the end of January before moving on to other expansion candidates.  But right now the MWC might make the offer so putrid and it will move on to other candidates.

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/_/id/8803804/mountain-west-conference-give-san-diego-state-aztecs-first-option-join

[MUFlutieEffect]

He doesn't know what SDSU is going to do, that's all he is saying.  Aresco is one of the sharpest guys out there and universally recognized so in the sports industry. He was handed a pile of crap that got even crappier 6 days on the job when Notre Dame bolted to the ACC and the avalanche started. 

Working in collegiate sports television hardly makes him "universally recognized in the sports industry."  Leading a conference and working out TV deals are apples and oranges.  To be honest, I'd question how much his job at CBS had to do with sports in the sense that his work entailed determining the value of a program and buying/selling it.  The fact that said program happened to be sports-related obviously didn't translate to successfully leading a group of collegiate athletic departments.

[GGGG]

According to ajerseyguy....SDSU will not be joining the BE and will go back to the MWC.