Friday, October 14, 2011

Report: Big East to invite six teams

((ht: nypost.com))

The question is "Will they come?"

According to a story in today's New York Post, the Big East plans to chime in on "Galactic Realignment" by adding some teams of their own. Six of them to be specific.

The paper says that Air Force, Navy, Boise State, Central Florida and 2 of the following 3 schools: Houston, SMU or Temple, will all receive invites to join the BCS football conference.

Read the entire Lenn Robbins story from the Post RIGHT HERE

There are some caveats and the story doesn't explore the possibility that some of these schools will say no.

We told you earlier this week that UCF would be getting an invite. They'll go. As quickly as they can. The others, Navy probably will, but after that there is a lot of uncertainty.

Air Force and Boise State. Sure, they could come. It would guarantee them the BCS opportunities they'd like to have. Boise doesn't deny they'll listen, but they've already gone on record saying they aren't so sure they want to do it.

But.

There's the travel thing. Neither school is "East" of anything aside from the Pacific Ocean. The Texas schools, we think they'll have to gauge whether or not the Big 12/10 will call, something that logistically makes much more sense too.

And yes, we realize that Boise, Air Force, SMU and Houston would help create a "Western Conference". We aren't blind to that.

The Big East is doing what they can to protect themselves and make sure they survive. We get that. And they are going to or at least approaching schools that could potentially be available. But this all begs some questions.

Is it worth the extra travel?

Even though the ACC is adding Pitt and Syracuse, the travel costs won't be going up too much. But imagine UConn having to fly to Boise or to Colorado for a game vs. Air Force. That is a long, long trip.

Again, this, we suspect is being driven by TV money, because if it happens, you know darn well they'll head straight back to the negotiating table to get a bigger TV contract. Yes, we know the Big East has to add some football schools to survive. But we just question the targets not the need.

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