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OBSERVATIONS ON
COLLEGE SPORTS
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Nuggets of Gold
Saturday, February 23, 2008
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By Adam Gold
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Adam Gold is
program director of the Triangle's "850
the Buzz" and host of "The G-spot with Adam Gold"
mornings from 6-10 a.m. |
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Big East football keeping it
cozy
Eight-team league's power
brokers unmoved by scheduling dilemma
By Adam Gold
©2007 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.
Depending on the time of
the year, the Big East Conference is either way too big or way too small.
In the winter, the
16-team basketball league prevents any scheduling equity. Last year, due to
a 16-game league schedule that tried to maintain several home and road
matchups between historical rivals, there were conference teams that never
played each other.
This season, they
conference extended the league schedule to 18 games and made sure that
everyone played each team at least once. The problem is that no two
schedules are alike, and in many cases they’re dramatically different,
making it extremely difficult for the NCAA selection committee to judge
which teams are the strongest and most deserving of a bid.
Meanwhile, in the fall,
with just eight football-playing members, half the league plays three home
games and four on the road while the other half gets the extra game on their
own fields.
That doesn’t sound fair
to me and it didn’t to Connecticut head coach Randy Edsall either. Edsall
thinks the Big East should at least add one more school that would be a
football-only member so the home-away scheduling process could balance out.
Last year, the Huskies
had four of their Big East games at home. In 2008, the world turns upside
down for UConn as it welcomes just Cincinnati, West Virginia and Pittsburgh
to East Hartford, while playing Syracuse, South Florida, Rutgers and
Louisville on the road.
Wouldn’t a ninth team
make things perfect?
Wouldn’t some school, say
one from a place like Greenville, North Carolina, with a a rabid fan base, a
great home crowd atmosphere and a history of playing very competitive
football round out the league nicely?
Not according to Big East
Commissioner Mike Tranghese. According to Tranghese, league boss since
conference founder Dave Gavitt’s retirement in 1990, there is just no
league-wide support to add members in any capacity.
For Terry Holland and the
East Carolina faithful, that’s just not good news for a football program
that would like to compete in one time zone.
We’ve been down this road
before. It would be great to convince the Big East that a ninth football
school, one that didn’t need to also compete in basketball, was the best of
both worlds for that conference.
Just for scheduling
purposes, it’s too difficult to find five non-conference games every year
for football. The additional school would allow for the 4-by-4 home-away
league slate making it fair for everyone, every year.
It would be so easy. Big
East membership in football, then get on bended knee and beg the Colonial
Athletic Association to allow the Pirates back into a league that would
allow them to be in closer proximity to their rivals in basketball and the
non-revenue sports. Think of the money the athletic department would save in
travel alone? There’s a big difference between trips to Boston or Atlanta —
the longest trips North and South in the CAA — and multiple trips to Texas,
Florida, Alabama, Louisiana or Mississippi — the treks involved with being
in Conference USA.
I know we’re currently
paying more than $100 a barrel for crude oil, but regardless of the price
per gallon of 93 octane, with many trips being convenient bus rides, it’s
better than flying back and forth to El Paso every year.
But isn’t it a bit
presumptuous to say that leaving Conference USA would make it easier to
compete in men’s basketball?
The entire current membership of Conference USA other than Memphis has
combined for just one NCAA bid in the last two years while the Colonial has
grabbed five bids over that span.
So, to say that ECU could
its their chances of reaching the NCAA Tournament by skipping back to the
CAA would be to hope that the Pirates would be battle-hardened by the
increased quality of the conference.
The truth is that there
are no excuses for the plight of East Carolina basketball. With just 22 wins
in its last 100 games against Division I opposition, the conference hasn’t
yet been created that would allow the Pirates any measurable success.
If you can win in
Spokane, Washington or Dayton, Ohio, or — gasp — Greenville, South Carolina,
there’s just no reason why you can’t create something credible down east. Is
Mack McCarthy the right guy to build the program or is he just the current
caretaker until Mr. Holland figures out his next move?
While the news from Big
East HQ might not have been received favorably by Holland and company, the
fact remains that the only impact of expanding Big East football would be
felt at Dowdy-Ficklen. East Carolina basketball would not necessarily be
better-served — competitively speaking, anyway — by stepping back to the
good old days of the CAA.
[E-MAIL ADAM GOLD]
[ADAM GOLD ARCHIVES]
02/28/2008 12:52:21 AM |
