By
Denny O'Brien
©2010 Bonesville.net
All Rights Reserved.
Butler’s run to the NCAA
title game was as improbable as it was memorable. Not because the
Bulldogs weren’t a capable bunch, but because schools outside of the
Bowl Championship Series football conferences rarely come within inches
of capturing a national title in hoops.
Sure, they routinely pull
the first and second round upsets. Happens every year. And every year we
applaud when they eliminate members of the nation’s elite.
Often the response from
fans and pundits extends beyond the cheerleading and into predictable
rants about a BCS system that takes a completely different path to crown
a national champion. If a school can make noise on the hardwood with
less name recognition and limited resources, then others can do so on
the gridiron if given the opportunity.
At least that’s the
mindset of many who support a college football playoff. But truthfully
it would be near impossible to replicate the widespread drama of March
Madness in December and January.
That is unless the NFL
establishes a one-and-done rule, and the NCAA both reduces the number of
scholarships in the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision to 65 and also
seizes control of the pigskin postseason.
We all know none of that
will happen. At least not in our lifetime.
If anything, we could be
on the verge of more exclusivity in major college football. It just
depends on which, if any, of the gazillion conference realignment
scenarios mentioned over the past couple of months actually pans out.
Will it be only Pittsburgh
heading to the Big Ten as we heard a couple of months ago? Texas making
a head-scratching jump from the Big XII to the Big Ten? Or maybe it’s
Missouri, followed by Arkansas to the Big XII and Clemson to the
Southeastern Conference.
Perhaps Notre Dame finally
joins a conference and no other changes occur. Or maybe it’s just the
opposite: the Big Ten explodes to 16 and forces a tsunami of activity
among the other major conferences trying to keep pace in the financial
tug-of-war.
It’s the latter that could
be the ultimate undoing for many schools in leagues without BCS
automatic qualifier conference status. It certainly is the catalyst for
some anxiety among East Carolina constituents who remember getting
passed over by the Big East a few years ago.
The absolute worst-case
scenario was hinted at several weeks ago by West Virginia football coach
Bill Stewart during a television interview. He was matter-of-fact in his
statement that Big East football could implode more violently than Texas
Stadium.
And you can certainly
understand why Big Ten commissioner Jim Delaney and his administrative
cohorts might find that scenario attractive.
A BCS system with only
five automatic qualifier conferences would mean more money to spread
around among fewer leagues. It also would increase the television demand
and generate more at-large opportunities to big money bowls for the
power leagues.
Consider it addition by
subtraction, with the likely result an even deeper monetary and
competitive trench separating the schools with AQ status from those
without it.
What should now be clear
for East Carolina is that it can’t put all of its eggs in the Big East’s
basket, and you can rest assured that Pirates’ athletics director Terry
Holland isn’t. There is no question that his greatest attributes as an
AD are his visionary abilities to think outside the box and his
possession of rolodex that is rivaled by few.
For every realistic
realignment scenario, he likely has a Plan A, B, and C for the Pirates.
He’s probably considered everything from improving the competitive and
geographic makeup of Conference USA to forming a new league that
includes realignment casualties.
(Those, of course, would
be Plan B and Plan C types of examples. Any Plan A almost certainly
would be some level of membership in an AQ conference.)
At the very least, ECU is
infinitely more prepared for any upheaval this time around. Just like it
has better positioned itself as a candidate for BCS AQ inclusion than it
was in the Fall of 2003.
It’s difficult to predict
when final decisions will be made on the Big Ten’s future. It could be
next week or sometime next year. So many factors are involved in
decisions of this magnitude, and only those closely involved in the
process have a clue about the who, when, and how.
Even so, you have to
acknowledge that the opportunity to improve ECU’s athletics positioning
could be looming around the corner. And if shifting occurs at the
magnitude that many are predicting, this could be the Pirates’ last
chance to gain AQ status for the foreseeable future.
