The Big Ten Expansion

College Search & Selection
281

<p>A story in the leading newspaper in New Jersey this week said that a retired Big East Conference commissioner says that if the Big Ten takes and Big East teams it will mean the death of the Big East in 5 years.</p>

<p>It’s my opinion that the Big East should have learned to live with and adapt to its circumstances when WV, BC and VT left for the ACC. It’s a northeast based conference, but northeast college football had its heyday years ago. Penn State has only been the only consistent northeastern football [$$] power, with ocassional bursts of success from Pitt, and nearby West Virginia. You’re never going to draw crowds of 60,000 fans regularly at stadiums in the northeast unless you become an overnight sensation, like Rutgers football nearly did a few years ago.</p>

<p>If the Big East hopes to survive a raid by the Big Ten, it needs to re-think its format and get rid of the basketball-only schools.</p>

282

<p>“It’s my opinion that the Big East should have learned to live with and adapt to its circumstances when WV, BC and VT left for the ACC.”</p>

<p>OK, but WVU never left for the ACC. I believe you are thinking of Miami. As for 60,000 seat stadiums, Minnesota, Indiana and Northwestern all play in stadiums of less than 60K capacity. And no Big Ten teams play before basketball crowds as large as Syracuse’s.</p>

<p>The Big East will survive, but not as a football conference. It is on its way to becoming a parachoial basketball league. If they had taken your advice 5-7 years ago they might have had a chance as an all-sports conference but that time has passed.</p>