T1B

Purportedly, notes from the 2003 meeting of Big East football schools. Not sure if it's legitimate; it's rather obviously amateurishly written in light of the concerns over litigation. Still, it's possible that it was typed up from somebody's hand-scribbled notes. Interesting reading, in any event.

http://mysite.verizon.net/fethrs/Minute ... 202003.pdf

Coupla thoughts:

• Although this obviously happened some time ago, and subsequent events have, to some extent, superceded these notes, this does raise the question of whether the Big East, in its present composition, can survive long-term.
• It would seem that the short-term decision to continue the hybrid format of the Big East served two purposes. First, it placated Notre Dame, and kept them from bolting to the ACC or the Big Ten. Second, it staved off a possible lawsuit from the non-football playing schools in the event the Big East had split, given that the non-football playing schools would have had to wait several years for an automatic bid in the NCAA tournament.
• The latter reason probably also formed the rationale for adding DePaul and Marquette in addition to Cincinnati, Louisville and South Florida.
• If authentic, this document would appear to confirm the suspicions of many, including myself, that the Big East never would have considered South Florida before BC bolted. It would be interesting to find out what caused South Florida to move ahead of Central Florida, Temple and Marshall, all of whom received more support than South Florida did in July 2003.
• If I had to venture a guess, I think the Big East will ultimately split along the lines of football/non-football schools. This could occur as early as 2007, but more likely around 2010. I believe Notre Dame will serve as the bridge between the two conferences, joining with the non-football schools for basketball and olympic sports, but continuing the affiliation with the football schools for football scheduling, bowl games, and also some OOC basketball games. I also think you could see a basketball challenge between the two conferences, similar to the ACC-Big Ten Challenge, to keep rivalries alive (e.g., Georgetown-Syracuse; Notre Dame-Pitt; DePaul-Louisville; Rutgers-Seton Hall; UConn-St. John's).

Notre Dame has football? :D

This is the basketball forum, they have one of those?

Some more thoughts:

• Next year will be interesting for the Big East, in that there will likely be anywhere from 7 to 10 teams in next year's Big East coming off a tournament bid. Syracuse, Louisville, UConn, Cincinnati, Villanova and Pitt are all but mortal locks to make the tournament. Notre Dame, Georgetown, DePaul and West Virginia are on the bubble, with at least one of those teams likely to make the tournament. Next year, it'll be interesting to see if the Selection Committee pares that number down, given that all of those teams will be in the same conference. My guess is that if 8 or more get bids, they will. That'll be all the more incentive to split, as these teams are likely to get more bids in two conferences than in one.
• I suspect the Catholic Conference (i.e., the non-football Big East schools plus Notre Dame) will expand to 12 for the benefit of olympic sports (both in terms of competition and travel), raiding the Atlantic 10 to do it. The likely final lineup, imho:
  East Division: Georgetown, Providence, St. John's, St. Joe's, Seton Hall, Villanova
  West Division: Dayton, DePaul, Marquette, Notre Dame, Saint Louis, Xavier
  ND goes to the West Division to make the alignment workable.
• The Big East will also expand. I believe the football schools will add Central Florida. Beyond that, there might not be any interest in expansion right away. Central Florida will allow the Big East to balance its conference schedule (i.e., each team gets four home and four away conference games), give each school one road trip to Florida every year, and will be a natural geographic rival for South Florida.