For the past two decades, the Big East has been the center of college athletics in the northeast. From its beginnings as a way to bring basketball powers like Georgetown, Villanova and St. John's better competition in the 1970s through the conference's expansion and inclusion of football in the 1990s, the Big East has shaped college sports in a section of the country where they are normally an afterthought.\nNow the Big East faces a serious threat to its survival. In recent weeks, the Atlantic Coast Conference has gone about trying to pluck Miami, Boston College and Syracuse from the Big East to create a new "super-conference" of 12 teams.\nOn many levels, this move does not make sense. How do Syracuse and BC fit into a conference that has been centered in the southeastern United States for half a century? What toll will the added travel have on student-athletes and their studies? How can feasible divisions be established when the schools of the ACC tend to be good at basketball or football, but not both?\nThe move only makes sense when one remembers that it is all about the benjamins. The ACC is only adding more teams to be able to play a football championship game (under NCAA rules, a conference can only have a championship game with 12 teams). In addition, the conference wants to increase their value when the television contract they are currently under runs out, and to solidify their position in the Bowl Championship Series.\nThe Big East is not taking the attempted theft of three of its schools lying down. Realizing that the loss of Miami, BC and Syracuse would be the end of the conference, the five remaining football-playing schools filed a lawsuit in Connecticut state court to prevent the schools from leaving. The basis of their suit is that the schools made improvements to their athletic facilities (including Virginia Tech, pouring $37 million into the expansion of its football stadium, and Connecticut, completing a new $90 million football stadium) based on the promises of Miami and Boston College made that they would remain true to the conference.\nThe lawsuit might not be able to win on the merits, but it has already had an impact. Twice this past week the ACC postponed a vote to extend a formal invitation to the three targeted schools because of fear the motion would not pass with the seven needed votes. North Carolina and Duke have already voted against expansion, and now Virginia (partially because of the fact that Virginia Tech was not invited and the price its fellow state school would pay) has stated it also will be in the nay camp.\nThis mess is just a symbol of the growing problems of the NCAA. Money has always been a driving force in major college athletics; now it appears to be the sole factor. School presidents who speak of the public mission of a university go into the back rooms and try to maximize profits for their own institution without regard to the impact it will have on other universities it has been allied with for decades, or their students. \nThe BCS is another case in point in this argument. When the five major conferences and Notre Dame established the system of crowning a national champion in the 1990s, it all but froze out schools from mid-major conferences from a chance at a major bowl and the millions of dollars that are earned from them. In recent years, schools like Tulane and Brigham Young have had undefeated regular seasons without getting a chance to play in a big bowl.\nIn fact, the disparity almost caused Tulane to eliminate its football program. Despite the competitive nature of the school and the high graduation rate, the program was on the brink because of the lack of opportunity to get national exposure. While it has been given a last minute stay of execution, other athletic programs might not be as lucky.\nMyles Brand came into the presidency of the NCAA at least in part because of his public statements on the need to change college athletics. Here is his opportunity. The overwhelming obsession with money by athletic directors and universities needs, in some way, to be curtailed or else college sports might be forced to close up shop. To do so would be an incredible disservice to the huge numbers of student-athletes who give their all to their schools and deserve something in return.
Quick Hits\n
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- Steve Phillips was fired this week as the general manager of the NY Mets. Not a big surprise, given that the last two teams he has put together have been mired in last place, even behind the Florida Marlins. \n
- The College World Series is ongoing in Omaha, Neb. While ESPN is using the saying "more ping, less bling" to sell its coverage, I am just thankful that the majors don't use metal bats. Too many mediocre hitters would be hitting thirty home runs (of course, we're almost there as it is).
