Mike Tranghese should use this as an opportunity

With the impending departure of Notre Dame to the Big 10 (it's not a question as to if, but just when) and the fact that the Big East is in discussions with Memphis about taking Notre Dame's place and adding a football member, Tranghese should consider just finishing the job once and for all.

ECU has offered a football only option that doesnt include shared revenue until they generate it.  This is a sweet deal for Tranghese, expecially since they have a good football team right now.  The obvious completion of the Big East football conference wihtout turning over the apple cart (splitting the conference) is that he then needs two other football only members to come to 12, which in turn will generate more revenue through a conference championship game.

The obvious football only members would be Army and Navy.  Navy has proven that they can compete on the field and these two schools would provide the Big East with the academic bases that other Power Conferences have with Vanderbilt, Northwestern, Duke, and Stanford.  They are tradition laden programs with loyal fan followings and provide a nice gate on the road for the other confeerence opponents.

To summarize; No split and the conference will look like this;

All sports-Pitt, Rutgers, West Virginia, Memphis, Cincinnati, Louisville, Syracuse, UConn, South Florida

Football only-Navy, Army, ECU

Non-football-Georgetown, Marquette, St Johns, Villanova, Seton Hall, Depaul, Providence

12 teams playing football

14 teams playing basketball

With ND leaving, this is will complete the conference.  There are nice natural rivalries throughout the conference.  Football can continue to grow and generate more revenue and basketball will be the best conference in the nation.

The Fox channel in Memphis that reported the Memphis/Big East talks indicated that ND was leaving but did not elaborate probably because they can not confirm with ND or the Big Ten, neither of which are talking.

ND was always the wild card, because they were the only program in the nation in a power conference that wasnt in in all sports.  The revenue stream is now cut off because they are losing, its the right time for them to jump and the discussions a few years ago laid the groundwork for their acceptance.

BTW, as I previously speculated, the inclusion of Navy and Army into a BCS conference will hold off congressional involvement into the BCS.  The fact that these two academies that are operated by the US Govt were being negatively affected by the unequal revenue sharing in the BCS was a major black eye for the BCS.

This being said, for those who want a playoff, this will not change anything, only that the Big 10 and Big East will generate more revenue, which will more than make up for any additional sharing they must do for their new members.

http://wvgazette.com/Sports/DaveHickman/200805150935

This guy seems to be on board.

First of all, our commissioner wants nothing to do with football only schools, so I don't see him all of a sudden adding 3. If ND leaves, there's one spot opening up.

In addition, nothing against ECU, who has a fine football program, but if we're going to add 4 teams to the conference, then ECU better not be far and away the best school we bring in.  Navy is competitive to an extent, but they would be a 4-8 team if they had to play a Big East conference schedule, as well as ND and Air Force ever year. Army would be winless, and unless Fulmer decided to leave Tennessee for Memphis, they'd replace Syracuse as the school everyone wanted to schedule for homecoming. Our conference can't afford to add a top 35 school, and 3 schools that Appalachian State would beat on a regular basis......I think Slaton10 might start a petition for WVU to join the PAC-10 if that happened.

If we can't get a Boston College, a Penn State, or a Maryland to join the conference, then I don't want to see 4 new teams in the Big East. I'd love to see ECU in the conference for football, but that probably isn't happening either.

My guess is if ND leaves (which I still don't think is imminent), the story ends with Memphis joining the BE.   

It's just a minor note, Hilby, but that'd actually make 16 teams playing basketball.  Your proposal is completely viable---just don't know that (as other posters have said) Army and Navy are going to sign on to get pummeled like that.  Could still just have Memphis replace ND and ECU join for football only, and that'd give 10 schools.

Here's a serious question for anyone who's familiar with goings-on at West Point.  News article after news article has reported that the Army has lowered its standards for enlisted recruits; has there ever been any discussion of slightly lowering the standards to get into West Point for some top-tier football recruits?  I'm just curious.  Obviously critics would reply that you don't want to lower the standards of the US officer corps (and I certainly agree), but would letting in a dozen or so guys a year that might be able to restore Army to national prominence really affect overall standards that much?  I mean, Stanford and Duke clearly let in some guys who weren't valedictorian (and my own school took Allen Iverson!) and no one's accusing Stanford of having slipped... so why not?

Just wondering.  (By the way, a link to the lowered standards stuff: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89702118 )