this plan doesn't seem bad at all. at least it will keep the big east as an important conference.
Dick Weiss is a Daily News sports columnist.
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. - It appears to be no longer a question of if, but when the ACC announces it has added Miami, Boston College and Syracuse.
The Big East pulled out all the stops to prevent that during an 8-1/2-hour meeting here yesterday, bringing in a TV consultant to convince those three schools there is no way the ACC, which paid member schools $9.4 million last year, can come up with the whopper numbers needed in a new TV contract to help them arrive at the additional $30 million needed to justify expansion.
But Miami AD Paul Dee, who will report back to president Donna Shalala with his findings, seemed unfazed.
He seemed comfortable with the financial issues, refused, when asked, to accept any responsibility for the "irreparable harm" Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese said UM could cause other member schools by leaving and never gave any hint the Hurricanes had undergone a conversion.
"If you have to make the decision right now, to go or stay, what would you do?" one writer asked.
"I'm going to Disney World," Dee replied.
Dee said there was no timetable for making a decision.
"You have to do things in a reasonable amount of time or it dies under its own weight," he said. "The sooner you can get everything done and get a decision made to move on, the better."
Rutgers AD Bob Mulcahy must have known what the outcome would be.
He boarded a plane for Newark after the morning session to watch his daughter graduate from college. "This doesn't have to happen," he said, voicing his frustration.
The Big East began initial planning for a future without Miami, Syracuse and Boston College.
If the league approves a creative plan first proposed by former commissioner Dave Gavitt and discussed yesterday, it could help Eastern athletics emerge from the ashes.
Gavitt's plan calls for a Big East confederation, two leagues under one flag with Tranghese acting as commissioner.
Under Gavitt's plan, there would be one eight-team, all-sports league made up of the five remaining football schools - Virginia Tech, Pitt, West Virginia, Rutgers, Connecticut - and Louisville, Temple and Central Florida.
The second eight-team league would have the six remaining non-football Catholic schools - St.John's, Seton Hall, Villanova, Georgetown, Providence and Notre Dame - and two other additions - DePaul, Marquette, Dayton or Xavier.
The football schools may not have the same clout as Miami, but they could use the threat of congressional action to assure a seat at the BCS table.
The two conferences would play intra-league games in a weekend-long basketball jamboree to begin the season at the Garden, then play four crossover games during the season to maintain traditional rivalries, with the games counting in the overall standings.
Then, the confederation could either run its own mega-conference tournament, with first-round games being played on campus sites and the eight winners advancing to the Garden, or each conference could hold its own eight-team tournament.
It is an idea that intrigues St.John's AD Dave Wegrzyn.
At one point, there was the thought that the remaining footballs and basketballs would simply break away and the Catholic schools would form their own all-Catholic league.
But ADs at the Catholic schools seemed divided as to whether to take a financial risk to expand to the Midwest or become a Northeast corridor bus league, much like the MAAC.
Wegrzyn made it clear where St. John's stands on the issue.
"I think Villanova views itself as a national school, Georgetown views itself as a national school and we definitely are committed to having a national presence," he said.
"We want to play at the highest level."
Dick Weiss is a Daily News sports columnist.
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. - It appears to be no longer a question of if, but when the ACC announces it has added Miami, Boston College and Syracuse.
The Big East pulled out all the stops to prevent that during an 8-1/2-hour meeting here yesterday, bringing in a TV consultant to convince those three schools there is no way the ACC, which paid member schools $9.4 million last year, can come up with the whopper numbers needed in a new TV contract to help them arrive at the additional $30 million needed to justify expansion.
But Miami AD Paul Dee, who will report back to president Donna Shalala with his findings, seemed unfazed.
He seemed comfortable with the financial issues, refused, when asked, to accept any responsibility for the "irreparable harm" Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese said UM could cause other member schools by leaving and never gave any hint the Hurricanes had undergone a conversion.
"If you have to make the decision right now, to go or stay, what would you do?" one writer asked.
"I'm going to Disney World," Dee replied.
Dee said there was no timetable for making a decision.
"You have to do things in a reasonable amount of time or it dies under its own weight," he said. "The sooner you can get everything done and get a decision made to move on, the better."
Rutgers AD Bob Mulcahy must have known what the outcome would be.
He boarded a plane for Newark after the morning session to watch his daughter graduate from college. "This doesn't have to happen," he said, voicing his frustration.
The Big East began initial planning for a future without Miami, Syracuse and Boston College.
If the league approves a creative plan first proposed by former commissioner Dave Gavitt and discussed yesterday, it could help Eastern athletics emerge from the ashes.
Gavitt's plan calls for a Big East confederation, two leagues under one flag with Tranghese acting as commissioner.
Under Gavitt's plan, there would be one eight-team, all-sports league made up of the five remaining football schools - Virginia Tech, Pitt, West Virginia, Rutgers, Connecticut - and Louisville, Temple and Central Florida.
The second eight-team league would have the six remaining non-football Catholic schools - St.John's, Seton Hall, Villanova, Georgetown, Providence and Notre Dame - and two other additions - DePaul, Marquette, Dayton or Xavier.
The football schools may not have the same clout as Miami, but they could use the threat of congressional action to assure a seat at the BCS table.
The two conferences would play intra-league games in a weekend-long basketball jamboree to begin the season at the Garden, then play four crossover games during the season to maintain traditional rivalries, with the games counting in the overall standings.
Then, the confederation could either run its own mega-conference tournament, with first-round games being played on campus sites and the eight winners advancing to the Garden, or each conference could hold its own eight-team tournament.
It is an idea that intrigues St.John's AD Dave Wegrzyn.
At one point, there was the thought that the remaining footballs and basketballs would simply break away and the Catholic schools would form their own all-Catholic league.
But ADs at the Catholic schools seemed divided as to whether to take a financial risk to expand to the Midwest or become a Northeast corridor bus league, much like the MAAC.
Wegrzyn made it clear where St. John's stands on the issue.
"I think Villanova views itself as a national school, Georgetown views itself as a national school and we definitely are committed to having a national presence," he said.
"We want to play at the highest level."
