Big East will discusss future in Dallas meeting

[Harry]

The Big East will make a serious push to keeping San Diego State as a member in football and it will also focus on adding Tulsa as member in all sports according to sources familiar with the overall planning the conference is making to restructure its future.

Big East commissioner Mike Aresco will meet with Big East Presidents and Athletic Directors at an airport hotel in Dallas on Friday to discuss the overall strategy.

The most pressing issue will be the configuration of the football league for next season. The original plan had been a 12-team two division conference with the addition of Boise State, San Diego State, Houston, SMU, Memphis and Central Florida as new members joining Cincinnati, South Florida, Temple, Louisville, Rutgers and Connecticut.

Those plans had to be changed, however, when the 7 Catholic non FBS Big East schoolsProvidence, Seton Hall, DePaul, Marquette, Georgetown, Villanova and St. Johns decided to break off to form their ow league and Boise State backed out of the deal and decided to remain in the Mountain West.

With only 11 teams in football, the plans for a championship game (12 teams are required) were put on hold and Aresco also had to make plans to find replacements for Louisville and Rutgers who made deals to join the Atlantic Coast Conference and Big Ten.

All of these changes have created an atmosphere of confusion and uncertainty that Aresco has had to deal with, while also negotiating new television contracts in football and basketball.

Read more: http://ajerseyguy.com/?p=4700

[UNT90]

Tulsa would be nuts to join that disaster.

[Arkstfan]

Tulsa would be nuts to join that disaster.

They would get to be in a division with Houston, SMU, Memphis. They would be in a league with more basketball cachet which carries more weight there (see sub 18,000 crowd for CUSA title game).

[wardly]

If you don't like the neighborhood then you move if you can. CUSA has lost half its schools to Big East;ECU,UCF,Memphis,Tulane,Houston,and SMU. The new CUSA is a mixture of those left behind and former WAC and SUN BELT members.As a member of Big East-West,they would still be able to play in DFW and Houston markets,which their president said was important to them.If I'm them I am out of CUSA in a heartbeat.

[DeepGreen]

Tulsa will join if invited.

[wardly]

Tulsa will join if invited.

If Tulane can get an invite, so can Tulsa. The only shoe left to drop is SDSU. If they stay in Big East,then UTEP seems like a logical option for MWC.