The Big East Will Survive
October 21, 2003 04:45 PM | General
Tuesday, October 21, 2003
Even though I’m a native of the Commonwealth of Virginia, I am long enough a West Virginian to have switched my allegiances rather comfortably. Because of that, it doesn’t really pain me to see Virginia Tech leave the Big East for the Atlantic Coast Conference.
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| West Virginia University Director of Athletics Ed Pastilong is working with other Big East athletic directors to come up with a plan for a reconsituted league. Those plans are expected to be announced in early November. (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks) |
When this thing sorts itself out I really believe this is an opportunity for us to move upward and onward. I think we will be in good shape with the new additions being discussed in the newspapers and I just don’t go for this current talk by some that the Big East Conference is in jeopardy of dissolving. I think the Big East will be in good shape and will continue to be so for long, long time.
I'm sure West Virginia University President David D. Hardesty Jr. and Athletic Director Ed Pastilong are doing everything in their power to make sure that happens.
When this Atlantic Coast Conference-Big East thing came about I kind of thought that if both the Big East and the ACC went together they would have had an East Coast conference from Florida to Massachusetts with enough geographic similarity to make it work. If they would have done this they wouldn’t have had to worry about scratching around to pick up a 12th team to have a football championship game.
West Virginia University is in a situation were a lot of things are governed by television revenues and we are not in a large TV demographic. Consequently, West Virginia was not an attractive candidate in the eyes of some ACC schools despite having historic ties with many of them as members of the old Southern Conference.
At any rate, because the Big East no longer has schools like Virginia Tech and Miami, I think that will lead to more solidarity among the remaining institutions.
As a youngster growing up in Winchester, Va., I was not really a big ACC fan. To be truthful, my next door neighbor was a dental student at Wake Forest who also happened to play football for the Demon Deacons. He used to give me team souvenirs, jerseys and things of that nature. That kind of drew me a little closer to Wake Forest.
I was also kind of enamored with the University of Virginia because it was a school not too far from my hometown.
And even though I wasn’t a huge ACC supporter, I always had an affinity for the institutions in the ACC and respected the way they conducted themselves and did business. Because of that, it was very painful to witness some of their actions in attempting to destroy the Big East Conference this summer.
In the past the ACC has always projected an image of integrity and honesty and I think a lot of that has eroded after their courtship of Miami, Boston College, Syracuse and Virginia Tech.
I think it was conducted in an underhanded manner and the way it was carried out convinces me that it was an out-and-out effort to bring about the demise of the Big East Conference.
However, ultimately I think such actions will do little more than increase the resolve of the Big East in becoming a more successful conference in the future.
Once the Big East reconstitutes itself I honesty believe there will be brighter days ahead.
In the meantime, hang in there.
