Posted in The Soapbox
4 comments
09/10 2010

Villanova For Big East Football? Yeah, They Totally Asked The Wrong Philly School

Posted by Dan Levy.

The Philadelphia Daily News broke the news today that Villanova has been asked to join the Big East in football. They are, per the report, pondering the decision.

This made sense years ago. When the Big East got rid of Temple and started looking around the entire Eastern Seaboard for new teams to join the league — and replace the departing Virginia Tech, Miami and Boston College — they should have stayed in house and forced Villanova to join football or get out.

Yes, if this off-season has taught us anything it’s that some major conferences have long been too concerned with making all their schools happy. The Big East invited Connecticut and Villanova into the league for football back in the late 90s and when one said yes and the other said no, it should have been the beginning of the end for Nova in the Big East. Remember, Villanova has a good basketball history, but was far from the powerhouse they’ve become under Jay Wright when that offer was proposed. They had good teams in the last 20 years, but it’s not like they had the national cache the program had in the 80′s or has now. Threatening an all-in or get out situation could have worked.

It also could have worked — and still should happen — with Notre Dame. The Big East has allowed Notre Dame to control the entire conference, especially with regard to football. Several bowl affiliations have put in a clauses that they can pick Notre Dame instead of a Big East team if the Irish are eligible. The Big East has constantly been scrounging for another high-profile team to join its mediocre football league yet hasn’t ever turned the screws on Notre Dame to go all-in or get out. Who needs their basketball program in a stacked Big East? So why cater to Notre Dame at all? The baseball team? The name affiliation? In a way, it’s actually hurting the league at this point.

And that leads right back to Villanova. It’s a no-brainer for Villanova to join the league. They already compete in the other sports and work with the league office and the other schools on a daily basis. Plus, they go from FCS champions to a BCS conference in the blink of an eye. No stops in Conference USA or the MAC. Villanova has to say yes.

The issue, though, is why the Big East had to ask them. They bring NOTHING to the conference except a team, just like UConn a few years ago, that is going to knock off one of your top teams and totally screw up their chances at a national title shot. At least UConn built a beautiful new stadium. Villanova, as of now, has no place to play. It’s going to take 5-10 years before people look at Villanova as a real threat in the FBS, so does the league really think that’s what will keep the likes of Rutgers, Pittsburgh and West Virginia from ditching for the Big Ten?

The Big Ten is talking about further expansion in December and there are several teams in the current Big East who would leave right now if asked to join the Big Ten. Right now. Does Villanova change that? Hell no. It may even galvanize their thoughts the other way and want to make them leave even more. The only team that can save the Big East football conference from breaking apart the league if the ACC or Big Ten come calling is Notre Dame. That’s it.

Asking Villanova to join the league at this point seems like nothing more than a panic move. Should Villanova be in the Big East for football? Yes, so it might be a bit unfair to kill this idea as much as I am. But now is not the time to bring them in. Now is the time to pilfer a big fish to keep your big boys — and those in big markets — happy.

Here is Villanova’s attendance last year: 52,717.

That’s not an average. That’s their home attendance THE ENTIRE YEAR. That’s an average of 7,531 and that includes TWO playoff games, one of which was a national semifinal that saw 2,661 listed as the official attendance. The weather that day? High of 45 degrees with .4 inches of precipitation and trace amounts of snow. Trace amounts of snow and Villanova might draw fewer people than fit on the average subway train down Broad Street. How is this going to help the Big East NOW?

For what it’s worth, if you add in the games at Franklin Field against Penn and at the Linc against Temple, Villanova’s attendance was 95,352 in Philadelphia last season. That’s enough to almost fill up the stadium for one Penn State game!

The irony of the Big East is that the best team to ask to join their league (other than Notre Dame) is…Temple. The league voted Temple out years ago because it was a horrible, directionless program with terrible facilities and an ever worse fan base. Temple signed a horrible deal with the Eagles as a last-ditch effort to try and keep their Big East affiliation and seemed destined for oblivion a few years ago. But guess what happened? They got a good coach. They started winning. They played a BOWL GAME last year, against UCLA and, oh yeah, they just beat Villanova (though as @gregotto corrected me, Nova won last year). Sure their attendance still stinks, but it’s better than 7,500 fans a game.

If Villanova is the first step in getting to 12 teams, then fine. Forget all this. But those three other teams better be big. And they should include Notre Dame and Temple. As for the third, there are three options: first, convince Army and Navy to accept the previously discussed joint league status (they each play half a league schedule and are ineligible for the conference title game); second, get UCF or another southern team on board or; third (speaking largely to the ‘better be big’) steal Maryland from the ACC, creating the greatest basketball conference ever while making a stand that the Big East is going to be aggressive in keeping its core together for football as well.

If Villanova is the end of the expansion plans, they may not be joining a BCS conference for very long.

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Posted on September 10, 2010 at 1:18PM

 

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  1. yatesc
    09/10 2010

    I’m with you, except for adding UCF. UCF brings nothing to the current Big East members. No extra TVs, no extra revenue. They already have a minor foothold in FL with USF, but adding UCF won’t help them recruit down there… and it will totally hamstring another, existing program: it makes USF’s quest for national relevance that much harder.

    If the Big East adds Villanova any time soon, they should lose their BCS autoqualification. 9 mostly-weak teams is not an improvement over 8 mostly-weak teams. What a disaster this conference is.

    (I’m a fan of a current Big East team, FWIW.)

  2. SeanDon
    09/10 2010

    Villanova has more Division-1 national championships in team sports than any other Big East schools. Just saying…

  3. Villanova, Shmillanova, Bring on Notre Dame |
    09/10 2010

    [...] However I finally got off my tail to write about it because Dan Levy over at Press Coverage tossed out a great article on the potential addition of Villanova to…. [...]

  4. Dan
    09/10 2010

    UCF is a great catch for the Big East. It is the fourth largest university in America, and has the 19th largest, and growing, TV market. UCF adds this prime Central Florida market to the Big East, as USF has little following outside of the Tampa area. UCF also has a new stadium and athletic complex, with good attendance. There is also a built in rivalry between UCF and USF to bring even more Florida attention to the Big East. In addition, it’s easy to attract UCF to the Big East, as it’s looking to join a BCS conference.