Previously, I had expressed how more and more, I was thinking that the Big East may not be the right answer for the Pirates. In fact, one BYB poster put it perfectly when he wrote: I feel like we’re the late passenger running to board the Titanic. Thanks 00-Buc…you crystallized my feelings on the topic.
The analogy is a pretty good one when you think about it. Remember in the move Titanic, Leonardo DiCaprio’s character – Jack – won what was tantamount to winning the lottery when he laid down a poker hand worth two tickets on the ill-fated luxury liner. Well, we know how that worked out, a few days of luxury followed by a miserable death. The BE is just that…two years of access to the BCS pot of gold followed by a return to non-AQ status.
I have long thought that a proper combining of the MWC and CUSA premier teams could really give the watered down BE a run for that AQ bid. (Caveat: There is no guarantee, by the way, that the BCS will even allocate that AQ slot to any conference. They may very well consolidate down even further and just leave more teams out.)
However, for now, if we assume that the AQ status is indeed up for grabs in 2014 season, then the CUSA/MWC merge has a real shot, if Boise State stays put. Heck, why not try to pull in WVU and USF…that would be sweet. Up till now, though, CUSA seemed to be just as dysfunctional as the BE…sort of taking a wait and see approach. But in this recent interview with CUSA commissioner Britton Banowsky, it appears that the Silent Bob of college football actually has some moxie and quietly appears to have his eyes set on that AQ status and forging a better tomorrow for those CUSA schools committed to sticking together.
And, considering the Big East track record – teasing up a school like Temple which was KICKED OUT by the very same league – there is some appeal to sticking with the ugly girl we have danced with for many years. That the Orlando Sentinel of all rags did this interview should clue us all in that even UCF – which has been on a two- coordinated campaign to get into the BE is having second thoughts now.
Hopefully Terry Holland has an architectural hand in what Banowsky is doing because – aside from travel costs – the CUSA/MWC merger looks a whole lot more appealing than what the Big East seemingly has to offer: a Titanic conference whose luxury days are over and the iceburg already has done its damage below the waterline.
Maybe it’s OK if we miss that boat.
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