The Big East Needs To Shut Its Mouth And Remember The Past

Boo-hoo to the Big East. Boo-hoo.

Hypocrites.

With the news that Syracuse and Pittsburgh are leaving the Big East conference ... I'm sorry , BIG EAST Conference ... for the ACC, all the Big East honks are upset. "They're raiding us again!" "The ACC has no respect for our league!" "Cuse and Pitt are greedy!" Blah blah blah.

We heard it all before, nearly a decade ago, when Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College all left the Big East for the ACC. The move was met with lawsuits (which included both Va Tech and BC ... who later withdrew when they found out it was them, not Syracuse, that were getting to go to the ACC). The Big East cried and cried and cried and cried.

They said it was the end of the Big East as we know it. They said that it couldn't survive. Cried and cried and cried.

When they wiped their tears, they decided to, ya know, do the EXACT SAME THING to Conference USA. They took Louisville, Cincinnati and South Florida ... as well as basketball schools DePaul and Marquette. Those, along with Memphis, were the premiere programs in the C-USA. The C-USA had to then raid the WAC to replace those schools.

I know, I know, the Big East had to do that to survive as a conference. I did that. But, wait, why would the Big East worry about Miami or Virginia Tech leaving their conference?

Remember that the Big East added Miami in the early 1990s so they could form a football conference. Remember that the Big East was a basketball-only league whose football teams played Division I-AA ball. Heck, Miami didn't even have a hoops team for quite some time until 1985.

Virginia Tech? They were also added to the league in 1991 (for football only. In 2000, they were invited for all sports). They also added Rutgers and West Virginia to create this football league. Those schools came from the Atlantic 10 or elsewhere.

Why would the Big East do this? Hmmmm. Why would they form a football conference when only Syracuse, Boston College and Pitt were the only schools with a Division I football program? Hmmmm.

Oh, and Pitt joined the Big East in 1982. Ya know, expansion. Pitt was playing in the Eastern Eight conference. That's now known as the Atlantic 10.

Yeah, the BIG EAST loves picking on the Atlantic 10.

Know your roll.