After a decade of having its membership raided and its television revenue dwarfed by other conferences, the Big East, if nothing else, has had plenty of practice putting its best foot forward.
At this point, however, it appears as if the league has two left feet.
Despite comments from commissioner John Marinatto that he expects his league to secure a lucrative TV deal next year on the same scale as the one anticipated before the departures of Pitt and Syracuse, sources in the media business said that is not likely.
“When you lose a market like Pittsburgh, which is 20th or 21st, and you lose Syracuse, which has a lot of appeal in the New York market, that’s a lot to lose,” said one media expert who wished to remain anonymous.
“There still are a lot of strong markets in the Big East, but it will be hard-pressed to bring in new membership that has the same value as Pitt and Syracuse,” added the source.
The Big East has already begun moving to add Navy and Air Force, which because of their presence worldwide contain significant value. As technological advances of delivering content and platforms continue to emerge, the academy’s presence on ships and on military bases is a huge potential market.
Sources said the league also is evaluating the benefits of inviting Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State and Missouri. The quality of the basketball programs at Kansas and Missouri would offset the loss of Pitt and Syracuse from a competitive standpoint but will never fill the void created by the loss of rivalries.
Marinatto said in a Tuesday night interview at the Grand Hyatt Hotel after a 3½-hour meeting with the presidents and athletic directors from Big East schools that play FBC football that he expects a similar payday in November 2012 when the league becomes a TV free agent.
“Given all of the assets this conference has to offer, our automatic BCS bid, the crown jewel of our college basketball tournament right here in New York City, our media footprint, still which is remarkably strong probably even with the loss of two schools, the most of any conference in the country, we’ve got a lot to offer,” said Marinatto.
“Moving forward, our perspective hasn’t really changed from [football] media day in terms of our goals and our ambitions,” he added. “We recognize that football and the television landscape are very, very strong and we’re still in a very positive position to capitalize on that and exploit it.”
The question that remains is: What will the Big East be in November 2012? The schools pledged Tuesday night to work together to recruit new membership, not to stay together.
Although the conference carousel has seemingly slowed, UConn and Rutgers remain very attractive to the ACC and/or the Big Ten. If the Big East loses either or both of those schools, another media analyst said the non-football schools should split. They would be OK financially.
“They’ve survived on an undermarket deal for years now,” said the source. “We’re still talking about basketball in the Northeast in five of the top 10 markets. That’s very sellable.”