Really, what league was going to make a serious push for Louisville?

 

The SEC isn't interested. Louisville would never meet the Big Ten's academic standards, which leaves the ACC and Big 12. The ACC went for the media markets. The Big 12 is taking whatever is left over.

Forward that to Whit Babcock. It was his quote that I referenced. I am sure he was thinking more historically along the lines of Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado, Nebraska, etc. And there are a lot of state names in your list versus city names.

 

So Kentucky State has a chance...

I'm not sure how anyone is to blame. Included is the Big East commish. What school's was he going to lure in the first realignment? It's Big East football, isn't he selling ice to the eskimo's here?

 

You can't lure anyone from the power conferences to join your league, so what options left would have prevented what we have?

 

The Big East was created as a basketball conference, in an era when conferences couldn't create their own football deals.

Jurich has done a great job as AD, IMO. I can't imagine that any reasonable U of L fan would want him out.

Eric Crawford on Realignment and Silence

 

Eric Crawford wrote a great piece about Louisville's tactics in this. There's been a lot of leaks that turn out to be completely untrue. The Louisville athletic office: silent. There are a lot of schools (WVU) with egg from several conferences all over their face right now. They've been very public about their desire to enter the ACC, SEC and Big XII and their position remains fundamentally the same as Louisville while no one from Louisville's front offices has said a word. This is great stuff from Crawford.

Jurich has done a great job as AD, IMO. I can't imagine that any reasonable U of L fan would want him out.

 

No one I know of says Jurich should be fired. They basically think Krags hire and not seeing UL move want to say he hasnt done a good job with those two issues.

^ I think part of Jurich's silence on the issue and some of the perceived hesitation on the part of the Big XII and its potential new members is stability. While it's certainly true that the Big East appears a sinking ship, the Big XII only looks stable by comparison. Look at the Big XII from the perspective of the other four major conferences and the Big XII's stability certainly comes into question. Texas' clear desire and apparent ability to control the fate of this conference unilaterally is going to keep it unstable for at least a couple more years.

^ I agree 100%

^ I think part of Jurich's silence on the issue and some of the perceived hesitation on the part of the Big XII and its potential new members is stability. While it's certainly true that the Big East appears a sinking ship, the Big XII only looks stable by comparison. Look at the Big XII from the perspective of the other four major conferences and the Big XII's stability certainly comes into question. Texas' clear desire and apparent ability to control the fate of this conference unilaterally is going to keep it unstable for at least a couple more years.

 

I completely agree.

So now the Big 12 might take UL, WVU, and UC??

So now the Big 12 might take UL, WVU, and UC??

 

Has always been an option...

Given what Jurich has done to advance and upgrade the entire athletic department @ UL and the success of other sports, both Mens and Womens that aren't basketball and football, we'd be crazy to think that Jurich isn't/hasn't made decisions he felt were the best at the time. No blame from this fan. Really, I don't blame anyone for what's happening.

Call me crazy, but i kind of blame all of the higher ups at U of L. They have good enough sports programs to look appealing to other conferences, mainly because of their basketball program. What is hurting them is their athletic programs academics. When your athletic departments grades aren't good enough to cut it for the SEC, ACC, and the Big Ten, it leaves you with only the Big XII and the Big East to contend with. Then when you compare the programs of UL and WVU, you choose WVU because of their football program. Even their basketball program has been superior to ULs the past few years. That leaves the Cards with only the Big East until the next round of expansion. I may be crazy, so does that make sense to anyone else?

^ OK....I think you're crazy;.

IMO, the day after Pitt and Syracuse announced that they were leaving the Big East, UofL and UC both should have paid the $5M (at the time) and gotten out of the conference. They should have applied to the Big 12, SEC, or the Big 10. With Pitt and Syracuse gone, the quality of football, which wasn't extremely high to begin with, dropped off significantly. The move also effects the quality of basketball in the conference.

 

I think it is mainly Jurich and the President of the University faults. Even before the departures of Syracuse and Pitt, they should have had some type of contingency plan since it is now the "cool thing to do" to be conference jumping. Epic fail on their end!!