Quote:
Originally Posted by KSig RC
You're missing the big draw of joining the Big 10 - the Big 10's academic reputation is sterling, and joining would practically guarantee membership into the Association of American Universities (assuming the school is a "research university"), which is a relatively big draw for a school like Mizzou, while Pitt only makes sense as a "friend" for PSU (who hates Pitt).
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Not quite sure what you mean by this part. Pitt's already a member of the AofAU and is a pretty high level research university. Pitt's academics fit in quite well.
As a Pitt season ticket holder for both football and basketball, I have mixed feelings on joining the Big 10 (or whatever they'd end up calling it, since right now there's 11 teams and this would be a 12th). I think for football, it would be an upgrade for Pitt and I'd take it in a heartbeat. Having a commish from a basketball only school (Providence) has seemingly hurt Big East football. Big East football has been suffering since the VT/BC/Miami defection. For basketball though, the Big 10 would be a downgrade from the Big East. And we'd miss the NYC market for recruiting purposes (and we usually play and draw quite well when playing at MSG). I personally dislike way things are run in the Big East, particularly the via towards football vs. basketball. Not so much a problem with the basketball, moreso the football.
ND will never give up its independence (aka cash cow) willingly. Mizzou seems like it is desperate to join. Rutgers and Syracuse are seen as bringing in a NY market, but that's a much more pro-oriented than college market. Syracuse basketball is consistently pretty good, but both of their football programs aren't great.
Cincy's has recent success, but they have a teeny tiny stadium and their football program is really just getting going - they just moved up to the Big East several years ago. Basketball wise, they're great.
It'll be interesting.
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