2012 Big East Spring Meetings Recap

My interest in the Big East spring meetings has been tepid at best. Let's be honest, with Pitt probably bolting from the conference a year early and with them having no involvement, it's hard to stay interested in the conference's happenings.

All of that said, here are the developments from the meetings and some of my thoughts:

1, Boise State staying put

On the football side of the equation, there have been many who have wondered about whether Boise State and San Diego State would actually play in the league in 2013. Athletic directors at both schools are at the spring meetings, and both said there has been no second guessing the decision.

Boise State athletic director Mark Coyle said, "Nothing’s changed. We’re here at the conference meetings. It’s great to learn a great deal about the conference and the direction and all that."

Well, okay. For now. The fact is that Boise State isn't a great fit for the Big East. They';re geographically separated and practically on their own out west along. San Diego State, Houston, and SMU are out there as well, but all three are a bit farther than a hop, skip, and a jump.

All of that said, it's a great 'get' for the Big East and Boise is better off there than in the WAC. An undefeated season in the Big East will look a little better if they can pull it off and there's more money involved, so staying put is clearly the best option for now. But if the Pac 12 or Big 12 came calling, I have a hard time believing they wouldn't leave.

2. TV Deal Discussions

Television negotiations were front and center for the athletic directors, who heard from consultants about how to position the league to best maximize TV revenue. Representatives from several networks are interested in bidding on media rights. There are no estimates just yet for what the Big East will command on the open market, but the hope is that having several parties interested will boost the value.

The TV deal has to be an ever-changing situation right now. I'd imagine the Big East would want to get something done sooner rather than later, but executives might be hesitant with so much shifting going on right now. While it looks like Boise wants to stick around, if they left, that would probably alter things financially in terms of what kind of deal could be struck.

And here's the thing for the Big East: Barring a bombshell such as picking up Notre Dame, there simply aren't many attractive options to add. I'm hard pressed to see a scenario with the conference making significantly more money on a deal than what they could get right now.

Then, there was discussion about where a conference title game should be played. The big news is that there was some talk about playing that game on a campus site as a home game for the top-rated team. Personally, I'm not a fan of that and I'd rather opt for a neutral site game. I understand the point about rewarding a team that did well during the season, but all schedules aren't created equal. Just because a team has the strongest regular season in college football doesn't mean they were the best team. Home field is too big of an advantage and I think games would be more competitive on neutral sites.

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