Doomsday for the Big East?

We should all be pleased that WVU came away with an exciting (perhaps too exciting) victory over ACC rival Maryland today. But the ACC did us one better in what amounts to a poaching of Pitt and Syracuse. This move is a pretty brutal blow to the remaining members of the conference, for a variety of reasons I will explore below. But I can't blame either school in the least. I can, however, blame the bumbling, incompetent conference leadership.

First, lets discuss what this means for WVU. We are facing the potential disruption of our longest-running rivalry. In fact, this means all three of WVU's traditional rivals will be in the ACC. WVU now faces an elevated chance of being left on the outside of the impending super-conference hegemony. While many of us are holding out hope for an invitation to the SEC (an option not without its own set of issues), there's no guarantee that's going to happen. And if it doesn't, there are only two other scenarios: "apply" to the ACC like Pitt and Syracuse, or remain at the helm of a league comprised of random bits of the the Big East and Big 12 and other assorted football flotsam.

In a certain sense, those are the same options WVU had 24 hours ago, but in reality, both now look worse. First, there are, at most, two more ACC slots that WVU might hope to occupy, instead of yesterday's four. And secondly, today's departures guarantee that the probable BE-B12 merger will be lower quality than it could have been in the absence of Big East defections.

The rest of the conference also faces this ugly set of prospects, but without WVU's hopeful ace-in-the-hole of an SEC invite.

Who to blame for this mess? It is difficult to conceive of the sort of organizational dereliction which could result in a Big East commissioner, after the experience of the last ACC raid, who is caught unawares by this. This conference turned down a 10-figure TV deal... and now what? How marketable is a seven-member Big East? Are potential replacements Baylor and Iowa State going to bring home the bacon in the next effort at TV negotiations? In letting things deteriorate to the current point, without even seeming to be aware of what's going on, Marinatto has failed at his job, which is to navigate the Big East through the conference-realignment fustercluck toward the best possible outcome.

Sorry folks... the best possible outcome is out the window. All that can be done now is to pick up the pieces.

Also... a question that may become relevant: as Chairman of the Big East's Executive Committee, what sort of duty does Nordenberg have to the Big East, and do his actions in regards to this recent debacle represent a breach of that duty? I don't think that WVU should pull a Baylor, because like I said before, I don't really blame Pitt and Syracuse for doing what they have done. But if we are left on the outside looking in, then all bets might be off.