The Big East Adds Memphis, Continues Pattern of Questionable Decision-Making
By Ty Duffy
Memphis is terrible. The Tigers have a 5-31 record the past three seasons, playing in Conference USA. Their local paper, the Commercial Appeal, has an entire series devoted to just how awful and dysfunctional the school’s football program is. Why would a purportedly aspiring football conference add Memphis?
Temple would have been the logical choice. It’s a burgeoning program, with 26 wins since 2009. It’s a perfect geographic fit. It’s a perfect market fit. Temple, however, was blocked by the basketball schools at the behest of Villanova. Whether Villanova blocked Temple, blocked Temple in other sports besides football or simply “voiced concerns” about adding Temple, why are the whims of a basketball school concerned with its immediate market share dictating the actions of a purportedly major football conference?
The conference already dispensed with its academic reputation, adding a school with a SIX PERCENT four-year graduation rate. Now, it is willing to settle for an uncompetitive placeholder it previously looked over multiple times. Perhaps, they took up FedEx CEO Fred Smith on his alleged offer from a couple years ago, to pour as much as $10 million per year into a BCS conference that admitted Memphis?
The Big East is a basketball conference, that needs to make money in football. Incorporating Memphis adds no football value. Football conferences are built on stability and regional rivalries.
Temple fans need not fret. They will be next in line when another Big East program inevitably bails.
[Photo via Getty]