I know the U of M AD Tom Bowen is here to help football. The hope is that he will do at the U of M, what the Louisville AD did. Make the school a major football power, while keeping basketball at a high level. He is here because the previous U of M AD RC Johnson let football fall apart. While basketball became a national powerhouse under Cal, football became the doormat of Conference USA. So Bowen was brought in with a mandate to fix football. His mandate does not include messing with basketball.
U of M wished to join the Big East because it was a major football conference that focused on basketball. It also had Louisville, Marquette & Cincinnati, who are former rivals of U of M. The Big East Conference is now dieing. Louisville is leaving to join the ACC, along with Notre Dame, Syracuse, Pittsburgh, & Rutgers. Seven non football schools, Depaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, St John, Seton Hall & Villanova have decided to leave also. These schools are also basketball schools. They decided to leave after it became clear that the Big East TV deal would not be as good as they were promised. Boise State has now decided not to join, choosing to stay in the Mountain West Conference & now San Diego State is likely to join them. The Big East has also lost its automatic qualifier status in the BCS. This means that after next year, winning the Big East does not guarantee a BCS bowl bid. The BCS bid was another reason why U of M wanted to join. Tom Bowen said U of M is still loyal to the Big East. I assume that because the weaken Big East is still better for football.
In a story which I see as related, Josh Pastner said that the U of M, Tennessee men's basketball series was ending. That this year was the last year of the series while Pastner was the coach. He said this in a press conference. His decision was ripped by several people including national sportswriters. Then on the very next day, we found out that the opposite was true. We found out that the Tom Bowen is in talks with UT to continue the series in both basketball & football. This is not the first time something like this has happens. Last year, information about the Football & Basketball series against Ole Miss was leaked before Coach Pastner was told. Ole Miss promised to play us in football, so we agreed to play them in basketball. I am assuming that the reason why the UT basketball series will continue is so the the football series, which currently has one game left will continue. Once again it seems that football interests beats basketball interests.
While Memphis football is improving under Coach Justin Fuente, the chances that it becomes a major power are very low. U of M had four wins in CUSA, last year. The Big East is a shell of what it was. Both the good basketball & the good football schools are leaving. The Big East is becoming Conference CUSA 2.0. The Big East is also no long a basketball conference, because it is still trying to focus on football. Another reason why the seven non football school are leaving is because the Big East changed from focusing on basketball the sport that it was founded upon, to football. UConn & Cincy are going to leave as soon as possible. Yet, U of M is staying in it. It is not worth it. If the basketball starts doing poorly, Tiger fans will be angry. It is better to cut our loses & admit that football at the FBS level isn't worth fixing. A FCS team can make money & the FCS has a playoff system meaning that it is possible to win the national championship in my opinion.
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