So What Does This Mean for the Big East?

[gosports1]

Good to see that the Big East plans to keep pace with the P5 in hoops, but you have to wonder if the lesser sports will suffer. A volleyball player being recruited by multiple schools may now choose a P5 program simply because she'll get more money there than at a Big East school.

“We consider ourselves a power conference, and we expect to keep pace,” Driscoll said. “We don’t have the resources to go across the board like some of those other schools, but we will keep pace in sports where we are trying to win the national championship.”

it will be intersting to see how this plays out. With FB and BB taking the bulk of the money, will certain members of the p5 have enough cash/desire to pay ALL their athletes, especially those they arent getting a return from like volleyball and x-country?
id liketo see the full cost of paying every p5 athlete. maybe it might help those without FB in the olympic sports because they can use $ that wont go to FB for other athletes

[robinreed]

It will be interesting to see. Basketball is a given and the Big East will do everything the power conferences will do regarding benefits for basketball. As far as other sports, Big East teams might have different priorities. Providence will give hockey the priority while Creighton will give baseball, volleyball and soccer the priority. Will the Big East make it a league wide mandate to fully fund certain sports (other than basketball) or will it be up to the individual schools to decide which sport they want to "fully fund." If individual schools decide, it will obviously put certain teams within the league at a disadvantage.

I fully agree. Not only will certain teams/schools be at a disadvantage but the conference as a whole will be weakened. A "league wide mandate" is the best way to go.

[Jet915]

It will be interesting to see. Basketball is a given and the Big East will do everything the power conferences will do regarding benefits for basketball. As far as other sports, Big East teams might have different priorities. Providence will give hockey the priority while Creighton will give baseball, volleyball and soccer the priority. Will the Big East make it a league wide mandate to fully fund certain sports (other than basketball) or will it be up to the individual schools to decide which sport they want to "fully fund." If individual schools decide, it will obviously put certain teams within the league at a disadvantage.

I fully agree. Not only will certain teams/schools be at a disadvantage but the conference as a whole will be weakened. A "league wide mandate" is the best way to go.

I agree with league wide mandate but some schools might not be able to afford full benefits for the majority of their sports.

[GumbyDamnit!]

Troubling waters ahead for sure. BB and FB are sooo different and I can't imagine that any direct action would be done on the BB side to kill the golden goose: the Tourney. The Tpurney NEEDS the little Cinderella stories IMO. But if college athletics become a free/open market it's just a matter of time before the shoe companies, sports drinks, TV networks and corporations start sticking their names all over the place. "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to ESPN Big Monday sponsored by Toyota. We're here at Yum Arena where the Louisville Gatorade Cardinals take on the UK Nike Wildcats. Stay tuned for the Pepsi pre-game show." Ugh.

[aughnanure]

It will be interesting to see. Basketball is a given and the Big East will do everything the power conferences will do regarding benefits for basketball. As far as other sports, Big East teams might have different priorities. Providence will give hockey the priority while Creighton will give baseball, volleyball and soccer the priority. Will the Big East make it a league wide mandate to fully fund certain sports (other than basketball) or will it be up to the individual schools to decide which sport they want to "fully fund." If individual schools decide, it will obviously put certain teams within the league at a disadvantage.

I fully agree. Not only will certain teams/schools be at a disadvantage but the conference as a whole will be weakened. A "league wide mandate" is the best way to go.

I agree with league wide mandate but some schools might not be able to afford full benefits for the majority of their sports.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves and assume the power conferences want to pay athletes in every sport.

[Jet915]

I'm guessing this will be a long process, I doubt the federal government and title IX will be happy with schools paying college football/basketball athletes and getting extra benefits like food, health insurance etc...without paying female athletes the same.

[SCS]

Does title IX still apply in the same way if "student-athletes" are determined to be employees?

[flyerlax06]

The Title IX implications will be very impactful on the Big East schools. As the article from the Projo mentions, I think all Big East schools have the $ and will be willing to do what they have to do to compete for basketball but does that mean they have to do the same for women's basketball?

[robinreed]

Another conference concern may be those schools which have their sports in one conference but have one or two sports in a second conference. Let us say that conference ABC does not offer field hockey and soccer. Schools from conference ABC may put their hockey and soccer teams in conference DEF. However conference DEF may not allow stipends for their members while ABC does offer stipends. Would it be acceptable not to offer stipends for only two sports but offer them for all other sports? I must assume the schools will require stipends for all sports in order to comply with title 9. Would conference DEF not accept the teams from ABC for this reason? If they did accept them the teams from conference ABC would have a great advantage. If conference DEF did not accept the teams from ABC and ABC could not find a home for their field hockey and soccer teams are they condemned to being independent? Or would they simply eliminate those sports.

It appears there are simply to many questions unresolved at this point.

[Jet915]

The easiest and simplest thing to do would be for the Big East to require stipends for every sport it sponsors. That way any team that wants to participate in that sport (whether one of the 10 teams or a team like Denver in lacrosse) would have to comply and it would be an even playing field. The biggest problem with that though is that some schools probably can't or aren't willing to pay that. It's a hard pill to swallow though cause a full stipend for sports like golf, tennis etc.. that generate NO revenue stinks.