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December 29, 2004The third vote, which abstained, was Memphis’ R.C. Johnson. That is, Memphis, as in not going to the Big East.According to Noreen Morris, C-USA’s associate commissioner, Johnson was called back to Memphis on an emergency situation during the second day of meetings. Depaul and South Florida, both future Big East members voted “no.” If there was some collusion between the Big East and C-USA, no one is saying. ”Well, I think some of that stuff happens and certainly the commissioners talk,” Thomas Boeh, athletics director at Ohio, said. “I can only speak for our league. We certainly get direction from our commissioner but it’s certainly the [membership] that sways which way we’re going to vote.” ”No,” Morris said. “Our institutions vote individually and then we compile the votes…there to convey the position of the conference.” Morris did say that she was not aware of any agreement but added, ”the commissioners might have spoken but I’m not sure. Everybody can be bought at some point in time, even in our business. But people try and represent their membership.” And no one connected to the Big East is answering as to why the conference voted “no,” thereby opening the door for the ACC to take another team in order to reach 12 for a conference championship game. And what might seem obvious to some isn’t so obvious to others. The 12-member rule, dangling like a carrot for conferences who want a championship game, have turned leagues into a feeding frenzy. ”It didn’t have any effect for our university (12-member rule) so there was no reason not to vote that wasn’t going to affect, or be to the benefit, to some degree, our university and the MAC,” Boeh said. But there is one sound fact and that is that college football is running out of quality programs for conferences to add in order to create these 12-team monsters. What is surprising is that of all parties polled for comments, only the Big 12 conference saw a change to the 12-Member rule as a stabilization to college football. ”There was some sentiment, and I’m not saying just Big-12 sentiment, in discussions over water coolers and various places again, allowing people who had ten, or more, to possibly create a championship game would prevent others from jumping,” Chairperson Christine Plonsky, of the Big 12 conference said.
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