Big East and Big 12 about to Crumble

The ACC accepted Pittsburgh and Syracuse into the conference early this morning.  UConn is now pushing really hard to get into the ACC.  The rumors of the possibility of Texas and Notre Dame to the ACC for all sports but football is now about all dead.  So now the rumors are that UConn and Rutgers will be the next in the ACC.

There are also rumors of Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma and Oklahoma St to the PAC12 being revived.  Seems like we will hear something soon about this being a reality because Texas will be able to work something out with the Longhorn Network.

This all means that the PAC12, soon to be PAC16 and ACC will be at 16 schools.  The leftovers from the Big East are TCU, South Florida, West Virginia, Louisville and Cincinnati.  It is likely that West Virginia will be moving to the SEC, leaving 4 schools that will need a home.  The Big 12 leftovers will be Baylor, Missouri, Kansas, Kansas St, and Iowa St.  Could Missouri be heading to the SEC or will they get an invite to the Big 10?  Will the Big 10 expand beyond 12?  Will we hear something about Notre Dame to the Big 10 soon?  Is Kansas an option for the Big 10 or SEC?  Will the Big 12 and Big East leftovers come together and invite other teams from CUSA or will some of these teams go to the Mountain West?  We shall find out very soon.

The Final Four

I spent the weekend in Houston at the Final Four rooting on my VCU Rams and while they lost on Saturday, it was still a good time.  A good time even despite the final being probably one of the worst games I have ever seen in my life.  UCONN defeated Butler 53-41 in a game where it seemed like no one could score for a long period of the game.  It was a bit frustrating watching Shelvin Mack miss shot after shot when he couldn’t miss Saturday night.  At any rate, the VCU Rams gained a lot of national respect as they finished #6 in the final Coaches Poll ratings.  Do I think they should be #6 – no, I don’t really, but it just goes to show the coaches were impressed by the run they had.  Oh and the best news for VCU fans – Shaka Smart decided to stay.  I pretty much knew he would stay after hearing some people talk this past weekend – story is his wife is pregnant and doesn’t want to move.  But also playing a huge influence is that he really likes his job and feels like he has more work to do at VCU.  What an awesome guy to turn down bigger $ at a bigger program.  Also, I got to meet Blue 2 – the Butler Bulldog mascot.  He was in the airport when we were leaving, so I got a picture with him as posted.  What an awesome dawg.  Here are some thoughts about the weekend:

• the city of Houston sucks.  It is a very large city but isn’t really set up for an event like this.  We (VCU) stayed at the Westin Galleria which is at the Galleria Mall.  There is another hotel connected to the mall which appeared to be Kentucky fans.  When we got back from the games Saturday night, everything was closed – there was nowhere to eat because all restaurants stopped serving food at 11pm.  Even bars closed at 12pm.
• UCONN fans suck.  They didn’t have many fans there at all.  On Saturday night, they had maybe 100 students, we still had more students at their game (after ours ended).  When their band played, VCU fans chanted the V-C-U chant louder than the UCONN fans chanted whatever they chanted.   UCONN actually didn’t come close to selling all of their allotment of tickets so they were stuck with them.  They actually gave tickets to students at Rice and Houston for Monday’s final on the condition they root for the Huskies.
• Kentucky fans were everywhere – they certainly had the most fans, probably VCU second and Butler third.
• The VCU band is incredible – no lie – I’m not much into bands, but this band has made waves everywhere they have gone.
• Reliant Stadium is too big – seats in the middle upper sections were probably better than seats on the lower end zones.  Also, I imagine the size of the place made the sight lines really bad and may have contributed to the really poor shooting over the weekend.
• When LeAnne Rimes sang the National Anthem, it actually gave me goose bumps – what a performance!