This is the dressed up version of saying, "ESPN really wants nothing to do with our crap conference now, so we're hoping that NBC Sports will bite out of desparation for programming."

Please explain why you wouldn't want to join a conference that helps your school?
is it sour grapes?

I wouldn't put too much in Marshall scheduling a lot of out of conference games with MAC schools. We have also scheduled a series with WKU. 

It is certainly an interesting time for college sports. My hunch is that Marshall will stay in CUSA for the near future and wait for the dust to settle. UC; UConn and UL will leave the Big East as soon as they can find a suitable conference. I think you will see what is left of the BE; CUSA and MWC align on geographic lines in new conferences. The BE football has become CUSA rev 2 and will not be appealing when they lose UC; UL and UConn. Heck, Marshall could end up back in the MAC in the next few years. It will be interesting to see what happens.

The Big East should just take up the name C-USA.  After this announcement of Tulane and ECU moving, there will now be 9 former C-USA members, 2 Mountain West members, and a MAC team by the year 2014.  The sole survivors from the Big East are UCONN, Louisville, USF, and Cincinnati, which I can imagine at least two of them will bolt before the end of the year, probably UCONN and Louisville.

This is bonkers.

A conference that sacrifices the integrity of the league for potential TV exposure really doesn't help any of the schools involved.  I emphasize potential because the ratings for most of these new teams won't give the BL the kind of bump that the current teams are.  Any short-term increases in TV money will be more than offset by the short- and long-term decline in fan interest and attendance.  If you thought it was difficult for Temple to get fan interest for home games with MAC schools, imagine what it will be like with Tulane, Central Florida, Southern Methodist, Memphis, etc.  And I'm sure it'll be the same thing on their end -- they'll wonder who the hell you are.  For most of these schools, the football world ends at the Texas state line or at least the Mason-Dixon Line.  The whole thing sounds like a Ponzi scheme.  It sucks.  And I'm sure that when G'town, Providence, Seton Hall, St. John's and some of the other b-ball only members realize what's happening, they'll split.  I'd rather that my alma mater was in a conference that's stable, competitive and not grasping for straws just to exist.  The Big Least has none of these qualities.

(I had a much longer tirade, but this damn computer lost it.)

Turney, you said what I said in a lot fewer words, except I don't think it's a step up.  Maybe financially, but the lack of integrity is a definite leap down.

By the way, Cincy's trying to jump on the ACC bandwagon.

Matt Norlander just about sums it up:

"The Big East has now, today, completely bastardized itself in the chase to not lose out on a big payday for its next, most crucial, TV deal. Is this good for Tulane? I don't know. Who cares? It's Tulane. That's the point. It's Tulane. Reaching this end is exposition enough on what the Big East has crumbled itself into, a mutated version of what Conference USA never managed to be."

I'm sure you'll get at least as much as the NHL did.

What I get out of this and reading the Herd blog is those 7-8-9 MAC teams that average 15k fans per game should go start looking for 3-4-5-6 other like minded schools (like Temple and Marshall) and form a new Conference that would be better than CUSA or the BIG East or the current MAC.

Who would not be making the trip with us, who are the teams that wouldn't go?

Problem is half the teams you want to drop have been beating us. See Ball State and Kent as two.

Bingo!   Mama's always right on the important things!