Big East Expansion Less Important Than Big East Exit Fees, Apparently

Big East president met Friday morning to discuss the future of their conference. It had been presumed they would talk about potential invites to shore up after defections by TCU, Syracuse and Pitt, but stopping the bleeding appears to be the more urgent issue.

The Star-Ledger's Brendan Prunty reports conference presidents ... did this:

According to one person familiar with the topics discussed on the call, the talk was not about expansion, but raising the exit fee to leave the Big East.

That's kind of insane, if true. No school is going to be talked into sticking around because of the threat of an exit fee. Is the Big East trying to follow the Big 12's sudden model for stability (get half your schools turned down by the Pac-12 and agree to six years of everlasting harmony)? The Big East can either try to hang around as a football conference and invite pretty much whoever wants in, or it can go all basketball, all the time. Charging Louisville an extra FIVE MILLION DOLLARS to leave won't change anything. 

Pack a gushing wound full of dollar bills and see if it seals up. I mean, it probably would, because paper is very absorbant. 

For more, visit Big East Coast Bias. Stay tuned for more conference realignment news.