TCU abandoning the Big East doesn't change Mick Cronin's public loyalty to a league that now has just six football-playing members left.
Perhaps in part because Cincinnati's other options are limited, Cronin reiterated Thursday that his preference is staying in the Big East and advocated the league adding the service academies or other football schools to make that possible.
"We want to remain in the Big East," Cronin said. "At some point you've got to add members, that's pretty clear. It isn't rocket science. If the service academies come in for football only, they bring great value to your television contract, they bring great value academically and they bring great followings. In the Big East, we already have tremendous media markets. We just have to be a viable football conference."
The Big East invited TCU in Nov. 2010 to boost the league's sinking football reputation and provide it a foothold in the lucrative Dallas-Fort Worth market. That the Horned Frogs left without ever playing a game in the league just weeks after Syracuse's and Pittsburgh's sudden exit leaves the Big East's football future in serious doubt.
Although the Big East is reportedly actively recruiting Navy and Air Force to take the place of Syracuse and Pittsburgh, several football-playing members still appear to be searching for life rafts to take them off the sinking ship. UConn and Rutgers have interest in the ACC, Louisville reportedly would be a candidate for the Big 12 and West Virginia remains a possible SEC target.
"Anybody that thought this stuff was over is a fool, and anybody who thinks it's over today is a fool," Cronin said. "I'm a basketball coach, so for people like myself and my mentors Bob Huggins and Rick Pitino, it's very frustrating to see that this all seems to be about one sport."
Cronin was saddened to see Syracuse and Pittsburgh leave a league they helped build, but don't count him among those who believe the addition of the Panthers and the Orange will automatically make the ACC college basketball's best league.
"While we lost two of our traditional schools, we still have 14 very strong members from a basketball standpoint," Cronin said. "Eliminate Pitt and Syracuse, and we still have nine teams that were in the NCAA tournament last year. By my count, that's five more than the ACC, which is the conference everybody seems to want to play in."
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