For months now, John Marinatto has been all like, "The bylaws are the bylaws are the bylaws." But now that he's loaded up his coffers with storied football programs like San Diego State and Memphis, he's all like "Bylaws schmylaws."
Big East Commissioner John Marinatto says his league "might be open to a discussion" about allowing Syracuse and Pittsburgh to join the Atlantic Coast Conference for the 2013 football season.
"But given the strength and speed of our expansion efforts, I think our board might be open to a discussion about 2013," Marinatto said in a telephone interview.
In other words, Marinatto was full of it the entire time with the whole hardline act, just as we suspected.
With West Virginia flying the coop, there's just no way he can honestly keep the Syracuse Orange and Pittsburgh Panthers in the Big East beyond next season. He knows that and about all he can do at this point is try to save as much face as possible, which, ain't much.
The dream of a one-season, 15-team, Big East mega-conference is almost dead but, hey, it sounded good at the time. And by good I mean legally-binding.
The real question for Syracuse is how we fill in our schedule in 2012. There's still a chance Boise is coming, which will solve the major issue. However, there's always this Rutgers two-fer offer as well. And SU still hasn't filled it's final non-con game (Hi Akron!).
We'll deal with 2012 as it comes, happy in the knowledge that it's only a matter of time before we're out by the 2013 season.