Big East meetings: No sound, no fury - no answers for SDSU

The presidents and athletic directors of the Big East Conference met Friday in Dallas, Texas.

This much we know.

What all they did during the entire day is uncertain. It being Dallas I'm sure barbecue or steak was involved at some point.

What came of it? A big announcement? A grandiose statement of purpose showing the vigor of the New Big East as it's poised to enter a new era of prosperity for all? Anything mentioning the San Diego St. Aztecs? Or the Houston Cougars, SMU Mustangs? Or Tulsa Golden Hurricane.

Not. Exactly...

What we got was this pithy, ambiguous statement:

"The BIG EAST Presidents and Athletic Directors had a very productive meeting discussing current issues and the future of our strong Conference. We are encouraged about moving forward. Although we cannot comment specifically about some of our challenges, this meeting confirmed our common vision for the future."

Yeah... Someone could have written that on the Red Eye flight coming into Big D on Thursday night. In fact they probably did.

Reaction to the meetings has not been good. If Friday's meeting were a movie, it would be Disney's "John Carter"" - one of the biggest flops in movie history,

In her Dr. Saturday blog entry today titled "The Big East sent out a release saying absolutely nothing," Graham Watson at Yahoo! Sports reacted thusly:

...the conference won’t say what that vision is. Best guess is that it’s to stay together in the wake of Boise State deciding to remain in the Mountain West and San Diego State possibly doing the same. If that happens, other schools also could be on the fence about making the transition to the Big East from their respective non-automatic qualifying conferences.

So... to recap. The Big East is still a conference.

Thanks. Good night. Don't forget to tip your waitresses.

Over at ESPN, Big East Andrea Adelson blogger has the regular "Friday Mailblog" offering on her Big East blog.

Nothing else.

And not only did ESPN not have a report on the non-event (no surprise there) but Adelson didn't include a single question about realignment or the meeting itself in her email round-up.

That should tell ya something.

Finally (for now), Mark Ziegler at the San Diego Union-Tribune writes in a story headlined "Big East Meeting Does Nothing to Resolve Situation with SDSU."

Which is essentially all you need to say, especially since - as Ziegler and Watson pointed out - the statement said nothing specifically about San Diego State (or anything really.)

Ziegler's story had a lot of the same info MW Connection's Jeremy Mauss shared this morning. But the U-T writer did have one interesting section, reaction from Big West Commissioner Dennis Farrell -- in which Ziegler tossed a hand grenade at Boise St. Broncos president Bob Kustra.

SDSU had successfully lobbied a reluctant Big West membership to provide Boise State a home for its other sports so it could also join the Big East in football. Boise State President Bob Kustra then used that leverage to cut a better deal with the Mountain West.

"I’ve been in this business a long time, 32 years," Farrell said. "I don’t let anything bother me too much. I will say this: I was disappointed. But this is a strange time we are going through in intercollegiate athletics. They were upfront with me. They let me know what was happening. But that still doesn’t erase the disappointment."

Ziegler's attempt to paint Kustra as an opportunist is the most interesting read of the morning - which is kinda sad.

But, as Jim Rome says all the time "It is what it is."

Stay tuned to MW Connection for on-going coverage of MWC realignment.