Let’s face it. This topic is going to dominate college sports for a while.

I have been predicting the Big East’s demise for years. It has lasted longer than I expected (and far exceeded my dire predictions of irrelevance), but it is coming.

Jake Crouthamel, Syracuse’s former athletic director, articulated in a telephone interview Sunday night a dire future for the Big East. Crouthamel, who helped form the Big East as Syracuse’s athletic director from 1978 to 2005, said he did not see the conference’s surviving.

He predicted that Syracuse would be in a different conference within five years and that there would be “utter turmoil” in college sports.

“I’ve been thinking about this for quite a while,” Crouthamel said. “I don’t see a whole lot of alternatives for anyone. You only control what your conference has. You don’t control what the Big Ten or the Pac-10 or the SEC does. What do you do? I don’t know what you do.”

The best chance for the Big East to survive, he said, would be if the Big Ten, with 11 teams, adds only Notre Dame.

That just isn’t going to happen. No matter what your feelings are on ND. No matter if you feel they are being delusional, arrogant, insane. Whatever. It isn’t happening. The students, alum and all forces outside the school are so firmly against it.

The school president, athletic director and even their board could very well know that it has to happen, but that is a long-term issue. If they even tried to make the move it is more likely that they would face such opposition that they would lose their jobs and positions.

Realistically, the problems would hit ND years later. After the present people in power are dead, retired or moved on to another place. So, they have  little incentive to commit career suicide at ND for a future they won’t be a part of.

Maybe the Big East survives with football for a while. Maybe it becomes a slightly better C-USA. But if the Big East was considered the weakest of the BCS conferences before the expansion talk, this isn’t going to be an upgrade.

Now I agree with Sean at TNIAMM to the point that the Big East has done nothing to plan for what everyone knew would eventually happen — that the Big East would be raided once more. To some degree I get what he writes and somewhat agree that BE Commish Marinatto as part of that Providence mafia has been protecting the Friars and other b-ball only schools.

What I will say, is that there was no choice once the Big East stuck with the hideously unwieldly hybrid conference. That created two distinct classes of schools with very different goals and visions. At that point the die was cast and the Big East’s end was already in motion. It has merely been a little slower and different than envisioned.

It is one thing for a conference to exist with “haves” and “have-nots” in football — say a Duke and a Clemson from the ACC. But, they all share in the revenue from football and benefit. Duke may not really care about football, but they support it in the ACC. They see the benefits and actually receive them. It is why they actually had an incentive to try to improve. The same goes for Vandy in the SEC, Baylor in the Big 12, Indiana in the Big 10, and so on.

In the Big East, though, Seton Hall, Georgetown and others get nothing from Rutgers, Syracuse or Pitt improving football and getting bowl and TV money. What do they get from it?

In fact, it works against those school’s individual, competitive interests. The additional and substantial revenue stream gives the football school more money to put into all facilities and the overall athletic department budget.

Both sides (and especially the fans) have increasingly viewed the Big East conference offices as favoring the other side to the detriment of their interests. That perception only fuels the distrust.

So, the fact that the Big East now seems paralyzed, unable and unwilling to do things to move forward is a result of its present 50-50 composition and the decisions made in 2003.

So, no. The Big East can’t and won’t kick out Providence, DePaul, Seton Hall, St. John’s, et al. It can’t make Villanova make the leap to 1-A. It won’t bring back Temple and add UCF, Memphis and ECU in a proactive manner. (As opposed to the predictable reactive manner after the Big 10 comes.)

Nothing to report on the new assistant front.

The end of the season basketball banquet took place. Here’s the list of award recipients:

TEAM AWARDS

Most Valuable Player: Brad Wanamaker, Ashton Gibbs
Most Improved Player: Travon Woodall
Best Defensive Player: Jermaine Dixon, Gary McGhee
Captains Award: Jermaine Dixon, Brad Wanamaker
Team Rebounding Leader: Gary McGhee (6.8 rpg)
Free Throw Shooting Leader: Ashton Gibbs (88.4%)
Most Inspirational Player: Nasir Robinson
Coaches Award: Gilbert Brown, Chase Adams
Academic Excellence Award: Dante Taylor
Jaron Brown Pursuit of Excellence Award: J.J. Richardson

Everyone is still waiting to find out if J.J. Moore will qualify academically for the fall, or if someone (*cough* Dwight Miller *cough*) transfers. Moore, though, was impressive at the Jordan Brand Classic and Adam Zagoria has a story.

“Those guys definitely shined through,” said Mike Kelly, the Suburban Team coach who also coaches at Jersey City (N.J.) St. Peter’s Prep. “Fu does so many things. Fu really played hard and J.J. Moore is an incredible talent. He is an incredible talent. And I’m a Pitt alum so I’m going to be happy with him up at Pittsburgh.”

…

“The biggest development from when he was at Brentwood to this year at South Kent is his ability to score from outside of defenses. He can hit the 3 off the catch consistently. In the past that wasn’t something he could do. He was always athletic. He was always a great transition scorer, he could always get to the basket,” said Tom Konchalski, who has covered New York high school basketball for four decades.

Pitt coach Jamie Dixon called Moore “his next Sam Young,” the former Big East star now with the Memphis Grizzlies.

“Wow, that’s pretty incredible,” Kelly said. “He’s got the strength and power that Sam Young has. I think he shoots the ball deeper than Young did. He’s got the body and he’s a great kid.”

Asked how it felt to be compared to an NBA player, Moore said: “It makes me feel confident that I can definitely be able to be in the NBA and play at the next level.”

In other news, Louisville sold the naming rights to their new arena: the KFC Yum! Center. As you can imagine, the Double Down cracks are already in full swing. Nothing like having a randomly inserted, meaningless bit of punctuation tossed in the name.

In what passes for good news/bad news, it looks like CBS will retain the rights to the NCAA Tournament — no matter how bloated it gets.

ESPN has told the NCAA that it will not increase its bid to obtain the NCAA men’s basketball tournament rights, clearing the way for CBS and Turner to share the rights starting next year, according to sources with direct knowledge of the talks.

CBS and Turner have a 14-year deal on the table that is worth more than the $710 million annual fee that CBS would have to pay over the last three years of the existing deal, source said. No deal has been formalized, though, and the NCAA still hopes to reengage ESPN in some way.

The good news is that it means no Dick Vitale calling the games. Always a good thing. Not to mention the continuing presence of Gus Johnson on the NCAA Tournament. It also means that CBS will still give something of a passing care to college basketball once the NFL season is finished.

The bad news is that it means the extra incentive for ESPN to upgrade their ESPNU broadcast center located in North Carolina to HD is lost. To say nothing of the hideous bloat of a 96-team tournament.