Big East roster adds Memphis
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Charles Tuttle, a backer of the University of North Dakota's Fighting Sioux nickname, and his dog, Bella, an Italian cane corso, watch as a woman signs petitions supporting the nickname in front of the federal courthouse in Bismarck, N.D. The University of North Dakota resumed using the nickname despite threats of NCAA sanctions.
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The Big East has acquired all the pieces to build a coast-to-coast conference. Putting them together will take a while.
The conference wanted to rebuild into a 12-team football league that can hold a championship game, and Memphis officially became that 12th member Wednesday when it accepted an invite it long has coveted.
The new Big East, however, is not scheduled to be fully functional until the 2015 football season. What it will look like the next three years is anybody's guess.
Memphis is the seventh school and fourth from Conference USA to sign up with the Big East since December. The Tigers will compete in the Big East in all sports.
The Big East needed replacements for West Virginia, Pitt and Syracuse,
In December, the league announced that Boise State and San Diego State from the Mountain West Conference would join in '13 for football only, and that Houston, SMU and Central Florida, from C-USA, would become members and participate in all sports.
Navy football also jumped on board, although that will not take place until '15.
The University of North Dakota will resume using its contentious Fighting Sioux nickname despite threats from the NCAA, the school's president said, marking the latest twist in a protracted fight about a name that critics consider offensive. A state law requiring the university to use its longtime nickname and logo was repealed in November.
The university has been trying to retire the moniker, but nickname supporters filed petitions late Tuesday demanding the issue be put to a statewide vote. University President Robert Kelley said the school decided to resume using the name and logo to respect the state's referendum process, which requires the pro-nickname law be in effect while the secretary of state reviews the petition signatures over the next month.
"As soon as that petition was filed last night, the law reverts," Kelley told the AP. "I don't want to violate the law."
Two men suing the university and basketball coach Jim Boeheim for defamation connected to the sexual abuse investigation of fired assistant Bernie Fine are only out to generate salacious headlines with tawdry court filings, lawyers for the university and coach said Wednesday.
In the case's latest legal volley, attorneys for Syracuse and Boeheim argued that there is no need to provide names and addresses of players on the team in the 1990s, among other information, requested by Bobby Davis and Michael Lang through their high-profile lawyer, Gloria Allred .
Davis and Lang have claimed longtime assistant Fine molested them when they were minors. In an affidavit submitted last week, Davis claimed Fine's wife, Laurie , had sex with several Syracuse players in the 1990s and the assistant coach knew about it.
Fiery basketball coach Jeff Reynolds was irritating Falcons players and zapping the fun from the game. So, athletic director Hans Mueh dismissed Reynolds Wednesday in the middle of his fifth season and promoted assistant coach Dave Pilipovich to interim coach. Under Reynolds, the Falcons were 11-10 this season. 1-6 in the Mountain West Conference. Reynolds had a 63-82 overall record at Air Force.
First Published February 9, 2012 12:00 am
