As the Big East looks toward expansion in 2013, the teams joining the conference are making changes and preparations individually as well. SMU replaced its men's basketball coach, Boise State is expanding and renovating Bronco Stadium, and Memphis and Central Florida have hired news athletic directors.
Todd Stansbury, the new AD at Central Florida, has had a conference move to plan for as well as NCAA violations to contend with in his first days on the job. He spoke with Florida Today about the challenges he faces.
Asked for his sentiments regarding the NCAA situation, Stansbury said:
I think that the university definitely acted quickly and have been diligent with working with the NCAA on this so I am obviously hopeful that at the end of the day they will come back with, obviously we're going to get sanctions, we've self imposed a number of sanctions and I'm hoping that the NCAA is going to see that we're serious about what we've done.
When asked about the move to the Big East he replied:
It's like anything else, you've got short-term and long-term goals and plans so obviously as you are looking at your 1, 2, 3, 5 year plans you are going to incorporate that two years from now there's going to be a paradigm shift and you are going to be in the Big East. But at the same time you've got to take care of business today so you are kind of trying to make sure that, as I've told a lot of people, coaches tell their players you never want to overlook this week's opponent because you might have a bigger one the following week. So we've got to take care of business now and this year in Conference USA but with an eye and in preparation of laying the groundwork so that we're prepared to compete in the Big East.
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