What do you do with the Big East?

[Al_4_State]

If a Big East team goes to the Big 10, you have a 7 team football conference. It seems that for whatever reason, teams run from that conference like coaches do. I don't get it, because it seems to provide a lot of opportunity for BCS/National Title appearances, if you get the job done, but that's the reality. Do they take a team from the ACC, like Maryland? I've heard rumors that MD wants out, and they've looked at the Big East. Do they woo Navy? Navy has had good football success recently, and showed they can hang with the big boys in the Shoe this year.

The problem is, they have several quality football programs laying around (assuming Pitt leaves, WVU, Cincy, Louisville, USF, and UConn all have potential), but 7 teams just doesn't cut the mustard. Do the other conferences just have a draft, and dissolve the Big East for football?

If it's Mizzou, of course none of this matters.

 

[JD720]

If its true that MD wants out, they should be calling the Big Ten. I think they would be a better option for the Big Ten than any of the Big East schools being mentioned.

 

[3GenClone]

Can't dissolve the Big East without disrupting the BCS and also one of the top basketball conferences. Ideally, Notre Dame would join the Big East since they are already affiliated in the conference for every sport except football.

 

[3GenClone]

I think the ideal team to take from the ACC would be BC. They spread the conference out too thin and the Boston media market and the proximity to ESPN headquarters in Connecticut would be a good thing for the Big 10 to have.

 

[isuno1fan]

You remove the Big East from the BCS picture and insert the Mountain West.

There is your answer.

 

[Dave19642006]

so disband the independent conference? Why even have two teams in a conference?? If o where do you stick Army and Navy

 

[Tre4ISU]

If a Big East team goes to the Big 10, you have a 7 team football conference. It seems that for whatever reason, teams run from that conference like coaches do. I don't get it, because it seems to provide a lot of opportunity for BCS/National Title appearances, if you get the job done, but that's the reality. Do they take a team from the ACC, like Maryland? I've heard rumors that MD wants out, and they've looked at the Big East. Do they woo Navy? Navy has had good football success recently, and showed they can hang with the big boys in the Shoe this year.

The problem is, they have several quality football programs laying around (assuming Pitt leaves, WVU, Cincy, Louisville, USF, and UConn all have potential), but 7 teams just doesn't cut the mustard. Do the other conferences just have a draft, and dissolve the Big East for football?

If it's Mizzou, of course none of this matters.

FWIW I think Syracuse and Pitt are the likliest to go to the Big 10. I think a big thing about that conference is that there isn't a ton of money there. I think something to think about on that is that the east is generally a pro region. They will focus more on the Jets, Giants, Patriots, Yanks, Red Sox, etc than they will on college stuff. I think that is a big reason the Big East is not as financially sound as some other conferences.

 

[MNCyGuy]

If a Big East team goes to the Big 10, you have a 7 team football conference. It seems that for whatever reason, teams run from that conference like coaches do. I don't get it, because it seems to provide a lot of opportunity for BCS/National Title appearances, if you get the job done, but that's the reality. Do they take a team from the ACC, like Maryland? I've heard rumors that MD wants out, and they've looked at the Big East. Do they woo Navy? Navy has had good football success recently, and showed they can hang with the big boys in the Shoe this year.

The problem is, they have several quality football programs laying around (assuming Pitt leaves, WVU, Cincy, Louisville, USF, and UConn all have potential), but 7 teams just doesn't cut the mustard. Do the other conferences just have a draft, and dissolve the Big East for football?

If it's Mizzou, of course none of this matters.

Not necessarilly true. The chain reaction still potentially hurts the big east If the big 12 ends up adding Arkansas. I think in that scenario WVU, Louisville or even USF start looking attractive to the SEC. Even if the SEC somehow snagged an ACC defector in that situation, where is the ACC going to look to make up it's loss? The Big East.

The only way the Big East escapes unscathed is if everyone keeps looking west.

 

[Al_4_State]

You remove the Big East from the BCS picture and insert the Mountain West.

There is your answer.

Not happening. As little money as there is in the Big East, there's less in the Mountain West. You still have that problem of how bad the Mountain West gets after the top 3-4 teams. The Big East is a decent league from top to bottom, and the Mountain West has a couple really good teams and a bunch of really bad ones. The Big East is a good coach and program from staying put away from being a powerful football conference.

 

[Al_4_State]

Not necessarilly true. The chain reaction still potentially hurts the big east If the big 12 ends up adding Arkansas. I think in that scenario WVU, Louisville or even USF start looking attractive to the SEC. Even if the SEC somehow snagged an ACC defector in that situation, where is the ACC going to look to make up it's loss? The Big East.

The only way the Big East escapes unscathed is if everyone keeps looking west.

That's where we'd go, IMO, if Mizzou leaves. I don't think Arkansas ends up in the Big 12, it's possible, and I think they'd look into it, but TCU or Houston gets there first.

 

[CyFever]

so disband the independent conference? Why even have two teams in a conference?? If o where do you stick Army and Navy

Say what? The 'independent conference'? What exactly do you think the independent indicates?

I'd like to assume that you just forgot our good buddy Jimlad, but I just don't know...

 

[MNCyGuy]

I like how the Big Ten has suddenly made my plan from last week for the NCAA to mandate all football conferences going to 12 teams not seem so crazy. Maybe I'll have to dig that up again. If the Big Ten expansion goes down, I think some sort of massive restructuring MAY be required to preserve the Big East as a relevant football conference. I don't think the NCAA is prepared to give up on the Northeast as a college football market and to that end it is in there best interest to have the Big East stay somewhat strong.

 

[Clark]

A very key thing to think about with the Big East is the fact that they already have 16 teams in the basketball Big East. I sure don't see Georgetown, Setan Hall, Villanova, St. Johns, Marguette, Depaul, or Providence joining the football conference anytime soon...

I think in a perfect world they'd love to add a couple schools for football only but I don't know how many would want to do that.

 

[theshadow]

I like how the Big Ten has suddenly made my plan from last week for the NCAA to mandate all football conferences going to 12 teams not seem so crazy. Maybe I'll have to dig that up again. If the Big Ten expansion goes down, I think some sort of massive restructuring MAY be required to preserve the Big East as a relevant football conference. I don't think the NCAA is prepared to give up on the Northeast as a college football market and to that end it is in there best interest to have the Big East stay somewhat strong.

So 10 conferences with 12 teams each? Interesting.

Why not 12 conferences with 10 teams each? Every conference plays a true round-robin (9 league games) to determine a champion, leaving 3 non-conference games. Conference champions are seeded in a 12-team playoff (top 4 get byes). First two rounds at home sites of the higher seed. Round 1: Dec. 5. Round 2: Dec. 12. Semifinals: Jan. 1 (at two BCS sites). Championship: Jan. 8 (at a third BCS site).

All losers in rounds 1 and 2 go back into the bowl selection pool.

 

[MNCyGuy]

So 10 conferences with 12 teams each? Interesting.

Why not 12 conferences with 10 teams each? Every conference plays a true round-robin (9 league games) to determine a champion, leaving 3 non-conference games. Conference champions are seeded in a 12-team playoff (top 4 get byes). First two rounds at home sites of the higher seed. Round 1: Dec. 5. Round 2: Dec. 12. Semifinals: Jan. 1 (at two BCS sites). Championship: Jan. 8 (at a third BCS site).

All losers in rounds 1 and 2 go back into the bowl selection pool.

I had it with 10 conferences with 12 teams each, somewhat preserving the big six conferences and then divying up everyone else geographically. In a playoff system all of the BCS conferences would get a first-round bye with a 10-team playoff. You could either keep the current regular season format + championship games for all teams or go to an 11-game round robin conference schedule +1 warm-up non-conference game for everyone. I'll see if I can dig the thing up.

 

[MNCyGuy]

Here ya go shadow

In the hypothetical game I played each of the big six conferences were allowed 6 schools that other conferences weren't able to poach. All three independents had to be placed in a conference before schools in non-automatic qualifying conferences could be picked. The Big East got the first two picks since they obviously had the most ground to cover getting to twelve. After that it went to the Pac-10, the next conference in most need of additional teams. Picks would then go on a rotating basis until somebody stole a team from a big 6 conference. At that point the next pick would be the conference that lost a team, until somebody picked a non-BCS conference team again. Sorry that was long, hopefully it made sense. In the end, I ended up with the following 6 BCS conferences:

ACC:
Atlantic
Maryland
Virginia
Virginia Tech
Duke
North Carolina
North Carolina State

Coastal
Wake Forest
Clemson
South Carolina
Georgia Tech
Florida State
Miami


Big East
Atlantic
Syracuse
Boston College
Connecticut
Rutgers
Army
Navy

Great Lakes
Northwestern
Purdue
Notre Dame
Louisville
Cincinnati
Pittsburgh


Big Ten
East
Penn State
Ohio State
Michigan
Michigan State
Indiana
Illinois

West
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Iowa
Iowa State
Missouri
Kansas


SEC
East
Florida
South Florida
Georgia
West Virginia
Tennessee
Vanderbilt

West
Louisiana State
Mississippi
Mississippi State
Alabama
Auburn
Kentucky


Big 12
North
Oklahoma
Oklahoma State
Kansas State
Nebraska
Colorado
Utah

South
Texas
Texas A&M
Texas Tech
Baylor
TCU
Arkansas

Pac-10
North
Washington
Washington State
Oregon
Oregon State
Boise State
BYU

South
USC
UCLA
Cal
Stanford
Arizona
Arizona State


After the reformation of the big 6 conferences I scrapped the other FBS conferences and put the rest of the FBS schools into four geographically determined conferences.

Western Athletic
Pacific
Hawaii
San Jose State
San Diego State
Fresno State
Nevada
UNLV

Mountain
Idaho
Utah State
Wyoming
Air Force
New Mexico
New Mexico State


Southern Athletic
West
Tulsa
North Texas
UTEP
SMU
Rice
Houston

East
Arkansas State
Louisiana Tech
Louisiana-Lafayette
Louisiana-Monroe
Tulane
Southern Mississippi


Northern Athletic
West
Colorado State
Northern Illinois
Western Michigan
Central Michigan
Eastern Michigan
Ball State

East
Akron
Bowling Green
Kent State
Miami (OH)
Ohio
Toledo


Eastern Athletic
North
Buffalo
Western Kentucky
Middle Tennessee
Memphis
East Carolina
Marshall

South
UAB
Troy
South Alabama
UCF
Florida Atlantic
Florida International

 

[Kitkat]

First of all, what is meant by not much money when referring to the Big East? Since NJ and Conn are usually in the top three states based on per capita income, there is money available in at least some of the Big East states. Rutgers, for ex., has recently put millions into their football operations. But there is a numbers problem, based pretty much on the historical fact that northeastern higher ed. for decades if not centuries was pretty much based in private, not public, universities. There just are not that many large schools in that area where athletics are important.
As a result, losing any more teams than they have already lost puts the Big East in trouble. What other schools are there in the East that are not already affiliated and and have good-sized athletic programs? Someone mentioned Maryland, and UMass is a possibility but not a strong one, and both these schools are in conferences. But there is not much to choose from as the other state univs. in that area are all small with even smaller athletic programs.
So, the person(s) who claim the Big East would be in trouble if one of their current teams went to the Big Ten and ND could not be persuaded to join is absolutely right, in my view.

 

[Frak]

I could see the Big East going after Navy, UCF, Memphis, Temple, Marshall or East Carolina. Or, they could push a 1AA team up a level like UMASS or Maine or Richmond. They would be smart to get themselves up to at least 12. That would help fend away the dogs.