Big 12 and Big East Musings

Just when everyone was focused on the Big 12's collapse, it now appears that the Big East could beat them to it. Losing Syracuse (a founding member) and Pittsburgh would be catastrophic for Big East football. I don't think the BCS could honestly keep giving the Big East an automatic bid if it only has seven football schools. The only football schools would be West Virginia, South Florida, Connecticut, Rutgers, Cincinnati, Louisville, and TCU. Even if Villanova steps up from FCS and plays with the big boys, that's still a very mediocre conference, more than it already is.

The Big East would only have one hope to stay relevant in football: get the Big 12 leftovers, all of them. Who are the leftovers? The schools that seemingly won't have a home if Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and presumably Texas Tech all find new homes. That leaves Missouri, Kansas, Kansas State, Baylor and Iowa State. That still wouldn't make the Big East a good football conference, but it would at least make it more worthy of a BCS bid than the Mountain West or Conference USA. The argument is a lot closer if the Big East doesn't add the leftovers.

A few weeks ago, I speculated about a 20-team Big East with Syracuse and Pittsburgh. Now, take a look at the potential for that same four-division format I proposed then, only taking out those two and adding Iowa State and Baylor:

The Big East without Syracuse playing rivals like Georgetown would suck.

Hypothetical Big East Division 1
Georgetown
Connecticut
West Virginia
Cincinnati

Adding a "rivalry" like TCU-Baylor would help... I guess.

South Florida

Hypothetical Big East Division 2
Villanova
St. John's
Rutgers
Seton Hall
Providence

Hypothetical Big East Division 3
Iowa State
Louisville
Marquette
Notre Dame
DePaul

Hypothetical Big East Division 4
Kansas
Kansas State
Missouri
TCU
Baylor

It's not much more exciting, but it is possible I suppose. TCU and Baylor would enjoy a little rivalry there. I still think it's too bad that one day we could be telling our kids what rivalries used to be like. It will be a shame that college football fans could now miss out on the West Virginia-Pittsburgh rivalry, and college hoops fans could be losing some great Syracuse Big East rivalries with Georgetown and Connecticut. That's my big problem with football and the BCS: it really sours my enjoyment of basketball.

Of course, this whole Big East speculation has one huge assumption: that the league stays together at all. With Pitt leaving, one would assume that West Virginia going to the SEC could pick up a lot of steam.  The league does need a 14th team to balance out the Texas A&M addition. Maybe the SEC tries to go to 16 by adding Missouri and/or some other Big East or ACC schools? I guess we'll all find out sooner or later. Maybe one day all of this realignment speculation will stop, and I really look forward to that day.