Memphis to Big East: Good Basketball Move Still Leaves Awful Football Conference

Memphis has been trying to leave the Conference USA for years.

And, with the Big East as desperate as they are now, it was a perfect opportunity for the Tigers to pounce.

The Big East has added the Memphis Tigers to the conference in all sports beginning in 2013. Memphis has been a member of the C-USA since 1996 and has been trying to become a member of the Big East since 2005.

This is a conference that has been on the verge of becoming irrelevant, as they are losing several of the top teams that has made up the Big East. Syracuse and Pittsburgh are leaving for the ACC and West Virginia will soon become a member of the Big 12.

Even Connecticut was going to leave for the ACC last year had an offer was extended.

With this addition, the conference can breathe a little sigh of relief as they are at least making progress towards improving the competition. The problem is, although this improves the quality of the basketball played in the conference, the football side of things remains absolutely terrible.

The Big East has always been known for its basketball, as it's mainly made up of basketball-oriented schools. Teams like Connecticut, Syracuse, Pittsburgh and Louisville are some of the elite basketball programs and compete for national championships every year.

But with Syracuse and Pittsburgh leaving, it does put a dent in the basketball side of things.

Memphis is a great basketball program that will help fill in the void a little bit. They make the NCAA tournament quite often and have won 24-plus games in each of the last three seasons. They were even ranked as high as number one in the polls during the 2007-08 season.

This is a great addition to keep the Big East at the top as far as basketball is concerned.

When we're talking about football, this is a team that hasn't won a bowl game since 2005 and has only won a combined five games during the last three seasons. That's nothing to get excited about,  nor is it anything that will change the quality of the football that is played in the Big East.

Geographically they are a nice fit for the conference, and they do have a stadium that holds over 62,000 people. That is more than Morgantown, Solider Field and Autzen Stadium.

But, that really doesn't mean much when the Big East already has a reputation for horrible played football.

Memphis will join a conference were nearly every team that remains had a losing record last year. More additions are expected within the next couple of years with teams like Central Florida, Houston, SMU, Navy, San Diego State and Boise State, but that doesn't help them now.

It's really nice to see the Big East is not giving up on trying to rebuild its image.

They just need to worry a little bit more about football, because that's the part that is hurting the most.

Randy Chambers is a B/R featured columnist that covers college football and the NFL. You can contact him @Randy_Chambers or [e-mail].