Big East Football: Thinking Ahead to Naming Divisions

In all likelihood the Big East will field 12 football programs in 2013. Boise State, San Diego State, Houston, SMU and Central Florida will all join the conference at the same time that Pittsburgh and Syracuse are likely to part ways and leave for the ACC. Temple will already be able to provide some pointers for the newcomers after joining the conference this fall, replacing West Virginia.

With the changes made, and supposing no more departures come to fruition for the Big East, the conference will be able to stage a Big East championship game with 12 football-playing members. So the natural question now asks how the Big East will be split into two divisions. More importantly, perhaps, what will those divisions be called?

Most may agree that the concept of splitting into regional divisions of east and west is the most appropriate action for the conference. Commissioner John Marinatto has stressed the focus to develop a western footprint for the conference, and by adding Boise State and San Diego State in football, that clearly has been accomplished. But can the Big East really split into two divisions and call them East and West? 

Big East East and Big East West? I know I am not the only one who finds that a tad silly to the ear.

The concept of east and west divisions should be the direction the Big East takes, but the naming of the divisions will likely be best suited the way the ACC and Big Ten have handled it, with non-cardinal direction division names. The problems the Big Ten and ACC have involve the difficulty to associate schools with the division names. Legends and Leaders, and Atlantic and Coastal have little to differentiate between each other. The Big East can go with a relatively simple direction with their names that will not make it too difficult to remember or associate with schools.

My suggestion? Colonial and Frontier—and here is how I would set them up.

Colonial Division

Connecticut, Cincinnati, Central Florida, Rutgers, South Florida, Temple.

A reference to the nation's colonial roots on the east coast, and most notably in the northeast region. The colonial theme runs along the east coast with Philadelphia and New England, reaches to parts of Ohio and includes the Spanish colonization in Florida in the 16th century.

Frontier Division

Boise State, Houston, Louisville, Memphis, San Diego State, SMU.

Paying tribute to the nation's move to the southwest, including the states of Texas and California. Who is going to mistake Temple for a Frontier Division school? Or San Diego State as a Colonial Division school? Nobody.

So what happens when Navy joins?

Good question.

The Big East is hoping to line up another western partner for the conference by the time Navy joins the conference in 2015. In that event, adding two new members to the appropriate divisions would be easy enough, with Navy added to the Colonial and the western school added to the Frontier. 

Air Force? BYU? Either would fit nicely in to the conference’s western footprint at that point.

Then there is the Villanova factor.

The possibility of Villanova following through on moving up to the FBS ranks was left open for exploration during the Big East's press conference to introduce Temple as a new member. The Big East has committed some financial resources to help out with the process, if needed, and will waive any conference or NCAA entrance fees in order to add Villanova football to the Big East if the program heads in that direction.

Without getting in to a discussion on the pros and cons of Villanova once again toying with the idea, for now let’s assume Villanova does make the jump.

They would need to make the decision by July 1, 2013, so they may officially begin their transition to the FBS. The ideal situation, if Villanova moves up, would be for the Big East to have it worked out so the Wildcats could join the conference in 2015—when Navy joins—to keep membership as equal as possible on the football field until then.

In that case, Villanova and Navy would both be best suited in the Colonial Division, which means somebody needs to move to the Frontier Division. We are going to go ahead and move Cincinnati to that division, where they will be able to stay in close contact with traditional rival Louisville.

So here’s what those divisions could, in theory, look like:

Frontier	Colonial
Boise State	Connecticut
Cincinnati	Central Florida
Houston	Navy
Louisville	Rutgers
Memphis	South Florida
San Diego St.	Temple
SMU	Villanova

Keep in mind this is just my suggestion for how the Big East should proceed with division alignment. Is it perfect? Perhaps not, which is why I encourage you to share your own Big East division alignment ideas for 2013 and/or 2015 in the comments section below.

Kevin McGuire is the host of the No 2-Minute Warning podcast and a member of the Football Writers Association of America and National Football Foundation. Follow him on Twitter, like him on Facebook and add him to your Google+ circle.