Big East Football and Mountain West Conference Heading in Opposite Directions

Fans of the Mountain West Conference have a lot in common with my nephew who is six months old. Every so often and with no provocation he lets out a terrible scream before settling in for a good hour or so crying fit.

I console myself by focusing on "It's just a phase." Unfortunately, the futility of the cries from the Mountain West hasn't sunk in yet with the fans. Theirs is just a phase too - it's called from bad to worse.

What Mountain West fans are loathe to admit is the superiority of the Big East conference. Plain and simple, the Big East has earned its auto bids to the BCS with the exception of one season - 2004. The exemption was granted that year to give the league time to regroup after the ACC took Virginia Tech, Boston College, and Miami.

All your crying and pouting will not diminish that superiority.

In 2005, 2006, 2007, the Big East exceeded BCS requirements with strong regular season and bowl performances by Louisville, Rutgers, Connecticut, and West Virginia.

In 2008 and 2009 Cincinnati carried the torch. The Bearcats did not win their BCS games but nor have Miami, Ohio State, Oklahoma, and USC in this decade. Once again, the Big East met its BCS commitments.

The Mountain West has been climbing closer to becoming an automatic qualifier. This season the top teams in the MWC are superior to the Big East's top teams. But the momentum the Mountain West would have had to earn a BCS spot is lost.

The crying has been effective at garnering media attention but not in generating real change that would help the conference become an AQ. In fact, events have transpired that make the howling look pretty inane at this point. It's just never going to happen.

Brigham Young is bailing on the conference as is Utah. TCU will soon be gone. The details of the Horned Frogs membership in the Big East are being worked out right now.

The Big East will be able to claim TCU's successes as part of its formula to remain in the BCS. That's the American way: The more powerful dominate the weak and play their ace card, in this case giving a Mountain West team a chance to become an automatic qualifier and weakening the Mountain West in the process. 

The Mountain West has nothing to offer in return. Mountain West fans, you can be sure the other five BCS conferences are cheering the Big East on. Splitting the pie six ways is quite enough, thank you.

Fans of the Mountain West might want to review their exclusive television contract which essentially makes conference games difficult to find on the tube and the internet. The league's leadership did a poor job planning for the future by thinking they could replace Utah with Boise State and BYU with Fresno and Nevada. The trades are not win-win.

The TCU defection to the Big East has been circulating in the blogs since last spring. The Mountain West leadership might want to expand their reading interests. They seem to be blindsided by this one.

And Mountain West fans don't forget about Big East basketball. There is nothing in your conference that comes close to the fan appeal in the major media markets of BE hoops. You have nothing to compare with the stature of the Big East Tournament staged in America's premier hoops city - New York City.

When ESPN considers which conferences it wants in the BCS, the Big East gets extra credit for its affiliation with Notre Dame and the programming it offers to the network from early November through the end of March.

The Mountain West should continue to argue for a playoff as all the other BCS conferences should do. Mountain West fans shouldn't be too unhappy as they have made the best of a bad situation. TCU will be in a BCS bowl, possibly the title game, if it wins its final two games.

Stop crying and enjoy the present. The Mountain West is going to have a much harder time placing teams in the BCS especially if the magic runs out on Boise State.