College Football Realignment: A Move to Big East Makes No Sense for Boise State

With TCU now backing out of their commitment to the Big East and Pitt and Syracuse jumping ship for the ACC, the Big East is in total disarray. They are so desperate that they are seriously considering going all the way out to Idaho to get a team.

Boise State has been waiting years for an invitation to join a major conference, but this would be one of the dumbest decisions the Broncos could make.

The first and most obvious negative aspect is geography. TCU was already a stretch, but Idaho is only one state away from the Pacific Ocean. Forget the name Big East, this would be a nightmare for all of the schools in terms of travel cost.

Every game would have to be an expensive plane ride for one school and there is currently not enough money coming in from the television deal to balance the budget, which is something that most schools can’t do anyway in their athletic departments.

The other major problem is that the Big East is in total disarray and is getting to the point where it could easily lose its automatic qualifying bid to a BCS bowl. It also may completely collapse in the near future.

The only reason Boise would want to go into the Big East is for the automatic qualifying bid. Without that, the move would be a complete waste of millions of dollars in exit fees and travel costs.

Is all that money really worth the risk of the conference becoming useless in a few short years?

The Broncos want to get into a major BCS conference just like any other mid-major school. The Big East is one of the weakest BCS conferences so a move there would not be unmanageable.

But the naysayers would still be out in full force saying that the conference still doesn’t provide a strong schedule. While it would solidify a spot in a BCS bowl if they win the conference, Boise is almost guaranteed a spot in a BCS bowl every year that they go undefeated.

Should the Broncos receive an invitation to join the Big East, they should make the best move for all the parties involved and politely decline.