West Virginia to the Big 12: Why the Move Will Be the End of Big East Football

According to multiple media reports, the Big East will be waving goodbye to West Virginia, who has reportedly been accepted by the Big 12 conference .

That means the conference will likely also be waving goodbye to an automatic BCS bowl bid, and possibly even its future existence as a football conference.

The Charleston Daily Mail has reported that West Virginia has been accepted by the Big 12 to potentially replace Missouri, who is trying to leave to join the SEC, but an official announcement has not been made by either party yet.

After the departures of Syracuse and Pittsburgh to the ACC last month, West Virginia’s potential exodus would leave the Big East with just five football member schools—Cincinnati, Connecticut, Louisville, Rutgers and South Florida.

With West Virginia heading for higher ground, it’s likely that schools like Rutgers and Connecticut will follow suit and seek acceptance into the ACC.

The Big East had recently been looking into a plan to invite notable non-AQ teams such as Boise State, Houston, SMU, Air Force and Navy to boost the conference up to 12 football teams. But, with West Virginia leaving, it’s doubtful that the plan would be enough to save the conference’s automatic BCS bowl bid, and it wouldn’t make sense for teams like Boise State and Houston to join at this point.

That means the Big East’s time as a football conference is probably coming to close, and it’s reasonable to think that the conference will try to salvage itself as a basketball-only league from here on out.

The conference has had great success on the basketball court lately but, as a football conference, it’s slowly been waning since West Virginia blew a chance to make it to the national championship game back in 2007.

Right now, the conference has eight members that compete only in basketball—DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Notre Dame, Providence, Seton Hall, St. John’s and Villanova.

If it wants to go forward as a basketball-only conference, the Big East could look into adding other basketball programs like Butler, Old Dominion, VCU and Xavier.

That would seem to be the better option than trying to throw out wild invitations to teams all around the country in a desperate move to keep the league going as a football conference.

Losing Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College to the ACC back in 2003 was a major blow to the Big East and it has been treading on thin ice ever since.

Now, after losing Pittsburgh, Syracuse, West Virginia and, to some degree, TCU, it looks like the Big East is doomed as a football conference.

As a lifelong New Jersey resident and West Virginia alum, I have to say that it’s sad to see the conference I’ve been following for the last 10 years crumble like this. But in this era of conference realignment, when schools are putting their own personal financial interests ahead of prestige and tradition, I can hardly say I’m surprised.