Big East Expansion: Why Boise State Won't Save Struggling Conference

The Big East conference is desperately trying to expand and add teams in order to make the conference an appealing one for schools who may be looking to change conferences, and to hold on to their automatic BCS bowl game bid, which may be the most attractive part of the Big East right now.

With the news that West Virginia is leaving the Big East for the Big 12 conference in the very near future, the situation for the struggling Big East has gotten worse.

They will already see Syracuse and Pittsburgh depart for the ACC very soon, and with TCU deciding to join the Big 12, the Boise State Broncos are the only high-profile football school who might be able to save them.

However, it's unlikely that the Broncos could save the Big East because against better competition they might not go undefeated or have one loss every season.

Without an undefeated record Boise State is just another team, their popularity comes from the fact they usually flirt with an undefeated season and attempt to crash the BCS party.

Even with Boise State, the Big East would have no elite major football programs. The conference would not be worthy of a BCS bowl game bid, not that they really are right now.

The Broncos are a good program, but can they recruit talent on the East coast? They will compete with not only Big 12 schools, but the top ACC and Big 10 schools too.

Will top recruits want to go to Boise State and play in the Big East? Probably not, but that remains to be seen.

In basketball, the Big East is king, but with the departures of Syracuse, Pittsburgh and now West Virginia their basketball league has taken a major hit as well.

Teams that have good basketball programs might be weary of joining the Big East too.

If UConn were to leave the Big East, which at the moment has a decent football team and perhaps the best basketball program in the country, the conference would really be screwed.

I wouldn't be surprised if the ACC made an offer to UConn at some point, but that is speculation on my part.

Boise State is a good school but they won't save the Big East, at least its football, by themselves.

The conference needs another big school to join, and there just doesn't seem to be one of those programs ready to do that at the moment.

Nicholas Goss is a Featured Columnist at Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter for the latest sports news and updates.  Follow @NicholasGoss35