Big East Expansion: How Will the Big East Race Play out in 2012?

The Big East, a conference that has always been considered to be at the bottom of the BCS food chain, has taken a huge hit to its national credibility in recent years.

Now it seems that the league has hit an all-time low with the departures of Pittsburgh, Syracuse and West Virginia and the broken promise of TCU.

It all started back in 2007 when West Virginia, who was ranked No. 2 in the country going into the final week of the season, blew a chance to make it to the national championship game.

The Mountaineers rebounded to win the Fiesta Bowl against Oklahoma, but that was the last BCS bowl game a Big East team has won, as the conference representative has dropped the last three games.

Last year, the league took a ton of grief from around the country when an 8-4 Connecticut team earned the Big East’s automatic BCS bid, went out to the Fiesta Bowl and got crushed by Oklahoma.

The conference’s recent lack of success in BCS bowl games has left many to wonder if the Big East truly deserves an automatic bid, and the fact that the combined record of current conference members in BCS bowls is just 3-5 certainly doesn’t help matters.

Now, with the recent lawsuit filed by West Virginia, which is trying to leave the conference as soon as possible to get a big payday from the Big 12 without having to wait the required 27 months, it should be interesting to see what the Big East even looks like next season.

That is, if it is still standing.

If West Virginia is allowed to leave early, that means Pittsburgh and Syracuse would likely bolt for the ACC early as well and the league would only be left with five football schools—Cincinnati, Connecticut, Louisville, Rutgers and South Florida.

What would happen then?

How many of the six teams that have reportedly been invited to join the Big East—Air Force, Boise State, Central Florida, Houston, Navy and SMU—are actually going to join, and if they do come, how long will it take for them to get there?

The 2012 season in the Big East is shaping up to be chaotic, no matter what.

If the three defectors stay, the conference will have three lame-duck teams that could all potentially win the league and represent it in a BCS bowl.

If they leave, it’s going to be a scheduling nightmare.

No matter how it all plays out, it’s surely going to be entertaining to watch next year’s Big East race unfold.