Big East Expansion: When The Dust Settles, Who's in the Big East in 2012?

It's time to play a guessing game. Of course, my guess is just as good as anybodies because with college football realignment things change every hour it seems. Right when you think you have everything right it switches and makes your predictions look messier than a March Madness bracket.

We do know two things for sure and that is Pittsburgh and Syracuse will be leaving for the ACC. Other than that, we're basically throwing darts on a US map and whichever team it lands on will be joining the Big East.

I'm going to predict that Cincinnati, Louisville, Rutgers, Connecticut and South Florida will stay in the conference. I don't think any of them have anywhere else to go right now and sending them to a difference conference would make everyone's head explode with all the craziness it would cause. 

I'm also predicting that West Virginia will be forced to stay in the Big East until 2014. The Big East is suing the University, saying that they need to obey the rules and give the conference a 27 month notice in advance. They will probably win and the Mountaineers will have to stay for a couple more years.

This would leave the conference with six football schools. Now comes the tricky part.

There has been invites sent to several schools already including Boise State, SMU, Air Force and UCF.

I think Central Florida will join the Big East because that will expand their program and help create an instate rivalry with South Florida.

Once UCF hops on board teams like SMU and Houston will make the move as well.

Boise State would then join because this would eventually give them that BCS automatic bid they so desperately crave. They no longer have to fight with the voters if they win, everything would handle itself.

The Big East then would need to smarten up and extend an invite to East Carolina which has a growing football program and a strong fan base. It also has solid academic credentials. The Pirates would gladly accept the invitation and it would be a nice pickup for the struggling conference.

Speaking of strong fan bases, BYU would join the conference as well considering they were denied by the Big 12. The Cougars want to join a conference that would give them an automatic BCS bid and apparently this move is already in the works.

Once all of those teams are on board teams like Navy and Air Force would join the conference helping to create several rivalry games.

Then invites to basketball schools like Temple and or Memphis would be extended and probably accepted to help replace the major basketball programs that left.

So, do you have all of that down?

That would be 10 schools that have decided to join the Big East and help gain the conference respect once again. The only problem is that all of this is going to be a long process, so, it may take awhile before these teams are official members.

How will the Big East look in 2012?

Who knows, my guess is as good as yours.

Randy Chambers is a B/R Featured Columnist that covers College Football and the NFL. You can contact him @Randy_Chambers or [e-mail]

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