BYU to the Big East: 3 Reasons It's the Wrong Decision for the Cougars

According to Joe Schad of ESPN, BYU is in good talks with the Big East for football:

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"Big East commissioner John Marinatto has been given permission from the conference's member presidents to invite new members, as the league attempts to rebound from losing Pittsburgh and Syracuse to the ACC and TCU and West Virginia to the Big 12."

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That being said, is it a good idea for the Cougars to join what's considered the weakest BCS conference?

No, and here are three reasons why. Check it out.

Dying Conference

The Big East is a dying conference, and that's unfortunate. It has had the luxury of much history and lore in the world of college football.

But as you read in the intro, the bigger schools—West Virginia, Pittsburgh and Syracuse—are gone. To that end, it would not be a surprise to see the Big East be stripped of its automatic BCS bid.

What's going on are just middle-sized non-BCS schools trying to enter BCS conferences, but then the bigger schools are gradually forming super-conferences.

The Pac 10 is now the Pac-12, the SEC is getting Texas A&M and Missouri, the Big 12 is adding TCU and West Virginia and the ACC is taking in Pitt and 'Cuse.

That leaves the Big East a conference that's slightly bigger than the so-called mid-majors like the MAC, Conference USA, WAC and Mountain West.

If the Big East keeps its automatic BCS bowl bid, it would be shocking. But it would come as no surprise to see the conference completely disbanded within the next five years.

Geographics

Now let's look at the geographical situation. The closest current Big East school is Louisville, roughly 1,400 miles from BYU.

Then you have teams even further out—the South Florida Bulls, Connecticut Huskies and Rutgers Scarlet Knights. Now, obviously not every game will be on the road, but that will take a toll on a team when having to travel insane distances multiple times a year.

In addition, how well are their fans going to travel, and how much is that going to cost them? These are all other considerations that must be taken into effect.

That said, BYU had better hope that the Big East can land a few Mountain West Conference schools just for traveling purposes. Otherwise, every year will be a long season no matter how well the Cougars are playing.

Competition

Now this can really be a downer. With virtually no major opponent schools—Pitt, Syracuse and West Virginia will be gone—BYU is walking into an average-sized conference, at best.

The Big East should be stripped of its automatic BCS bid because next season it will be nothing more than a collection of mid-major schools, all of which were never a part of the real Big East.

The real Big East consisted of schools like Miami (Fla.), Boston College, Virginia Tech, West Virginia, Syracuse and Pittsburgh. It not only made geographic sense, but they were also legitimate national title contenders.

The additions of South Florida, Cincinnati and Louisville weren't the worst of decisions, as all have had their fair share of success. But, once Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College all left for the ACC, the Big East was bound to decline.

To that end, no matter how well BYU plays, can we really expect any team to be taken seriously as a national title contender with nothing but mid-major schools?

No. There's a reason why the Mountain West, WAC, MAC, Sun Belt and Conference USA don't receiver automatic bids.

The Big East won't be much larger and any more competitive than those conferences compared to the actual BCS schools. If BYU wants to build their program, they should be joining the Mountain West or WAC, because neither are dissipating like the Big East. 

Follow John Rozum on Twitter @ Sportswriter27.