Big East Future: Why the Big East Will Survive, but at a Large Cost

The Big East, or affectionately called “The Big East,” is in its potential death throws for its football future. With West Virginia suing the conference and Pitt and Syracuse leaving the conference for the ACC, it is exceptionally hard to think of anything other than the conference becoming a solely basketball conference. 

Coupled with the conference potentially losing their AQ status, it seems all but inevitable that the conference will most likely implode.   

As a Big 12 fan I was worried that the conference would have been forced to merge with the Big East as recently as a few months ago. Now I am happy that West Virginia left that basketball conference. However, I am here to state that Big East football is going to survive, but just barely. 

One important factor to remember is that this latest round of realignment is most likely over. The Big 10 simply doesn’t want any Big East team currently because the Big 10 is at the optimal of 12 teams, and it has stated that they have no interest in any Big East schools remaining.

The ACC and SEC have just recently made the move to 14 teams, which is completely new territory for any BCS conference.

Besides I doubt that Kentucky would vote to allow Louisville into the conference, much like Florida doesn’t want Florida State in the conference. The only conference that the Big East should be worried about is the Big 12.

But I think that they are content at staying at 10 teams, since if they really wanted to get back to 12 teams they would have already invited Louisville and potentially BYU into the conference. 

The Big East should be focused on getting future members that it can secure instead of teams that are in the Mountain West. It should probably add UH and SMU because they are probably the only remaining, and realistic, non AQ teams left in the country.

It would be a shame if in an act of desperation it tried to get a school like Memphis into the conference. On account of them having one of the worst teams in all of the FCS, it might as well simply add a school from the Sun Belt. 

Another possibility would be to raid the MAC of its top football schools.Geographically speaking schools like Marshall or Miami (Ohio) would be good fits. Marshall would put the conference back into the state of West Virginia and keep it broadened out.

The other school it needs to add is UCF in order to give USF a true in-state rival. The Big East must also secure the confidence in Army and Navy to have a widely televised rivalry on television, which is something the conference desperately needs. I mean who really is going to watch Louisville-Rutgers?

The Big East is currently too fixated on keeping Pitt, Syracuse and most importantly WVU stuck in the conference for two lame duck seasons. That is an act of desperation and hurts the conference's image drastically because it gives the impression (and probably rightfully so) that Big East football will no longer exist in the main future. 

The Big 12 was very wise in simply allowing the schools that left to pay a large fine to leave the conference and just let them go. It sent the impression that the conference didn’t need those schools and can survive.

The Big East needs to just let those schools go and get replacements quickly so it can change the overall perception of the future viability of the conference. 

This entire nasty situation with West Virginia and the lawsuit against its former conference (which might be part of the reason why certain teams are hesitant to join the Big East) could have all been averted if they expanded more aggressively after the ACC's raid earlier this decade. 

Instead of only getting three schools, which kept them to eight teams, the Big East should have expanded to include more schools like UH, UCF, or Army and Navy. By not doing so, it set itself up for this situation where its best teams want to leave the conference for more profitable and competitive conferences.

The conference is lucky that this round of realignment is over. The only benefit, in terms of football, to came out of this chaos is that the Big 12 is getting a very competitive and accomplished new member to replace a typically floundering and uncompetitive Missouri.