Big East Expansion: The 5 Best New Names for the Conference

The Big East isn't dead yet, folks. 

After grasping for air on life support these past few months, it sounds as if the Big East's survival plan, which includes a drastic westward expansion, will finally come to fruition tomorrow. 

Brett McMurphy of CBS Sports has reported that the Big East will announce the addition of five new teams—Boise State, Central Florida, Houston, San Diego State and SMU—who are all likely to join the league in 2013.

Air Force and Navy could also join the mix later on as well.

The drastic move comes on the heels of the recent departures of Syracuse and Pittsburgh to the ACC, and TCU and West Virginia to the Big 12. 

While the league has surely taken some geographic liberties by adding schools that are located all the way on the other side of the country, it's a move that had to be done to ensure future survival. 

The only question now is, can the Big East really keep its name now that four of its teams will be located west of the Mississippi?

Hey, if the Big Ten can remain the Big Ten with 12 teams, and the Big 12 can remain the Big 12 with just 10 teams, then I guess anything's possible all in the sake of not having to spend money changing logos and messing with branding.

But if Big East officials actually do want to change the league's name for the future, then here's a look at five names they should consider. 

The Great American Conference

The Big East hasn’t been truly just an east coast conference since the league added teams like Cincinnati and Louisville in its last round of realignment back in 2004, but now the conference has taken things to a new extreme by expanding all the way out to San Diego.

The Big East will now have its territorial flag planted in basically every corner of the country.

This is truly a national conference now, and it will need a truly national name. Something along the lines of the Great American Conference would seem to suffice.

The Medium 10 Conference

There has been a long-standing tradition in college football of making conferences sound great by calling them “Big,” but it only takes one look at the future Big East roster to realize that medium seems to be the appropriate size descriptor for this conference.

The Leftovers Conference

The Big East is now set to be a collection of leftover teams that otherwise couldn't find another BCS home during the latest phase of realignment 

Houston and Boise State may be two of the top non-AQ programs in the country, but it's obvious that no other BCS conferences deemed them worthy enough to extend an invitation to; and the same goes for the five remaining Big East teams that couldn't get any love from the ACC or Big 12.

The Leftovers Conference probably doesn't sound too appealing from a marketing standpoint, but at least the Big East won't get accused of false advertising.

The Frequent Flyer Conference

Idaho to Florida?

California to Connecticut?

Texas to New Jersey?

Yes, Big East teams are going to have some long road trips in store in the coming seasons, and that means they're going to be racking up a lot of miles in the air once the expansion finally takes place. 

Even if you split the conference into two divisions once Air Force and Navy join, you're still going to have to schedule some inter-divisional games, which means you could be seeing flights of over 2,000 miles on a regular basis.

Hopefully, conference commissioner John Marinatto can sell some quality advertising space to a cheap airline and get a good deal on flights, because those travel expenses are going to be a killer. 

The Remember When We Had Miami Conference

There was actually a time when the Big East stood atop the college football world, and that time was back in January of 2002, when Miami rocked Nebraska in the Rose Bowl to earn the conference its first and only BCS national championship.

Those days seem like a distant memory, though, as both Miami and Virginia Teach, the only two Big East teams to ever play in a BCS national championship game, have since moved on to the greener pastures of the ACC.

That southern migration, which also included Boston College, really took the wind out of the Big East’s sails, and the league obviously hasn’t been the same since.

Now, after losing Pittsburgh, Syracuse, TCU and West Virginia, it's doubtful that we'll see another Big East team in the national championship game any time soon. 

As a native New Jerseyan who grew up following the Big East and ultimately went on to graduate from a Big East school, I do have to say that yes, it does pain me to see how far the league has fallen.

It seems like just yesterday when the Hurricanes were the toast of the college football world, and now here we are today, having to get excited about teams like San Diego State and Central Florida. 

Oh well.