Big East Football: Talks of a 32-Team Super-Conference
Reports have been swirling in the last 48 hours that there is talk about a possible merger between the Big East, Conference USA and the Mountain West Conference.
This merger would consist of 32 teams divided into four eight-team divisions. The main reason for the merger of these three conferences is to try to keep the AQ (automatic qualification) status for the Big East.
The Big East is in jeopardy of losing this status with the departure of Syracuse and Pittsburgh, and the supposed jump of West Virginia to the Big 12, a move that could happen at any time.
The proposal outlines four divisions divided up almost exclusively by location.
The West division would include Boise St, Hawaii, UNLV, Fresno St, Nevada, San Diego St, Utah St and San Jose St.
The Mountain division would be made up of Air Force, Colorado St, Wyoming, New Mexico, SMU, Tulsa, UTEP, and Houston.
The Central division would be comprised of Memphis, Marshall, Tulane, UAB, Southern Miss, Rice, Louisiana Tech and Temple.
The Big East division would include Louisville, Connecticut, Cincinnati, Rutgers, South Florida, Central Florida, East Carolina and Navy.
The only team missing from the list is West Virginia. They were not included in the proposal because of talks that they are moving to the Big 12 once Missouri leaves the conference.
There are also reports of a 28-team conference with seven teams in each division. This would eliminate Navy from the Big East, Louisiana Tech and Temple from the Central, and San Jose St. from the West. Houston would then move to the central division.
While the main reasoning behind this is for the Big East to retain its AQ status, this mega-conference would be something college football has never seen.
The Big East ideally would like to move to 12-teams and still retain their AQ status, but if the only way to get teams like Boise St. and Houston to join the league, that just might be the route they end up taking.
6 Rants to “Big East Football: Talks of a 32-Team Super-Confer...”
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This would be the kinder and gentler approach for the Big East to take as they will need to steal five of the MWC & C-USA ‘s schools to expand to 12 !
I’m not sure tho TV money-wise if it’s the best move for the Big East. How does naming WVU as the Big 12′s 10th member help them until year 2014(because of the BE 27 month departure rule) ???
the big six conf commisioners make the BCS rules the only way the BE keeps AQ status is if those guys let them marinatto will let pitt cuse and wvu go he doesnt need neinas, swofford, and possibly mike slive mad at the BE thats how wvu gets out as a matter of fact I think its already been worked out but if you were wvu would you stay fear of a lawsuit is not enough to hold them this is a total meltdown any school left in that monster of a conference is done for I feel bad for all of them
I am starting to agree with you on this. It is time to get out if you can.
Yeah this does seem like a lot of teams for a conference and most of them are not that good. WVU would likely be stuck in the Big East unless this realignment happens quickly, in which case they might be let go early along with Syracuse and Pittsburgh.
I really hope this merger happens. It will keep all the rivalries that exist in the MWC and WAC alive while giving these teams an equal shot at being in a BCS Bowl and it would help these western teams out television wise.
Yes, it will greatly help out the teams from the west who do not get the television exposure some of the teams from the east do.