The Big East Retools

Change is imminent, which within the last few years in the college sports forum change has been more frequent than not. With the craze at an all time high to create super conferences the Big East conference on the football side almost fell victim as a few teams declared they were leaving the conference. Those teams being: West Virginia, Syracuse and Pittsburgh. Cuse and Pitt are taking their talents to the ACC the start of the 2014 season, while West Virginia is high tailing it to the Big 12 next season(paying a 20 million dollar early exit fee). While as a fan I wish this didn’t happen but I understand why it happened.

Right now the name of the conference doesn’t mean a thing it is all about the revenue that the conference generates right now. With three teams leaving the conference the Big East was in danger of losing its automatic qualifier for a BCS Bowl.  At first it seemed like the Big East wasn’t going to take action and lose their bid without a fight but just when we counted the conference out they made it happen by replacing the teams they lost plus adding more on the football side. The Big East were able to persuade: Boise St.(Football only), Central Florida(Both Sports), Houston(both sports), Memphis(both sports), San Diego St.(football only), SMU(both sports) and Navy(football only) to come solidify the conference. These moves give the conference a total of 12 teams on the football side and 17 on the basketball side. Unless anything changes this will be the new look of the conference starting 2013 and fully complete as of 2014.

Check out the new look Big East:

Football

• Cincinnati
• Louisville
• South Florida
• Connecticut
• Rutgers
• Boise St.
• Central Florida
• Houston
• Memphis
• San Diego St.
• SMU
• Navy
• Syracuse- leaves conference in 2014-2015 as of now
• Pittsburgh- leaves conference in 2014-2015 as of now

Basketball

• Cincinnati
• Louisville
• South Florida
• Connecticut
• Rutgers
• Villanova
• St. John’s
• Seton Hall
• Providence
• Marquette
• DePaul
• Notre Dame
• Georgetown
• Central Florida
• Houston
• Memphis
• Syracuse- leaves conference in 2014-2015 as of now
• Pittsburgh- leaves conference in 2014-2015 as of now

Football will benefit the most as it will have 12 teams which will allow them to implement two divisions, add a conference championship game which overall gets the conference more exposure and helps generate more revenue. Even with three great teams leaving the basketball side they were not hurt as much because it still had a strong core left but with the additions if you had any doubt they should be erased immediately.

Much respect to Big East Commissioner John Marinatto to adapting at a time where the conference could have crumbled under the mega conference pressure. This won’t be the last time teams change conference but the Big East has let us know they will adapt to survive when the time comes.

Note: It is not official yet but it is more than likely Temple will be joining the Big East in all sports bumping the totals to 13(football) and 18 (basketball) respectively unless somebody else plans to leave.