The Not-So-Big Even-Less-East

Not long ago, I criticized the NCAA for allowing its once notorious and powerful conferences to destroy themselves in the names of nationalization and profitability.  At the time, I figured the post would cover the issue for awhile and that I wouldn't have to revisit conference realignment issues until something major happened to really shake up the college sports landscape.  Well, while it might have come earlier than I anticipated, today is that day.  In an effort to recover from the losses of Syracuse and Pittsburgh to the ACC and West Virginia and (recently-added) TCU to the Big XII, the Big East is expected to extend invitations to six schools for football, three of which would become Big East members in all sports.

The first thing a rational person notices when looking at the list of new Big East schools is that most of them are located nowhere near the East Coast.  Some of them - Boise State and Air Force - are nowhere near the eastern half of the country, and another two - SMU and Houston - are right smack in the middle.  Only two of the six additions - Navy and Central Florida - are on the East Coast, and even those are located in traditional ACC territory as opposed to Big East turf.  But let's look past the geography for a minute - after all, the notion of location-agnostic Super Conferences has been thrown around for a while, so maybe it's no surprise that the Big "East" is looking well outside of New England for new members.

Aside from geography, the next thing you might notice are that these six schools aren't all that big, either - at least by college sports standards.  While some of the Big East additions boast huge enrollments, they are far from college sports powerhouses.  Unlike the SEC and Big XII, which have been poaching schools from other BCS-caliber conferences, most people don't associate schools like Houston, Navy and Central Florida with the NCAA's cream of the crop.  Even Boise State - the crown jewel of these six because of it's perennially powerful football program - won't become an all-sports member of the Big East, and it remains to be seen how six-plus east coast trips a year will impact the school's football team and its ability to recruit local talent.  In short, not one of these six schools is Big and East, and half of them aren't even either one.

These facts make these invitations extremely disappointing to those of us who grew up in Big East territory.  In recent years, it became clear that the conference was much more concerned with getting bigger than it was getting better and, despite some excellent suggestions on how to improve the conference, the league's grasp over its members was always tenuous at best.  The Big East was always willing to sacrifice either the Big (Cincinnati) or the East (TCU), but now the flood gates have completely opened.  And while a name change and a re-branding will help some - the notion of a conference being called the Big East while including Air Force, SMU and Houston is laughable - the conference also needs to take a hard look at itself and figure out what it wants its identity to be.  If the Big East doesn't do something, it may soon become known as the conference that used to receive an automatic BCS bowl bid.