All the major NCAA conferences have been going through some big time changes. The SEC and ACC expanded. The Pac-10 grew to be the Pac-12. The Big Ten now has 12 members while the Big 12 only has 10 (yes, I know, it's dumb). And the Big East lost two members originally, then added a replacement, then lost the replacement, then lost another member, and then added three replacements and two other members just for one sport (rollercoaster rides sure are fun). While some of these changes have already occurred, most of them will take affect within the next couple years. Since I grew up watching UConn and currently attend St. John's, I will be focusing on the Big East.
For many, many years, the Big East has been known as a strong basketball conference. It has been anchored by the likes of UConn, Syracuse, Pitt, and Georgetown. It was never really known for its football, and yet somehow the conference as an automatic qualifier in the BCS. The automatic qualifier, which has become simply known as AQ, is the golden ticket to a big bowl game. Earlier this year, Syracuse and Pitt decided to leave the Big East for the ACC because it is a better football conference and the two universities will receive more money. In response to this, the Big East added Texas Christian, TCU, to the conference. Recently, TCU and West Virginia decided to leave for the Big 12, which, again, only has 10 members now. (Side Note: The Big 12 lost Texas A&M and Missouri to the SEC and gained TCU and West Virginia. Gotta love when the replacements are better than what walked away.) By the way, if you were wondering, no TCU programs ever played a game in the Big East, but they do still have to pay the 5 million dollar exit fee (apparently all they really wanted to do was give a generous donation to the Big East).
It took years for the Big East to replace these teams. OK, so it was only a couple months, but it seemed like years if you were following the situation, trust me. To replace the three original members that left, the Big East added Houston, Southern Methodist (SMU), and Central Florida (UCF) from Conference-USA in what were clearly moves to boost the conference's football prowess. It then further boosted said football prowess by adding Boise State and San Diego State as football-only members. Because I know you are all dying to know where the rest of the Boise St and San Diego St programs went, BSU's will head to the Western Atlantic Conference and SDSU's will head to the Big West. (Side Note: The Western Atlantic Conference is the dumbest name ever because the closest WAC member to the Atlantic is Lousiana Tech, which is nowhere near the Atlantic.) The Big East is also in talks with adding the Naval Academy as a football-only member.
Overall, I like the new additions to the Big East. We added two football programs in Boise St. and Houston that could end up being in the Top-10 once the final rankings come out after the bowl games. We added decent football programs in San Diego St. and SMU. UCF is below average in football, but hey it gives USF a rival. Gaining a presence on the West Coast and Texas markets, and reinforcing our presence in Florida, will be great for recruiting in all sports. I love the Big East going after Navy but only if it means it'll go after Army as well. The Army-Navy rivalry is one of the more legendary college football rivalries, and I'd love to boast it occurring in my conference each year.
There are two things I don't like with these additions. The first thing is that Houston, SMU, and UCF all have average-to-terrible basketball programs; thus, ending the Big East being a power basketball conference in the future. Yes, the conference will still have a handful or so of teams representing itself in the NCAA Tournament, but the days of it putting double digits into the tournament appear to be over. The other think I don't like is that now our conference name makes no sense. Sure, before this season we had a member from Wisconsin and another from Illinois, but that's two out of 18 members. Now, it has two West Coast teams and two Texas teams to go along with those two, making the name even more illogical. I think they should rename the conference. They could call it the Cornerstone Conference because, if you haven't noticed, it now has members representing the four corners of the country. Boise St. takes care of the northwest corner. San Diego St. takes care of the southwest corner. A few members take care of the northeast corner (St. John's, Providence, UConn, etc.). UCF and USF take care of the southeast corner. The Big East might just be the only conference that will be able to boast this (OK, probably not, but give me credit for coming up with that observation).
To sum this article up, the Cornerstone Conference seems to have found a way to keep itself from collapsing. The basketball side still has plenty of good programs, and the football side will gain plenty of good programs. The football side will probably retain its AQ status, and elite programs like Boise St. and Houston will never get snubbed during bowl selection ever again. The basketball side will still retain some of its power, and may get back to full strength someday. The mediocre-to-terrible teams may get better because the programs are now in the Big East which will hopefully result in them getting better players. Oh, a couple important details I forgot to mention, none of the new additions will actually play in the Big East until 2013, and the departing members can't leave until 2014 (yes, I know, that doesn't make sense). Man, conference changes are fun.
References
http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/_/id/7327683/big-east-conference-introduces-boise-state-broncos-san-diego-state-aztecs-houston-cougars-smu-mustangs-ucf-knights
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_East_Conference
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Athletic_Conference
http://espn.go.com/college-football/standings
http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/standings
No comments:
Post a Comment