Dreaming of the Big East

With the news that Boston College will leave the Big East forthe Atlantic Coast Conference and follow Miami and Virginia Tech,don't count out The University of Memphis just yet with thepossibility of being invited to the Big East.

I realize that the Big East Commissioner Mike Tranghese hasbasically told U of M Athletic Director R.C. Johnson that theTigers should stop sending packets to their office and that therewasn't a snowball's chance in Miami that they would take theTigers, but that was when Tranghese planned on only replacing twoteams.

With the loss of a third team, the Big East will have to addsomeone other than Louisville and Cincinnati to fill their spot andthat team could be Memphis.

For those not following the recent nauseating spin of conferencerealignment here's a recap.

First, the NCAA decided that the ACC couldn't have achampionship with just 11 teams.

This means that the ACC will have to invite one more school togo along with Miami and Virginia Tech in order to get to 12all-sports playing schools, or else there was absolutely no reasonfor inviting those two universities in the first place.

The ACC then approached Notre Dame who turned them down becauseof the Irish's unique ability to make money without beingaffiliated with a conference in football. Joining a conferencewould actually cost Notre Dame money.

Enter Boston College.

BC originally thought they would be invited to the ACC alongwith Miami but after Virginia Tech got the nod instead, BC took therole of "we never wanted to be in the ACC anyway, we are happyright where we are."

When the ACC found out they would need another team to have thatchampionship game BC took on the role of, "we were just kidding, wereally want to be in the ACC, sorry about themisunderstanding."

With Boston College gone, Mike Tranghese is stuck between a rockand a crumbling conference.

Replacing Miami and Virginia Tech with Louisville and Cincinnatiwould probably work fine, but if he decides to replace BC with justone other school, he is in severe danger of losing the BCS slot tothe MAC or the Mountain West.

With Boston College gone, and assuming Louisville and Cincinnatijoin, the new Big East looks like this -- Pittsburgh, Rutgers,Syracuse, UCONN, Temple, West Virginia, Louisville andCincinnati.

Eight football-playing teams would not keep a BCS slotespecially with laughable teams like Rutgers, Temple and the brandnew to Division one football UCONN.

The only logical option is to split the football playing schoolswith the basketball playing schools. The nest step would be forPittsburgh, Syracuse, UCONN and West Virginia break with theirredheaded stepchildren Rutgers and Temple and send them packing.Enter Memphis and South Florida. The remaining four teams of theBig East along with Louisville and Cincinnati combine forces withMemphis and South Florida to form an eight-team core.

Next add four teams from a pool of East Carolina, Marshall,Central Florida, Southern Miss, Rutgers and Temple. (I say ECU,Marshall, Southern Miss and CFU) The new Big East consisting ofPittsburgh, Syracuse, Connecticut, West Virginia, Louisville,Cincinnati, Memphis, South Florida, ECU, Marshall, Southern Missand Central Florida would be a solid football conference worthy ofkeeping a BCS berth and a scary basketball conference with thepossibility of five or six invites to the NCAA tournament everyyear.

It could be argued that the new Big East would be the bestbasketball conference in the nation.

As for TCU, they go to the Mountain West to add to their alreadyconsiderable strength.

Tulane, UAB, Houston, Rutgers and Temple get picked over by theMid-Major conferences, and instead of two mediocre conferences, inthe Big East (without Miami, Virginia Tech and BC) and ConferenceUSA (without Louisville and Cincinnati) you all of a sudden have apower conference.

Of course, all this makes way too much sense so it will neverhappen.

Who would want to make one great conference out of two mediocreconferences? We'll see.