Big East Needs to Double Down on the Hybrid Model

by HartbeatHusky on Oct 28, 2025 1:14 PM EDT

The Big East needs to double down and create a national football and basketball hybrid conference with anywhere from 12 to 16 football teams and 22 to 24 basketball teams. My ideal model would add BYU, Boise St., Houston, SMU, Memphis, Temple, Nevada and UCF for all sports. It would also allow Villanova to move up to FBS, bring in Air Force and Navy for football-only and add basketball powers Butler, Gonzaga and St. Louis for non-football membership. The result is this.

East
UConn
Rutgers
Villanova
Temple
Cincinnati
USF
UCF
Navy (football only)

Non-Football
Notre Dame
Georgetown
St. John's
Providence
Seton Hall

West
Louisville
BYU
SMU
Houston
Memphis
Boise St.
Nevada
Air Force (football only)

Non-Football
Marquette
Gonzaga
Butler
St. Louis
DePaul

This would be a monster of a conference. Most will look at it and hate it and not see the potential because the emotions of losing old rivalries is so raw right now but this would be one helluva league. It would have great football and basketball power and would stretch throughout all regions of the country. There is no way this league would not be worth a huge amount of money for TV broadcasters. It would have teams in the markets of NYC, Philly, Houston, Washington DC, Dallas, Chicago, Orlando, Tampa, Hartford, Cincinnati, Louisville, Indianapolis, Salt Lake City, Memphis, Milwaukee, and St. Louis and in the states of Nevada, Idaho, Maryland and Rhode Island. This is the way that the Big East would not only survive, but thrive and possibly dominate in it's next incarnation.

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Comments

Two words

Go Bulls!

by Leavitt Town on Oct 28, 2025 1:25 PM EDT reply actions

That's one word. USF shouldn't really care one way or another.

Either you are with the new Big East whatever form it’s in or you’re in the MWCUSA.

by HartbeatHusky on Oct 28, 2025 1:43 PM EDT up reply actions

Worth considering

I think the smaller version that they are working with now might be better in terms of establishing an identity within and outside the conference, but I like the Nevada add, as well as the non football west adds. If there’s more tv dollars per school, especially for the football schools in this scenario, I’d go for it. Would need to seperate football and all other revenue. Could easily see the development of its own TV network since there would be plenty of programming opportunities. Finally, I’d rename the conference the “Continental Conference” in a slight nod to our northeastern roots (I.e., a la continental congress), with the Big East and Big West divisions.

by UConnHuskies on Oct 29, 2025 3:03 AM EDT reply actions

Just wondering

would Villanova try and ‘block’ Temple from trying to join the BE ranks?! Even if this plan wouldn’t come into fruition?

by Big Spoon on Oct 29, 2025 6:54 AM EDT reply actions

Look interesting on paper, but...

College football is all about the size of the fanbase and the brand name. One way to measure that is to see the licensed merchandise sales by college.

West Virginia fans hate everybody. They remember every snub and joke and bit of snark. And they never forgive, and they never, ever forget. In other words, they're a lot like West Virginians in general.

by Kid Tenderloin on Oct 29, 2025 8:01 PM EDT reply actions

Too Big, Too Spread Out, Too Diluted (too many football only an BB only)

In my opinion, the new BIG EAST has to remain a BB power, East focused, and better in football than before the exodus. See my new fan post “out-of-the-box alignment” for a chance to dump on my alignment proposal!

by hawkisdead on Oct 29, 2025 10:56 PM EDT reply actions

Thanks for the feedback

There are actually only 2 football onlies in my model, Navy and Air Force. All of the non service academies would be full members and there would be a total of 10 non football members. The other way to do this would be to not add any non football schools and instead of 24 bball schools there would be 21 and you could play a 20 game round robin schedule.

by HartbeatHusky on Nov 1, 2025 11:27 AM EDT up reply actions