Another out-of-the-box alignment

by hawkisdead on Oct 29, 2025 10:38 PM EDT

Here's a completely different look for a post apocalypse Big East. 12 Basketball/Football Members + 4 basketball only. 12 Teams for Football: ND, Louisville, Cincinnati, UConn, Georgetown, Villanova, Rutgers, USF, Temple, UMass, James Madison, Memphis. 16 Teams for basketball, Football teams and: St Johns, Marquette, Seton Hall, Providence. DePaul dropped for performance. ND joins for football and keeps its own TV deal. Give them all they want for football to bring them into the fold. Georgetown and Nova move up their football programs. With Nova added for Football, it should drop its objections for Temple. Temple is added. Memphis added for all sports, bringing in another respectable basketball program. Add UMASS and JMU, more good basketball history, and football programs that are ready to move up. All of these adds are basketball fits and geographical fits. I like this much better than the discussed "football only" adds, the out-of-geography adds, and the service academy approach. In three years we would be just as strong in basketball post the Cuse-Pitt-WVU exodus and also just as good in football. (The only team I would miss is Cuse Basketball). From a TV perspective, this strengthens New England (UMASS and UConn), grabs Philly (Nova and Temple), and brings DC into the mix (GeoTown).

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Additional Rivalries

UMASS-UConn. UMASS-Temple. Nova-Temple. Louisville-Memphis. JMU-Nova. JMU-GeoTown. Memphis-Cincy.

by hawkisdead on Oct 29, 2025 11:28 PM EDT reply actions

What were you smoking....

when you posted this blog? Georgetown, ND, Nova, UMass, JMU…LMAO!! :-) Very funny!! You really think ND would join such a league for football….really? And without ND, there’s no AQ status. I never thought I would say this, but the BE commish almost looks competent with what he’s doing right now in comparison (of course about 8 years too late). Finally, if you really want to swing for the fences, why not go to BC, Penn State, Syracuse, Pitt, Maryland, ND, Navy, Rutgers, UConn, Temple, Virginia and VT and set up a true east coast conference?

by Mikeinmanila on Oct 29, 2025 11:52 PM EDT reply actions

Big East football is bad in its current form, this is no worse

East coast football is weak, and the “true east coast” teams are already aligned in better situations. The Pitt, Penn State, Miami, BC core is gone for good. So this is a completely different look and brings FCS schools to FBS. Big East should stay BB first. And East Coast. You forgot to LYAO at Memphis, a weak football school. But UConn stepped up, and the others are a fit and can step up. If you look at Cuse and Pitt, we really aren’t losing much in football. Nova and JMU would have been competitive with them the last two years (not this year). ND is already in for other sports. They need to land somewhere, and other conferences probably will not allow special treatment for their own TV deal, they will want to share the revenue. You need to smoke something with where we are now. Boise State and Air Force are not real appealing to a real conference. Or we could do nothing (continue to do nothing) and lose UConn and Louisville. Rutgers would leave too if anyone would have them (they won’t leave).

by hawkisdead on Oct 30, 2025 12:14 AM EDT reply actions

I thought I had enough examples...

So I didn’t think I needed to add Memphis! :-) Simply put, BB is clearly NOT driving the bus here. That was the BE’s big mistake..it never recogonized this fact of life. For the football schools to stay, it needs to retain its AQ status and be in the largest TV markets, with the best available teams (keeping in mind that for the most part, the BE is mostly an urban conference). Given these facts, the best options right now are UCF, Temple, Houston, SMU, and Navy. The next would be Air Force (as a service academy), BYU and Boise St to bolster AQ creds. There are simply no eastern schools available that will allow the BE to retain its AQ status, so going after western schools is a must. The bottom line is that the BE needs to get 7 out of 8 of these schools. Note: Schools like ECU and Memphis just don’t have the on field performance to help out at this point and are inferior to the above mentioned candidates. I really hope the BE can survive, but the odds are no greater than 50/50 at this point (Boise States’ answer will be the key…if they say yes, I think they get 7 of the 8 schools mentioned)

by Mikeinmanila on Oct 30, 2025 2:33 AM EDT reply actions

A different take...

The Boise State, service academies, Texas Schools, etc have been discussed to death. All proposals left are making a survival scenario for an existing position that sucks. So in proposing a “different” “out-of-the-box” scenario, I wasn’t rolling out the same solution that everyone is talking about. And it certainly isn’t as inspiring as keeping Pitt, Cuse, WVU, and adding BC, Penn State, and Miami. But the days of that being possible have passed. To me, adding football only schools further dilutes the conference, like adding DePaul and Marquette for basketball only. And adding teams in Colorado, Idaho, and Texas is not desirable, in my opinion. That would make us the “Big Conference”, with no real identity, and another temporary alignment doomed to fall apart without real rivalries. You may have felt that WVU was the key to the Big East surviving. Now Boise State. In my humble opinion, we need to keep a conference with identity, with rivalries, with a logical East Coast urban basis, with a Football conference that integrates with the BB programs, not goes in a different FB direction. Again, not an ideal position to be in, but I would prefer this to playing Boise State and Navy (with NO disrespect to them, just not a fit). And we take our chances with this line-up to keep AQ. ND is better than Cuse and Pitt. We this proposed alignment the schools that step up will be competitive soon with FBS additional scholarships and money (as did UConn). Rutgers will still finish below the middle of the pack with these schools.

by hawkisdead on Oct 30, 2025 10:59 AM EDT up reply actions

Big East

to even out travel and maintain rivalries, divisions could be built on rivalries. For example, division A first column, B second

UConn & Rutger
Cincinnati & Louisville
SMU & Houston
USF & UCF
Army & Navy
Boise State & AFA
Villanova & Temple

I am skeptical about both Boise State & AFA
and the Big East may still lose Cincinnati & Louisville
if so, maybe :
UConn & UMass
Rutgers & Buffalo
SMU & Houston
USF & UCF
Army & Navy
Villanova & Temple
(obviously don’t put all the new teams into the same divisions and dilute the Big East anymore than necessary, and Villanova & Umass should be in different division as well as new comers to Div1 )

by fracas on Oct 30, 2025 8:33 AM EDT reply actions

Georgetown for football?

The field that G-town plays football at seats 2,500 people (not a typo - two thousand five hundred). They’re a LONG way from FBS status. I suppose they could play at RFK Stadium in town, but it could take a while to build up to FBS status (15,000 average attendance over two years is the minimum requirement). If you think Villanova to FBS is tough, don’t even look at G-town.

UMass is already progressing to FBS, so that’s a possibility. Temple makes sense. Memphis is good basketball-wise and another market. JMU might work … good FCS team in Virginia that might make the jump.

I suspect Notre Dame would join the ACC or Big Ten before it joins the Big East in football (sorry but that’s my guess).

I’d consider UCF and ECU. ECU is one of the few schools that’s publicly shown it wants to be in the Big East (and UCF seems to be too).

You could have 12 football teams, 18 total teams ….

Football:
Current: UConn, Rutgers, Louisville, Cincinnati, South Florida
Add: Villanova, East Carolina, Central Florida, James Madison, Temple, UMass, Memphis

Non-football:
Georgetown, Notre Dame, St. John’s, Marquette, Providence, one of Seton Hall/DePaul

Football markets: New England (2), New Jersey/NYC, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Louisville, Virginia, North Carolina, Orlando, Tampa/St. Pete.

Add DC, nationwide (ND), and Milwaukee/Chicago from the non-football schools, and it’s not a bad package.

Worst case, if JMU and ‘Nova take some time to move up to FBS, you’ve got 10 football teams. 18 basketball teams could mean three 6-team divisions.

I don’t know if it would preserve BCS AQ status … but I’m a fan of the BCS going away anyway, so hopefully it won’t be an issue in the future.

Assumption is the mother of all @#%-ups.

by mdak06 on Oct 31, 2025 7:32 PM EDT reply actions

Agreed

- ND a long shot
- GTown would need to play at RFK
- There are a number of options and details that could change but still make this general plan viable.
- I hope the BCS blows up and a playoff system someday prevails.

by hawkisdead on Oct 31, 2025 7:45 PM EDT up reply actions