An out-of-the-box Big East Expansion Plan (per huskymania's request)

They won’t, because it makes too much sense. They should kick out Depaul and Marquette. If you know anything about Buzz Williams or Oliver Purnell, they don’t need the Big East to have successful teams. In college basketball, players mostly care about who their coach is, not what conference or the team they play for.

back to your idea

include all the teams in the Big East left.

Notre Dame, Louisville, St. John’s, Cincinnati, West Virginia, Georgetown,Connecticut, Villanova, Marquette,Seton Hall, Rutgers, Providence, USF, DePaul

add

Houston
Memphis
Central Florida
Tulane
East Carolina
SMU

and add

Buffalo and Florida International in football only (for now)

the 2 division for football could be

Uconn, Rutgers, West Virginia, Louisville, Cincinnati, East Carolina, Buffalo

USF, UCF, Florida International, SMU, Tulane, Houston, Memphis

the Big East needs football-caring schools, these schools care about football. It can keep somewhat regional and save costs. Have the members in Conference USA help run this southern division.

I have written before about Buffalo and Florida International. the Bills are leaving in the next decade, so their will be a football void. U of Buffalo could be a great replacement for the Bills. Florida International is a sleeping giant. They got a huge student population, the U is about to go down, its located in Miami, and they have a great football coach.

its extreme, and having 22 teams in a conference is rediculous, but what other choice does the Big East have left.

but none of these schools would agree to join the Big East, as football only members. Back in 2003, Central Florida and ECU would have joined football only when they were desperate but now the Big East is the one who is desperate.

if you added Temple, Buffalo, Florida International, and Georgia State as Football only, they would probably take it. Its crazy to add Georiga St since they just started football 2 years ago but they play in college football crazy atlanta, play in the georgia dome, and have a 30,000 student population (so you know they have a large alumni base). Temple, Buffalo, and Georgia St all have access to NFL stadiums, so that helps. All of these schools i suggested would be great additions.

basketball wise, if you added the teams i suggested, it would still be a great basketball conference.

The head coach at Memphis, Josh Pastner, is one of the top 10 recruiters in the country. Memphis will always be relevant in basketball. Houston just recruited 2 top 50 players for 2012. Central Florida has Donnie Jones, a former Billy Donovan assistant, who had them in the top 25 last year, in his first season. SMU and ECU are coached by former Carolina guys, Matt Dougherty and Jeff Lebo. They both have had some sucess along the way. Dougherty recruited a class at UNC that won a national championship. I won’t include FIU because Isiah Thomas is always trying to leave. Buffalo and Tulane are located in Big Cities. All of these schools would be able to step up recruiting if they land in a BCS conference.

as i have learned in the last couple of years, most of the current ncaa basketball tournament committee members are not even basketball people anymore. So they don’t seem to care what conference a team plays for. Whatever happens with additions the big east plans to make, the Big East will always be a great Basketball conference. Hopefully they can still be a BCS worthy conference in football.

If you added ECU, UCF, Houston and SMU as Full Membership

added Florida International, Buffalo, Temple and Georiga St as football only

this wouldn’t be too crazy to consider.

based on the Air Force wanting to join the Big East

if you added ECU, UCF, SMU and Houston for Full Membership

add Air Force, Army, Navy, Temple, Georgia St, and Florida International as football only memebrs.

i think this could work. 18 teams for all sports, 16 teams for football

or don’t add Houston and SMU, and have 16 teams for all sports and 14 for football

Thanks to the service academies, the BCS bid COULD still be saved for the Big East.
Thanks to NBC Sports, the Big East next TV contract COULD still cause a bidding war between NBC Sports and ESPN. Of course, all of this is all wishful thinking.

So why not just merge with the Mountain West and raise your BCS credentials. The Big East and MWC could form a football-only conference, called something like the East-West Conference. C-USA usually only has maybe one team ranked at the end of the year, whereas if they make a new league with MWC, they get a top 10 Boise team and also Nevada and SDSU who’ve been ranked the last two years. That will help when the BCS is re-calculated.

10 MWC teams are all in one division, 9 Big East teams(with Temple, ECU, and Houston added) are in the other division. No games against the other division, conf championship game at home of team with better conference record.