Earlier this week, the Big East Conference, which had lost key members Pittsburgh and Syracuse to the ACC, announced that they were adding five new members in time for the 2013 season. The new members include football-only schools Boise St and San Diego St, as well as full time members SMU, UCF, and Houston. My first reaction was, Wait, isn't San Diego on the West Coast?? This move, though understandable, makes absolutely no sense from a geographic or practical standpoint.
I'm sure schools like Rutgers and UConn are not thrilled with the prospect of traveling across the country to Boise or San Diego to play a football game. No other college football conference is so spread out. The other recent conference expansions have been reasonable geographically: Missouri and Texas A&M to the SEC, Nebraska to the Big 10, Colorado and Utah to the Pac-12, TCU to the Big 12. Even Pitt and Syracuse lie in proximity to the Atlantic Coast. On the other hand, no matter how Big the East may be, San Diego and Boise are definitely not in it. Even Houston and SMU are not really in the East; geographically they fit better in the Big 12.
This move shows how desperate the Big East has become to ensure that it doesn't lose its automatic BCS bid when BCS bids are reevaluated in 2013. However, adding mid-major programs like UCF is probably not going to help the overall strength of the Big East, even if it helps retain their status as an AQ conference.
The Big East should have just given up football and disposed of its programs to the ACC and Big 10, and let the Mountain West Conference steal its BCS bid in 2013. Instead, they have made a desperate cross country plunge to try to keep the Big East ship floating. It's called survival of the fittest for a reason; if you're not fit, you're not going to make it through.
What are they going to call the conference now? Big Nation? The Northeast-Texas-Florida-California-Idaho Collegiate Football Association? C'mon Big East, if you're going to swallow up some non-BCS programs, at least swallow up some schools with proximity to your headquarters in Providence, Rhode Island.
There is a quote that goes like this: "Greed is a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction." The Big East certainly demonstrated that this week. When will the madness end?
The future of college football was already muddled, and the Big East has increased the confusion by tenfold.
What do you think?
I'm sure schools like Rutgers and UConn are not thrilled with the prospect of traveling across the country to Boise or San Diego to play a football game. No other college football conference is so spread out. The other recent conference expansions have been reasonable geographically: Missouri and Texas A&M to the SEC, Nebraska to the Big 10, Colorado and Utah to the Pac-12, TCU to the Big 12. Even Pitt and Syracuse lie in proximity to the Atlantic Coast. On the other hand, no matter how Big the East may be, San Diego and Boise are definitely not in it. Even Houston and SMU are not really in the East; geographically they fit better in the Big 12.
This move shows how desperate the Big East has become to ensure that it doesn't lose its automatic BCS bid when BCS bids are reevaluated in 2013. However, adding mid-major programs like UCF is probably not going to help the overall strength of the Big East, even if it helps retain their status as an AQ conference.
The Big East should have just given up football and disposed of its programs to the ACC and Big 10, and let the Mountain West Conference steal its BCS bid in 2013. Instead, they have made a desperate cross country plunge to try to keep the Big East ship floating. It's called survival of the fittest for a reason; if you're not fit, you're not going to make it through.
What are they going to call the conference now? Big Nation? The Northeast-Texas-Florida-California-Idaho Collegiate Football Association? C'mon Big East, if you're going to swallow up some non-BCS programs, at least swallow up some schools with proximity to your headquarters in Providence, Rhode Island.
There is a quote that goes like this: "Greed is a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction." The Big East certainly demonstrated that this week. When will the madness end?
The future of college football was already muddled, and the Big East has increased the confusion by tenfold.
What do you think?
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